Vincent Tchenguiz interview: the Mayfair tycoon fighting to clear his name June 3, 2011 An afternoon with Vincent Tchenguiz, the property tycoon fighting to clear his name of fraud allegations linked to the collapse of Icelandic bank Kaupthing, makes you realise why cases like this take a team of accountants years to unravel. For nearly 90 minutes, I’m bombarded with figures and facts, allegations and claims. At one point [...]
BETFRED WINS THE RACE FOR THE TOTE June 2, 2011 BOOKMAKER Betfred will today be named as the preferred bidder to buy the Tote, the state-owned betting pool, City A.M. can confirm. The firm is believed to have beaten a rival approach from former Liverpool Football Club chairman Sir Martin Broughton’s Sports Investment Partners (SIP) vehicle, in a deal that values the Tote at more [...]
Tchenguiz spends £2m a month on legal bills June 2, 2011 VINCENT Tchenguiz, the property tycoon arrested as part of a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the collapse of Icelandic bank Kaupthing, says his legal fees are now costing him £2m a month. Tchenguiz is fighting three lawsuits: the criminal case being built against him, for which he has not been charged; and two parallel [...]
Groupon eyes $750m float June 2, 2011 ONLINE daily deal site Groupon filed for an initial public offering yesterday, hoping to capitalise on the biggest investor stampede into Web start-ups since the dot.com bubble burst a decade ago. The company filed yesterday to raise up to $750m (£458.2m) in its IPO, an offering that has been widely speculated about for months and [...]
Why crises are good news for the EU June 2, 2011 THERE are two kinds of organisations: those that are rewarded for failure with more power and greater budgets, including most regulators, and those that are punished for their mistakes, including private firms operating in a real free-market with no bailouts. The European Union is very much in the first camp. The proposal yesterday by the [...]
News Corp closes on deal June 2, 2011 RUPERT Murdoch’s News Corp has agreed a deal with regulators to buy the remaining shares it does not own of British Sky Broadcasting. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, the minister with responsibility for the merger decision, will call a second, one-week consultation process. He will then decide whether to refer the deal to the Competition Commission [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 2, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LIBYA BET $1BN ON SOCGEN SHARES Société Générale structured a $1bn bet on its own shares for Libya’s sovereign wealth fund after the Jérôme Kerviel fraud, the Financial Times has learnt.Documents seen by the FT show the transaction – the Libyan Investment Authority’s biggest investment in five years – had lost 72 per [...]
Chevron UK plant fire kills two June 2, 2011 A major explosion at Chevron’s oil refinery in Pembroke, Wales, has killed at least two people and injured more, according to local reports. The plant, which Chevron agreed to sell to Valero Energy for $1.7bn (£1bn) in March, was at the heart of an explosion and subsequent fire yesterday afternoon that was put out by [...]
Sony websites hacked again June 2, 2011 Sony suffered fresh hacking misery yesterday when the servers for its Sony Pictures Entertainment websites were accessed, compromising the personal details of more than 1m customers.
Templeman to head retail body June 2, 2011 Debenhams chief executive Rob Templeman will be announced today as the new head of UK’s leading retail industry body, the British Retail Consortium. He will replace Luke Mayhew, current chairman, in the autumn of this year. Templeman led high street giant Debenhams through its IPO in 2006, and was previously head of Halfords Group, Homebase [...]