EBay to acquire Braintree to bolster PayPal September 26, 2013 ONLINE auction giant Ebay yesterday revealed it has agreed to buy payments provider Braintree in an acquisition to boost its PayPal offering on smartphones and tablets. Braintree will be bought for $800m in cash by Ebay in a deal expected to close in late 2013. “Braintree is a perfect fit with PayPal. Together, we expect [...]
Stock Spirits to raise funds in London listing September 26, 2013 STOCK Spirits Group, the central and eastern European spirits producer, has announced its intention to float on the London Stock Exchange before the end of October, becoming the latest company to choose the UK market to source fresh funds. “We have been able to deliver sustained organic profit growth over the past five years and [...]
London Stock Exchange sees value of floats double in 2013 September 26, 2013 COMPANIES have raised £9.3bn through London floats since March, it was revealed yesterday – more than double the amount raised from IPOs in the whole of last year. London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) said it helped 63 firms go public in the five months to 31 August, against just 53 in 2013. This is set [...]
Terra Firma looks to take Infinis to market September 26, 2013 INFINIS, the renewable power generator backed by Guy Hands’ private equity firm Terra Firma, yesterday confirmed that it is considering an initial public offering, with former SSE executive Ian Marchant as chairman. It is understood that a concrete announcement will be made in the next few weeks, with the aim of raising £1.5bn and listing on [...]
Lord Ashcroft sells Restore stake for £40m September 26, 2013 LORD Ashcroft, the billionaire former Conservative party treasurer, yesterday sold most of his stake in Aim-listed office services firm Restore for £40m. Geraldton, his investment vehicle, reduced its 43.6 per cent holding to below three per cent in a placing to institutional investors yesterday morning. Ashcroft is expected to have made a healthy profit from backing [...]
New HS2 chair hopes to speed up construction on the railway September 26, 2013 THE NEW chairman of High Speed 2 hopes to get construction on the railway started sooner than planned, as he works to win round politicians and the public on the controversial project. Sir David Higgins, who will start in January, said he does not understand “why it needs to take so long – and time [...]
Accenture tops expectations as fees increase September 26, 2013 ACCENTURE yesterday reported record annual revenue figures as its core consulting business returned to growth after a year of decline. The company saw income of $28.6bn (£17.86bn) for the twelve months ending 31 August, an increase of three per cent on the previous year. Net income for the period hit $3.55bn, up from $2.82bn. This was largely [...]
Digital letdown sees Ladbrokes shares tumble September 26, 2013 LADBROKES saw its share price plummet more than seven per cent yesterday as it warned that its digital division would miss profit forecasts. The bookmaker said that its digital division’s profits would be between £10m and £14m for the year, compared with a consensus market forecast of £27.5m. “Our digital earnings have been disappointing reflecting [...]
Inside Track: Global funds still have the appetite for UK’s new issues September 26, 2013 IT’S LIKE the floodgates have opened. Dead for so long, the London new issues market is now buzzing with intentions to float, rumours of upcoming floats and talk of dual track processes where advisers start a float only to sell to a trade buyer if a better offer comes up. Yesterday there was news of [...]
Analyst Views: Does Ladbrokes’ profit warning change your view on the company? September 26, 2013 KARL BURNS PANMURE GORDON“Within retail the business has seen poor results leading to lower gross win margins, while in online it is yet to see a discernible benefit from the integration of Playtech and the integration process is unlikely to complete by early 2014 as Ladbrokes migrates from Micro-gaming. SIMON DAVIES CANACCORD GENUITY“The real disappointment [...]