AstraZeneca in £2.5bn buyout of diabetes unit December 19, 2013 ASTRAZENECA will spend up to $4.1bn (£2.5bn) buying out fellow pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb from a collaborative diabetes venture. Chief executive Pascal Soriot said that his company’s presence in emerging markets, where diabetes is a growing problem, means that tackling the condition is a core strategy for the firm. Bristol-Myers Squibb said the sale would [...]
Facebook chief executive to sell off share holdings worth $2.2bn December 19, 2013 FACEBOOK chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will sell 41.4m shares of the social network, worth around $2.2bn (£1.3bn), as part of a larger Facebook offering of 70m shares. Shares in Facebook, which have doubled in value this year, fell 0.9 per cent yesterday on the news to close at $55.05 per share. Zuckerberg will use the [...]
Bottom Line: Modern life could mean further divorces for the pharma family December 19, 2013 OVER in the US, where Bristol-Myers Squibb is headquartered, people refer to this kind of deal as a “no brainer”. The New York firm confirmed last month that it was looking to exit its work on diabetes, neuroscience and hepatitis B, thus paving the way for Astra-Zeneca to stroll along and take full control of [...]
Serco forced to pay £68.5m for contract flaws December 19, 2013 SHARES in beleaguered outsourcing company Serco rallied in trading yesterday after the company said it had reached a £68.5m settlement with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) over allegations it overcharged on contracts. The company had run into trouble over allegations it overcharged for electronically tagging prisoners. It was later found that some of these were [...]
Analyst Views: What did you make of Serco’s update? December 19, 2013 CAROLINE DE LA SOUJEOLE | CANTOR FITZGERALD “We do not subscribe to the view that the worst is over. Last week, Serco announced it was taking a £17m onerous contract provision against three underperforming healthcare contracts. We believe the pace of contract awards could remain sluggish in the short term MIKE ALLEN PANMURE | GORDON [...]
G4S in second Serious Fraud Office probe December 19, 2013 CONTRACTOR G4S will be referred to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for a second time after a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) audit found problems with two further contracts for facilities management in British courts. The issues surround the invoicing, delivery and performance of these contracts and G4S has been asked to implement a corporate renewal [...]
Woodford goes boutique with new fund plans December 19, 2013 THE UK’s most powerful investor Neil Woodford will swap his role running £33bn of cash next year to join serial entrepreneur Peter Dubens’ low key private equity venture. Woodford, who owns major stakes in a host of FTSE 100 firms, will join boutique outfit Oakley Capital when he quits his current role at fund giant [...]
Watchdog warns banks have dodged small firms’ swaps mis-selling probe December 19, 2013 BANKS may have embedded interest rate swaps within other products, harming small business customers in exactly the same way as those who were mis-sold the swaps as standalone products, the City’s top watchdog has warned. In a letter sent to the Treasury earlier this year but only revealed yesterday, Financial Conduct Authority boss Martin Wheatley [...]
Hedgies do festive brunch in the City December 19, 2013 ALONG with mince pies and Christmas jumpers, the festive season also brings with it a sack full of networking opportunities and yesterday The Capitalist hotfooted it along to HedgeBrunch, an opportunity for the alternative investment industry to quaff mulled wine and mingle. It was held in Steam and Rye, one of the City’s newest and [...]
Fact or Fiction 2013 December 19, 2013 Six of these stories happened in 2013, six didn’t – can you spot the real ones? 1 Ex-Goldman Sachs-er “Fabulous” Fabrice Tourre pulled out a love letter as part of his defence during his trial in New York. 2 The Lloyd’s of London building was sold to a Malaysian firm for £300m. 3 Tesco was [...]
