Stock market boom puts private company sales on back burner May 19, 2014 LONDON’S booming new issue market has cut takeovers of private companies in the UK by a quarter since the start of the year, as financial backers opt for stock market listings over auctions to cash out their stakes, fresh data reveals today. Trade deals by privately owned companies tanked 24 per cent in the first [...]
Egdon to tap into UK North Sea gas with hybrid onshore project May 19, 2014 EGDON Resources, the UK oil and gas explorer that recently agreed to buy Alkane Energy’s shale gas assets, is planning to develop a North Sea gas field that it says could transform its business. “We are an onshore player that has only dipped our toes in the offshore arena before,” chief executive Mark Abbott told [...]
Leeds is better than London for property returns May 19, 2014 Commercial property investors are better off shunning London shops and pouring their cash into Leeds industrial parks over the next four years, according to real estate research published today. The northern city is the most undervalued spot for commercial property in the UK, with industrial sites up to 14 per cent below their fair market [...]
Iconic hazelnut chocolate spread Nutella celebrates 50th birthday May 19, 2014 NUTELLA, the chocolate and hazelnut spread that made its Italian inventors into one of the country’s richest families, will today turn 50, with events planned across the world to celebrate the iconic brand. Mika played a special concert in Naples’ Piazza Plebiscito last night to wish “buon compleanno” to Nutella, while the company has teamed [...]
Trader Kerviel appeals to French president from the Italian border May 19, 2014 CONVICTED rogue trader Jerome Kerviel said yesterday he would stay in Italy rather than report to a French police station as required to start serving a three-year jail sentence. Kerviel, 37, said he was appealing to French President Francois Hollande to intervene in his case. He has spent over three years fighting charges stemming from [...]
HgCapital sells off German toy manufacturer Schleich to Ardian May 19, 2014 GERMAN toy maker Schleich, known for its lifelike figurines, has been bought by French private equity firm Ardian from its British owner HgCapital, the two private equity companies said yesterday. Neither side disclosed the price of the transaction, which the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung yesterday reported was €220m (£179m), citing unnamed sources in the finance industry. [...]
City Moves for 19 May 2014 | Who’s switching jobs May 19, 2014 Colliers International The property company has announced the appointment of Henry Peto as a director in its tenant representation division. He was most recently at Cushman & Wakefield, where he worked in its London markets team. Squire Sanders The legal practice has appointed Gary Paddison as a partner in its real estate practice group. He [...]
BT starts broadband hiring drive May 19, 2014 BT has pledged today to hire 1,600 new engineers to work on its Openreach phone and data network. The telecoms firm said the jobs are being created by its efforts to connect the whole country to superfast broadband lines. More than two-thirds of UK premises in the UK are now near an Openreach cable, the [...]
Arrests after Turkish mine deaths May 19, 2014 Turkish police detained 19 people, including mining company executives and personnel, as an investigation into last week’s mine disaster got underway and the last of the 301 victims were buried yesterday. The detentions were the first of the inquiry and came five days after a fire sent deadly carbon monoxide coursing through the mine in [...]
Libya set to get new government May 19, 2014 Libya’s new Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq has formed a government pending parliamentary approval this week, officials said yesterday, after the country went nearly two months without a functioning government. Libya, a major oil producer, badly needs a government to try to impose some authority on a country effectively ruled by the militias who helped topple [...]