JJB confirms financing talks April 3, 2012 Sportswear retailer JJB Sports , which nearly collapsed last year, said it was in talks with its bank and an unnamed “potential strategic partner” to raise financing. The company, which counts the richest man in the US, Bill Gates, among its major shareholders, issued the statement in response to a sharp rise in its share [...]
Molson to buy StarBev for £2bn April 3, 2012 Molson Coors Brewing said it will buy eastern European brewer StarBev for 2.65 billion euros (£2.19bn) to expand in central and eastern European beer markets. “The Central and Eastern European beer market is attractive, with strong historical trends and upside potential as the region returns to its pre-economic-crisis growth rates,” chief executive Peter Swinburn said [...]
Hannam to leave JP Morgan after FSA market abuse fine April 3, 2012 JP Morgan Cazenove chairman of capital markets Ian Hannam is leaving the bank after being hit with a £450,000 FSA fine for market abuse. Hannam, a star banker who has been at the firm for 20 years, was fined after allegedly disclosing inside information to a prospective client in 2008. He is appealing against the [...]
Construction activity shows strong growth April 3, 2012 Activity in Britain’s construction sector unexpectedly accelerated in March as orders rose at the fastest rate in 4-1/2 years and firms became more optimistic about the outlook, in another sign that Britain’s economy is on track for recovery. Following a surprise acceleration in manufacturing growth in March, the jump in the Markit/CIPS construction Purchasing Managers’ [...]
UK must sell RBS and Lloyds soon says TaxPayers’ Alliance April 3, 2012 Britain must sell its Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds stakes as soon as possible because keeping them is allowing politicians to gamble with people’s money on bank shares, according to a lobby group representing taxpayers. “Clearly the best outcome for taxpayers would be if we don’t make a loss on those shares, but we [...]
Whitbread appoints Rogers to lead Costa expansion April 3, 2012 Whitbread said that Chris Rogers, currently group finance director, would take over as chief executive of its rapidly expanding coffee shop chain Costa Coffee in August, with a remit to drive international growth. Whitbread, which also owns budget hotel chain Premier Inn, said Rogers will head up Costa’s global business to drive forward a five [...]
Cairn to buy Agora for £280m April 3, 2012 British oil explorer Cairn Energy has agreed a deal to buy Agora Oil & Gas for $450m (£280.7m) to increase its drilling activity in Britain and Norway in 2012 and expand its lower risk, near-term exploration assets. Cairn said it would pay for the deal through a combination of approximately 43 per cent cash and [...]
Avon lady spurns her $10bn suitor April 2, 2012 COSMETICS giant Avon has shunned a $10bn offer from its upstart European rival Coty, it emerged yesterday. The world’s biggest direct sales company, which is famous for its army of door-to-door sales representatives known as Avon Ladies, dismissed the offer as “opportunistic” after Coty revealed that it had been trying to lure the board into [...]
Shares sink as Groupon goes into red April 2, 2012 GROUPON’S stock tumbled 17 per cent yesterday as the company was forced to re-issue its quarterly results following a deluge of disgruntled customers demanding a refund on bargain vouchers purchased online. The discount deals website admitted to the US financial regulator that it was a further $22.6m (£14.10m) in the red in addition to the [...]
Royal Bank of Canada hit by CFTC’s futures lawsuit April 2, 2012 THE US futures regulator yesterday accused the Royal Bank of Canada of running a “massive” multi-hundred-million-dollar trading scheme to gain lucrative Canadian tax benefits. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s civil lawsuit alleges that a small group of senior RBC employees created and managed a “wash trading” strategy in which they improperly coordinated to allow subsidiaries of [...]