Six bid for biscuit maker Burton’s October 7, 2013 More than six bidders have tabled offers for Britain’s second largest biscuit maker Burton’s. Apax Partners, Capvest, Charterhouse and Pamplona Capital are understood to be among the private equity firms that have expressed an interest in the company, according to Sky News. The sale of Burton’s which also owns Wagon Wheels and makes biscuits for [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 7 October 2013 October 7, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Temasek bids for Repsol gas stake Temasek and Sinopec have both approached Repsol over buying its €4.7bn stake in Gas Natural as the Spanish oil company seeks to raise cash to increase its investment in oil exploration. Repsol, which is working with Deutsche Bank and Citigroup to find a buyer for the domestic [...]
Row escalates as Help to Buy policy launched October 7, 2013 CRITICS of the government’s Help to Buy policy rounded on the scheme yesterday, accusing it of risking another property bubble. Speaking to the BBC Sunday Politics, Jonathan Portes, head of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: “The main impact of this scheme will be to push up house prices. Who loses? People [...]
Republicans harden position ahead of debt deadline October 7, 2013 REPUBLICAN House Speaker John Boehner vowed yesterday not to raise the US debt ceiling without a “serious conversation” about what is driving the debt, while Democrats said it was irresponsible and reckless to raise the possibility of a US default. “The nation’s credit is at risk because of the administration’s refusal to sit down and [...]
Women land a quarter of new directorships October 6, 2013 WOMEN are taking a quarter of new appointments to the boards of FTSE 100 companies, according to figures released today by a group pushing for greater equality at the top of public companies. All but six firms at the top level of British business now have a women on their board. Campaigners said business is [...]
Travelodge books a £71m loss as new owners plan king-size refit October 6, 2013 TRAVELODGE, the first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, made a pre-tax loss of £71.1m last year, but managed to halve its losses as new investors seized control. The low cost chain’s losses slumped from £148.1m in 2011 to £71.1m in the year to 31 December 2012, Companies House accounts show. [...]
VTB Bank in talks to sell stake in Rosbank to Societe Generale October 6, 2013 RUSSIA’S second-largest bank VTB has agreed to sell its stake of around 10 per cent in Societe Generale’s Russian unit Rosbank to the French bank, while SocGen will sell VTB a number of Russian assets, a source close to the deal told Reuters yesterday. State-controlled VTB, which bought into Rosbank in 2010, said in May [...]
Advisory work lifts revenue at Grant Thornton October 6, 2013 GRANT Thornton has posted a 13 per cent surge in annual revenues to £471m as the accountancy firm picks up more advisory work from large-cap firms and mid-cap audit contracts. The firm said turnover in its advisory business rose by more than a fifth in the year to the end of June, helped by an [...]
Bottom Line: There’s growth to be had away from big audits October 6, 2013 GRANT Thornton, like its mid-market rival BDO, has not pinned all its hopes on winning blue-chip audit work any time soon, despite the huge amount of noise generated by the Competition Commission’s plans to open up the market. And with a double-digit rise in revenues, the company doesn’t need to worry at the moment. Advisory [...]
Amazon’s German operations threatened by Christmas strikes October 6, 2013 WORKERS at Amazon.com’s German operations could strike during the Christmas holiday season in a dispute over pay that has been raging for months, a union has warned. “If I were Amazon I would not rely on being able to make all deliveries to customers on time before Christmas,” Heiner Reimann of services trade union Verdi [...]