Mastercard in £333m deal for DataCash August 19, 2010 MasterCard has agreed to buy British payment service provider DataCash Group for about £333m in cash to expand its e-commerce business. MasterCard, which makes money from processing credit and debit card payments on its network, said it would pay 360 pence per share, representing a 54 per cent premium to DataCash’s Wednesday close. “The acquisition [...]
John Menzies sees profit treble August 19, 2010 NEWSPAPER distributor John Menzies saw half-year profits almost treble. It made £20.6m compared with £7.4m for the same period last year. The company, which also distributes airport cargo worldwide, was boosted by new contracts with Lufthansa/bmi at London Heathrow. John Menzies started in Scotland in 1833 but is now a “time-critical logistics company” – a [...]
GM files for IPO and plots dual listing August 19, 2010 General Motors took a big step towards repaying a controversial taxpayer-funded bailout by declaring plans for a landmark stock offering that represents a critical test for the Obama administration. The car maker said it planned to list the shares on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange in an initial public offering [...]
Lib Dems face a rift over Green August 18, 2010 NICK Clegg pledged to crack down on tax avoidance yesterday, in a desperate bid to quell Liberal Democrat dissent over the government’s decision to appoint Sir Philip Green as a public spending tsar. The deputy prime minister, who is holding the fort while David Cameron is on holiday, used a high-profile speech to say the [...]
Potash on hunt for a white knight August 18, 2010 CANADIAN fertiliser firm PotashCorp yesterday signalled its intention to court potential “white knight” bidders, after mining giant BHP Billiton turned hostile with its own $40bn (£25.6bn) offer. PotashCorp has roundly rebuffed its suitor’s preliminary overtures, describing the $130-a-share offer as “grossly inadequate”. Sources close to the Canadian firm yesterday indicated it would now actively seek [...]
Blackcurrants are not the only fruit August 18, 2010 BANK of England governor Mervyn King may be warning of the dangers of destructive inflation but the minutes of the latest Bank meeting show that these concerns are tempered by a fear of slowing down what is now officially known as a choppy recovery. Destructive inflation, as far as I understand it, is when inflation [...]
Barclays pays in trade case August 18, 2010 BARCLAYS last night struck a $298m (£192m) deal with US authorities over charges it violated trade sanctions. The shock announcement came just 24 hours after the judge who endorsed the settlement branded it a “sweetheart deal” which the government should be concerned about. The banking giant was in the dock over allegations it broke the [...]
Spain finds surprise €500m August 18, 2010 TROUBLED Spain has received an unexpected boost after it discovered it had an extra €500m (£412m) to spend on its beleaguered infrastructure. The nation, which has been forced to adopt strict austerity measures after massively overspending before the economic collapse, has raised its budget after making “internal adjustments”. It has benefitted from better than expected [...]
Rules for reverse takeovers are made easier August 18, 2010 REVERSE takeovers are likely to become more common after the UK Listing Authority (UKLA) yesterday changed the rules to make them easier. The watchdog has made the financial requirements for the process, where a company buys a larger unlisted or foreign firm, less stringent. One of the most fundamental changes is a simplification of a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 18, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES EXXON ABANDONS ITS $4BN BID FOR GHANA OIL STAKE Following months of battle with Accra, ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest western oil company, has given up trying to acquire a share of Ghana’s giant Jubilee oil field from Kosmos, the American oil company. The $4bn deal was heavily opposed by Ghana’s government and its [...]