SoftBank to buy Finnish mobile games maker in a £960m deal October 15, 2013 JAPANESE tech and telecoms group SoftBank is to buy a majority stake in Finnish mobile game maker Supercell, sharing the ¥150bn (£960.09m) price tag with subsidiary GungHo Online Entertainment. SoftBank said yesterday that the funding for a 51 per cent stake would be split 80-20 with GungHo, with the deal valuing the Finnish company at [...]
Alitalia investors approve share issue to keep firm from crashing October 15, 2013 INVESTORS in Alitalia unanimously approved a €300m (£253.5m) share issue to keep the near-bankrupt Italian airline flying yesterday. Alitalia’s biggest investor Air France-KLM, which had said it would seek tough conditions as part of any involvement in the capital raising exercise, gave its approval along with the airline’s other shareholders during an all-night meeting. The [...]
AstraZeneca to spend £275m on cancer firm October 15, 2013 DRUGS maker AstraZeneca said yesterday its MedImmune unit is buying biotech company Spirogen for up to $440m (£275m) to bolster its research and development pipeline in cancer treatments. Privately held Spirogen focuses on antibody-drug conjugate technology, which has the potential to directly target cancer tumours while safeguarding healthy cells, AstraZeneca said. AstraZeneca said it would [...]
Shanks dumps majority of solid waste business on Biffa for £9m October 15, 2013 LONDON-LISTED waste management business Shanks yesterday said it has agreed to sell the majority of its UK solid waste business to peer Biffa for £9.5m. In addition, Shanks will divest its remaining UK solid waste business – which collects, sorts and processes commercial and industrial waste – by selling its Blochairn and Kettering materials recycling [...]
City Moves for 16 October 2013 | Who’s switching jobs October 15, 2013 Taylor Wessing The law firm has announced the hire of Matthew Jones as a partner in its construction and engineering group. He was most recently at Nabarro, where he was a partner and head of its infrastructure group. JP Morgan Private Bank Pedro Gil has been appointed as an equity strategist for Europe, the Middle East [...]
Best of the Brokers for 16 October 2013 October 15, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com CSR UBS has upgraded the software group from “sell” to “neutral” with a price target of 530p following a recent dip in the share price. The broker thinks the current value reflects seven per cent annual growth, and expects to see third-quarter results [...]
London Report: FTSE 100 rises to October high amid debt talks October 15, 2013 THE UK’S top share index rose to its highest level so far in October yesterday, buoyed by signs of a deal on the US budget and debt ceiling stalemate that has weighed on stock markets. Miners and banks were lifted after US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said Senate leaders had made “tremendous [...]
New York Report: Default worry preoccupies US markets October 15, 2013 US stocks fell in a volatile session yesterday as the impasse over the debt ceiling in Washington continued with very little sign of progress towards a resolution. Despite some key corporate earnings, traders held off on making big bets given the political uncertainty. Selling accelerated during the afternoon after Senator Richard Durbin said Senate negotiations [...]
Investment opportunities despite stubborn inflation October 15, 2013 It is not just equities that are providing real growth for investors INFLATION remains static at 2.7 per cent on the consumer price index, the 46th month it has sat stubbornly above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target. Coupled with historically low interest rates, this has led millions to turn to bond, equity [...]
Free tools seek to fill advice gap as DIY investors rise October 15, 2013 But the evidence still suggests that financial advisers are key to long-term financial planning THE TREND towards DIY investment is accelerating. On top of the rising popularity of low cost execution-only investment platforms, some think that the Financial Conduct Authority’s retail distribution review (RDR), which came into effect at the beginning of 2013, has intensified [...]