Aer Lingus is cleared for BA boss’ takeover as Ireland agrees to sell May 26, 2015 The Irish government last night agreed to sell its 25 per cent in Aer Lingus to British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) after many setbacks. The Irish airline’s board recommended IAG’s proposed €1.36bn (£961bn) offer in February, but it still needs support from the other main shareholder, Ryanair, which has previously voiced its support [...]
£6m loan for London startup notonthehighstreet.com from Silicon Valley Bank May 26, 2015 The London-based tech startup notonthehighstreet.com has won a £6m loan from the Silicon Valley Bank. The website, which was founded by Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, brings together lifestyle products from over 5,000 small businesses and makes them easy to buy. It will use the money from the new loan to expand the business further. [...]
ING cuts stake in investment firm NN in line with 2008 bailout deal May 26, 2015 Dutch banking giant ING last night cut its stake in NN, an insurance and investment management company. ING has agreed to sell 45m shares at €24.46 per share, making the sale worth €1.1bn (£780m). The deal slashes ING’s stake in NN from 54.8 per cent to 42.4 per cent. NN said it would purchase 5.9m shares, valued at [...]
Liberty’s John Malone nets his prey with Time Warner and Bright House Networks takeover blitz May 26, 2015 John Malone's Liberty empire owns scores of media assets around the globe, including Virgin Media in the UK Cable kingpin John Malone ended his long running pursuit of Time Warner Cable (TWC) yesterday by engineering a $90bn (£59bn) takeover blitz to create the US’s second biggest cable operator. Charter Communications, a vehicle of Malone’s [...]
Spreadbetter Plus500 bounces higher ahead of crunch shareholder meeting May 26, 2015 Crisis-hit spreadbetter Plus500 won the backing of top shareholder Odey Asset Management yesterday, ahead of a crunch meeting of shareholders today in London. An Odey fund run by James Hanbury added another tranche of shares to its holdings, taking the company’s ownership of the firm past 19 per cent, amid a broad-based rally in [...]
IMF tells China to let currency trade freely May 26, 2015 China’s government is being urged to liberalise more of its economy, and let markets operate more freely in its finance sectors. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday urged the authorities to let its currency, the renminbi, trade freely, and asked the government to target a free-floating exchange rate in the next two to three years. [...]
Boohoo’s finance chief Neil Catto granted options over 1.6m shares May 26, 2015 Boohoo’s finance chief Neil Catto was yesterday granted 1.6m share options worth £400,000 after his previous options effectively went under water following a slump in the online retailer’s share price. Catto, who steered the company through its float in March last year, was rewarded at the time with options over 2m shares. These would have [...]
Twitter in discussions to buy news curating app Flipboard May 26, 2015 Social media giant Twitter is in talks with Flipboard, to buy the media curation mobile app. Reports from Silicon Valley indicate that the rumoured deal could be worth $1bn (£649m). Flipboard allows users to build a personalised collection of news and other media content that they access on a tablet or mobile device. It has [...]
Charter Communications confirms $55bn takeover of Time Warner Cable May 26, 2015 Charter Communications has finalised its $55bn (£36bn) takeover of Time Warner Cable. The cable mega-deal, which valued Time Warner Cable at $78.7bn, will create the second-largest cable and broadcasting company in the US behind industry leader Comcast. Backed by billionaire media investor John Malone, Charter has beaten Comcast to the cable business with a superior [...]
Ryanair share price jumps as profit soars following new customer service programme May 26, 2015 Ryanair's share price soared this morning as it celebrated its 30th birthday with a 66 per cent increase in net profit for the year – beating analysts' expectations. The figures The low-cost carrier reported net profit of €867m (£614m) in the 12 months ended March 31 from €523m at the same period last year. Revenue rose more steadily [...]