Airport deal off October 26, 2005 A group controlled by Australia’s Macquarie Bank has walked away from a deal to buy Exeter Airport complaining about the length of the process after the deal was referred to the Competition Commission. The deal collapsed after Macquarie, which formed half of the South West Airports consortium, said that a Commission investigation into the purchase [...]
Firms’ shock at tips October 26, 2005 Reporting by City Slickers James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul at the Daily Mirror caused companies to put out apologetic statements, a court heard yesterday. The former Mirror financial journalists are accused of using their City Slickers column to manipulate share prices. On day six of the trial at Southwark Crown Court jurors were told how [...]
World Gaming ups stakes October 26, 2005 World Gaming is to expand its online gaming business through the acquisition of the Sportsbetting.com Group for up to $98m (£54m). The AIM-quoted company, which is also listed on New York’s Nasdaq, is a software provider for some of the largest e-gaming sites, including Sportsbetting. It also provides software to rival sportsbook.com, the world’s seventh [...]
Oil prices lift Hydro October 26, 2005 Norwegian energy and metals business Norsk Hydro said its third-quarter net income rose 69 per cent on the back of rising oil and gas prices, despite rising costs in its aluminium business. This year oil prices have risen about 45 per cent and gas prices 27 per cent, which contributed to the company’s net income [...]
‘No talks’ at Whitbread October 26, 2005 The wind was knocked out of Whitbread’s sails yesterday after chief executive Alan Parker moved to quieten the takeover talk that has buoyed its shares. The leisure group was one of the biggest fallers of the day after Parker said there had been “no talks” with private or trade buyers about selling off any of [...]
BP weathers storm havoc October 26, 2005 Oil giant BP’s third-quarter rise in underlying profit was largely unaffected by summer hurricane damage in America, leaping 27.5 per cent, the company revealed yesterday. The company’s underlying profit, driven by high barrel prices and strong refining margins, rose to $5.33bn (£2.98bn). The company said it owed its strong underlying performance to “high but volatile” [...]
Berliner falls to Monty October 26, 2005 A media company run by former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery has snapped up Berlin’s biggest-selling broadsheet newspaper. Mecom, together with Anglo American private equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson, has bought the Berliner Zeitung, whose circulation is 185,000, as well as Berlin’s top tabloid paper, Berliner Kurier, whose circulation is 121,000. Talks with the [...]
Abbey makes moves on mortgages October 26, 2005 Abbey is to mount an assault on the British mortgage market by plugging into new business areas. The bank, which was taken over by Spanish group Santander for £8bn last year, wants to make up ground lost to its rivals in the areas of lending to buy-to-let investors, people wanting loans for new-build properties, and [...]
Amazon profits hit by increased competition October 26, 2005 Amazon, the online bookseller, last night unveiled a $30m (£16.8m) profit for the third quarter. Some of the gloss was taken off increased sales, however, as it admitted that a patent dispute had cost it $20m. Seattle-based Amazon made a one-off payment to settle a patent lawsuit in the third quarter. Its profit, otherwise, would [...]
Marconi boss in £9m windfall October 26, 2005 Marconi CEO Mike Parton is £8.8m richer after Ericsson bought his company for £1.2bn. Ericsson is buying the bulk of Marconi, the former GEC, once the country’s biggest private employer. The remainder of the business — the British services operation — will be spun off into a new company, telent, which will be listed on [...]
