GOING FOR GOLD May 31, 2009 HOLIDAY Inn, the hotel budget chain will today announce it is the official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics. It is believed the commercial partnership is worth around £10m – half of which is cash and the other half is through the provision of hotel rooms in the capital. The InterContinental Hotel chain has already [...]
Lloyds investors ponder law suit over HBOS deal May 31, 2009 A GROUP of small investors is preparing a legal campaign against the directors of Lloyds TSB over their takeover of HBOS, as the bank’s board faces up to a showdown at this Friday’s AGM. The UK Shareholders’ Association (UKSA) is sounding out more than a million small investors in Lloyds about a possible legal action [...]
PPF Partners launched May 31, 2009 Italian insurer Generali and Czech financial group PPF have launched a new private equity venture called PPF Partners. The new venture – which has already raised ¤615m (£537m) from Generali, PPF and PPF’s founder, Petr Kellner – will target central and eastern European investments. It has spent half the money on six assets transferred from [...]
Ball demands ITV rights issue May 31, 2009 Former BSkyB boss Tony Ball has told ITV shareholders that he would insist on a rights issue and financial restructuring of the struggling broadcaster if he took the role of chief executive. Investors in the company have given the proposal a mixed reaction, though many are believed to want Ball at the helm of ITV.
Q & A : CVC’S ROYAL MAIL BID May 31, 2009 Q.WHAT IS CVC CAPITAL PARTNERS?A.CVC is one of the world’s biggest private equity houses with 19 offices across Europe, Asia and the US. Since its founding in 1981 it has snapped up stakes in department store chain Debenhams and Formula One Group among over 250 others. It is in line to buy Barclays’ iShares asset [...]
CVC trumps TNT as Royal Mail bidder May 31, 2009 CVC PARTNERS, the private equity group, has offered to pay around £2bn for a 30 per cent stake in Royal Mail, it emerged yesterday, as the controversial bid to part privatise the franchise nudges ahead. The group’s offer beats a bid from rival logistics group TNT, but is less than the government has hoped to [...]
IBERIAN INFLUENCE May 31, 2009 THE UK chief executive of Santander, António Horta-Osório, is one of three heavyweight names to win an appointment to the Court of the Bank of England. He will be joined by outgoing chief executive of Prudential Mark Tucker and Harrison Young, who sits on the board of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank.
Expenses scandal masks big issues May 31, 2009 You may have seen the email doing the rounds a few weeks ago that gave a visual representation of what a trillion pounds would look like if it was stacked in £100 notes. The image is breathtaking – and largely surreal. I mention this because I’m increasing frustrated with the energy devoted to the scandal [...]
Lords committee to call for Bank to play a stronger role May 31, 2009 THE tripartite system of financial supervision is fundamentally flawed and should be revised, a report by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will say this week. The committee, which has been probing the role played by the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the banking crisis, is expected [...]
Russian support has allowed Magna to rise above the rest May 31, 2009 OUTBIDDING rivals Fiat, Brussels-based IHJ International and Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC) to secure the acquisition of Opel and Vauxhall was a coup for Magna’s owner, Frank Stronach. It takes him back to his European roots, and gives the company the opportunity to milk the ever-expanding Russian car market. Stronach is an Austrian émigré who [...]
