Engineering giant Tomkins closes in on $550m sale of its tyre safety business November 20, 2011 ENGINEERING giant Tomkins is closing in on a sale of its tyre safety arm, with a string of private equity firms understood to be monitoring the asset. The firm’s valves and gauges business could also be hived off in what would be a major restructuring of Tomkins’ Northern Irish business, according to the Sunday Telegraph. [...]
Virgin in tie up with Israel’s Strauss water November 20, 2011 ISRAELI food and beverage maker Strauss Group is setting up a joint venture with Virgin Group’s Virgin Green Fund to sell Strauss Water products in England and Ireland and later on in France, Australia and South Africa. The joint venture, in which Virgin Green Fund will initially invest $7.5m (£4.8m) and Strauss Water $2.5m, will [...]
Twilight takes big box office bite November 20, 2011 The new Twilight vampire movie opened with a massive $283.5m (£180.1m) in worldwide ticket sales over the weekend as passionate fans filled theatres for the beginning of a two-part finale for the hugely popular supernatural love story. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1” captured an estimated $139.5m in the United States and Canada, distributor [...]
North Korea cellphone boom November 20, 2011 Secretive North Korea is expected to register the one millionth cellphone user on its new 3G network by the end of the year, barely four years after people were thrown into prison camps, or possibly even executed, for owning one. Most of the users are in the capital of Pyongyang, home to the impoverished country’s [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 20, 2011 Kingfisher The home improvement retailer has appointed Mark Seligman, the former European chairman and chairman of UK investment banking at Credit Suisse, as a senior independent director, effective from 1 January 2012. Seligman will step down from his role as a senior adviser at Credit Suisse at the end of the year. He is also [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 20, 2011 HAMWORTHY Evolution Securities downgrades the marine, oil and gas services firm from add to “reduce” with a target price of 825p after it said it was in talks with Finnish marine engineering group Wartsila over a possible takeover offer. The target price was raised to match the potential offer price, but the broker cut its [...]
Eurozone funding eases but fears remain November 18, 2011 The cost of borrowing for some of the eurozone’s biggest countries eased today after a torrid week that saw record highs raise fears of defaults. Traders speculated the European Central Bank (ECB) was stepping in to buy bonds and drive the costs down. Yields on Spanish 10 year notes fell to 6.41 per cent, a [...]
Occupy London ‘repossesses’ bank building November 18, 2011 The anti-capitalist group Occupy London expanded its occupation of the city last night when a dozen protesters took over an empty UBS bank building in Hackney. The group, which is fighting for social and economic justice, is claiming legal rights to the office space since it has not been in use for several years, said [...]
BP seals Indian joint venture deal November 18, 2011 BP is setting up a joint venture with Indian energy company Reliance Industries to source and market natural gas in India, the companies have announced. The joint venture, India Gas Solutions (IGS), will also develop infrastructure for transporting gas in the country. IGS will take over contracts for supply from the KG D6 block off [...]
ABN Amro reports loss on Greek debt write-off November 18, 2011 Nationalised Dutch bank ABN Amro suffered a loss of €54m (£46.1m) in the third quarter as it wrote down the value of Greek corporate debt, the bank reported today.. The bank, which was bought by RBS in 2007 and then nationalized in 2010, wrote off €500m of the money owed to it by state-owned transport [...]