Premier skips breakfast after £200m sell-off August 23, 2012 PREMIER FOODS yesterday said it had sold some of the UK’s best-known breakfast table staples including Hartley’s jam and Gale’s Honey to an American food group, in its latest efforts to pay down debts. Hain Celestial, the US organic products company, known for its Earth’s Best and Celestial Seasonings Brands, has agreed to pay around [...]
HgCapital Trust beefs up value after Mercury Pharma sell-off August 23, 2012 PRIVATE equity trust HgCapital Trust yesterday reported double digit total return figures after exiting two of its top three holdings this year. The 32-company portfolio saw its disposal of pharmaceutical distributor Mercury Pharma last week and psychometric testing outfit SHL in July add 28.6p to its net asset value (NAV) – equal to a total [...]
Fifty Shades of Grey novels give newsagent WH Smith a boost August 23, 2012 WH SMITH yesterday said the huge success of the Fifty Shares of Grey trilogy and other so-called passion fiction novels helped boost trading across its 600 high street stores. In a brief trading update, the books and stationary firm said its high street arm had performed well thanks “to the recent positive publishing schedule” that [...]
Emerging markets feel sting of the Eurozone as M&A deals fall August 23, 2012 DEALMAKERS in emerging markets are now feeling the impact of the worldwide slump in mergers and acquisitions, according to research out yesterday. The overall number of cross-border deals fell 15.8 per cent to 979 in the first half of 2012 compared to last year, figures from KPMG claim. It found that even fast-growing economies such [...]
JD Sports sells rugby kit brand Canterbury to Pentland for £1 August 23, 2012 JD SPORTS, the sportswear retailer, has agreed to sell its Rugby brand Canterbury to its majority shareholder Pentland for £1, three years after the group bought it out of administration. Pentland, which owns brands including Beghaus and Speedos and holds a 58 per cent stake in JD Sports, will pay a token £1 for shares [...]
Best Buy back in buyout talks August 23, 2012 TALKS between Best Buy and its founder, who has expressed interest in buying back the company, were last night reported to be back on. Earlier this month, Best Buy founder Richard Schulze announced an offer to buy back the company for an estimated $8bn with an offer of $24.00 to $26.00 per share in cash. [...]
Signet trumps expectations August 23, 2012 SIGNET Jewelers posted a larger-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday. Its UK Ernest Jones chain’s same-store sales rose 4.4 per cent. Still, the company’s gross margin there took a hit from shoppers’ preference for sale items, Signet said. Company-wide, same-store sales rose 7.1 per cent, compared with a slower 1.2 per cent in the last quarter. Net [...]
Saracens star brings rugby to the City’s heart August 23, 2012 SARACENS caused a stir in the City again last night when the high-flying rugby team returned to the Honourable Artillery Club for a glitzy pre-season friendly against French stars Stade Francais. The 2011 Premiership champions won 61-17, with England winger Chris Ashton scoring a hat-trick. But it wasn’t just the rugby getting tongues wagging. The [...]
Bob Diamond’s fiercest critic threatened by act of sabotage August 23, 2012 BANK-BOTHERING Labour MP John Mann won few friends in the City establishment with his robust denunciations of Bob Diamond during July’s hearings into Barclays’ abuse of the Libor rate. But the star of the Treasury select committee (who describes himself in press releases as “Outspoken Labour MP John Mann”) yesterday revealed that he had a [...]
Petropavlovsk rocked by 91pc drop in profits August 23, 2012 SHARES in London-listed Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk slumped 15.97 per cent in trading yesterday, as it posted a 91 per cent drop in profit for the first half of the year. Interest payments, depreciation and foreign exchange costs were behind the sharp profit slump to $11m (£6.93m), from $108.2m last year. Net debt ballooned to [...]
