Centrica sets out to woo Venture’s shareholders July 12, 2009 CENTRICA, the company which controls British Gas, will this week seek to win over investors for its hostile £1.3bn takeover of the North Sea gas company Venture Production. The gas group’s board of directors slammed Centrica’s bid late last week, saying it “substantially undervalued” the business. The offer of 845p a share, which values the [...]
Wm Morrison wins OFT approval for deal to purchase 30 Co-operative stores July 12, 2009 WM MORRISON yesterday got the green light from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for its acquisition of 30 stores from Co-operative Group. The shops being acquired will increase the size of the Morrison’s estate by about 10 per cent. Morrison has had to wait for OFT approval since the deal was first announced to [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 12, 2009 Gresham CollegeKen Costa, the chairman of investment bank Lazard, has been hired as the college’s professor of commerce, giving a series of lectures on “Reshaping commerce in the post-crisis world”. Costa joined Lazard as chairman in 2007 and, prior to that, was vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank. He is also a member of the advisory [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 12, 2009 CHLORIDEKBC Peel Hunt cut its target price on Chloride from 160p to 140p and downgraded the stock from “buy” to “hold”, after reducing its 2011 forecasts for the group. The broker said that long-term growth drivers are intact and that service revenues will provide some resilience, but that margin pressure is inevitable.CARPETRIGHTInvestec cuts its forecasts [...]
Online casino revamp for 888 July 12, 2009 Dublin-based internet gambling group 888 Holdings has said it wants to redesign its online casino in 3-D, as it pushes to boost its customer numbers to weather the slowdown in consumer spending. The group is to unveil the revamped user interface, to apply to its online games including roulette and blackjack, this autumn. It is [...]
New women’s mag attracts giants July 12, 2009 Three retail giants, including French Connection founder Stephen Marks, have agreed to back a new free magazine for women set to be handed out at transport hubs in six cities across the UK. The magazine, pencilled in for an autumn launch, is being referred to as Project Y pending a final name and also has [...]
Puma Hotels in debt refinancing July 12, 2009 The Puma Hotels leisure chain, which operates 20 luxury resorts across the UK, is to announce it has had to refinance its £332m of bank debts after suffering losses in the consumer downturn caused by the credit crunch. It is expected to say it negotiated an extended debt facility with Anglo Irish Bank – to [...]
IDENTITY CRISIS AT FUND VETERAN JOHN DUFFIELD’S NEW VENTURE July 9, 2009 JOHN Duffield really hasn’t been too lucky of late, has he? The veteran New Star Asset Management founder established a new venture called Hyde Park Asset Management back in April, as first revealed by yours truly, but soon had to ditch the moniker after hedge fund marketing firm Hyde Park Investment enlisted its legal heavies [...]
Santander in move to raise capital ratio July 9, 2009 Spain’s Santander said yesterday it would swap securities issued by its subsidiaries for new securities from the parent bank to strengthen its balance sheet and improve capital structure efficiency. Santander, the eurozone’s largest bank by market capital, said it would make exchange offers for 30 outstanding US dollar, euro, sterling and yen Tier 1 hybrid [...]
Sky fraud probed by UK site July 9, 2009 SKY CAPITAL Holdings, the brokerage at the centre of a $140m (£87.2m) “boiler room” investigation, threatened to sue a city website that was investigating its operations, a City source told City A.M. yesterday. The news came as it emerged that as many as 400 UK retail investors may have been duped out of their money [...]