Volvo reverses away from Lotus car brand deal March 5, 2017 The Chinese parent company of Volvo, Geely, has reportedly done a swift three-point turn out of a deal to buy Malaysian auto maker, Proton, which owns British iconic car brand, Lotus. According to the Sunday Times, talks between Geely and Proton have stalled, leaving a question mark over the future of Lotus. Lotus has been [...]
Jaeger is officially up for sale, confirms private equity guru Jon Moulton March 5, 2017 Struggling retail chain Jaeger is up for sale, private equity veteran and Better Capital boss Jon Moulton has confirmed. Moulton told City A.M. that a sale "process is under way" with "a considerable number" of buyers having approached him already. Better Capital has hired AlixPartners to advise over the sale of the 133-year-old fashion brand. The [...]
Guy Hands plotting £1.3bn sale of Italian solar power firm March 5, 2017 Terra Firma boss Guy Hands is plotting a £1.3bn sale of Italian solar power giant RTR. Hands is in talks with banks to explore a sale of the Rome-based renewable energy company, the Sunday Times reported. RTR, which was snapped up by Terra Firma in 2011, produces energy for 160,000 families every year through its sites in [...]
Football Pools sale: Sportech agrees £83m deal with Opcapita March 2, 2017 The iconic Football Pools has been sold to the turnaround firm that counts former retailers such Comet and MFI as previous investments in a deal worth £83m. Sportech said today it would sell the firm to Opcapita, after a £100m deal to offload the business to Burlywood Capital fell through last November. The Football Pools, where players select outcomes [...]
Bunzl agrees $160m deal to buy not-for-resale US competitor March 1, 2017 Support services giant Bunzl has snapped up a US competitor labelled a "mini-Bunzl" in a deal understood to be worth around $160m (£129m). Diversified Distribution Systems (DDS), a distributor of not-for-resale items to retailers and other general distribution customers, primarily in North America, is a large purchase for the acquisitive Bunzl, which splashed out £184m during 2016. Analysts [...]
Sky takeover: 21st Century to lodge deal papers with European authorities, firing the starting pistol on regulatory approval process March 1, 2017 Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox will take one step closer to sealing its takeover of Sky by lodging documents with European authorities this week. Fox is expected to ask Brussels to approve the deal, a move that starts the clock on 10-day window for culture secretary Karen Bradley to open an investigation into the £11.7bn bid to take control [...]
LSE-Deutsche Boerse merger thrown into chaos: Reactions from City analysts and Westminster February 27, 2017 Last night's announcement that the mega-merger between the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Boerse may have been derailed entirely by competition concerns in Europe has left the City reeling. The £21bn merger, which had overcome the potentially devastating hurdle of Brexit without so much as a shrug, was thrown into chaos last night after it [...]
London Stock Exchange expects the EU to block its £21bn mega-merger with Deutsche Boerse February 27, 2017 The London Stock Exchange’s controversial £21bn merger with Deutsche Boerse was thrown into chaos late on Sunday night, after it emerged that regulators in Brussels are likely to block the deal. Shares in the LSE tumbled by more than three per cent this morning after it revealed in a bombshell statement to the market that it [...]
The inside story of how the London Stock Exchange’s mega merger with Deutsche Boerse was suddenly derailed by Brussels February 27, 2017 Everything seemed to be going so smoothly. Nearly a year after the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse unveiled their latest attempt to merge, many City folk gave the £21bn deal a respectable chance of success. "Better than 50 per cent," one high-profile Square Mile executive said at a lunch earlier this month. The European Commission [...]
Terra Firma boss Guy Hands on buying Agent Provocateur, dyslexia and moving on from multi-million EMI loss February 27, 2017 In June last year, Terra Firma dropped a £1.5bn lawsuit against Citi over the acquisition of EMI. It is reported that Guy took a €200m (£168m) hit to his personal fortune as a result of the deal. The Terra Firma boss alleged that Citi misled him into overpaying for the music publisher in 2007. How’s [...]