David Lloyd Leisure prepares to hire investment bank to assess its options December 4, 2011 GYM chain David Lloyd Leisure is preparing to appoint an investment bank to advise on its strategy, according to reports. The company, which is owned jointly by Caird Capital, the private equity firm whose investors include Lloyds Banking Group, and London & Regional, the property firm owned by the billionaire Livingstone brothers, held a board [...]
DEVELOPERS GIVE UP BATTERSEA FIGHT December 4, 2011 REAL Estate Opportunities, the Irish developer behind the regeneration of Battersea Power Station, is resigned to the fact that the landmark site will enter administration this week. Malaysia’s SP Setia will now wait for the lenders – Lloyds and Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency – to seize control before making another bid for the debt [...]
MTR eyes two UK rail routes December 4, 2011 MTR CORPORATION, the company that operates Hong Kong’s metro system, is believed to be working on plans to bid for two more British rail franchises. The Hong Kong group is keen to operate the c2c (Essex Thameside) and Thameslink franchises, according to weekend reports. The Department for Transport is understood to be inviting bids for [...]
Russia miners to add weight to bluechips December 4, 2011 RUSSIA’s presence on the UK’s top share index will go up this Wednesday if two of its newly London-listed metals and mining groups are admitted in the quarterly changeover of its constituents. Evraz, the steelmaking group part-owned by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovitch, and Polymetal, Russia’s biggest silver producer, have each swapped their global depositary receipt [...]
Short sellers eye Weir Group and retailers in the FTSE 100 December 4, 2011 HEDGE funds substantially increased their short positions on engineering company Weir Group in November after the company disappointed investors with its trading update mid-month, new data from Data Explorers shows. Short interest in Weir Group, measured by the percentage of its shares borrowed by investors, has doubled in the past two months to 7.14 per [...]
Russian IPOs have provoked serious debate, but they make great returns December 4, 2011 HACKLES may be raised at some City institutions after this quarter’s FTSE reshuffle as the UK’s top blue-chip index is filled with yet more emerging markets miners. Adding two Russian metals players to the FTSE 100 has started a serious debate over how much share capital a firm must float to give minority investors a [...]
Cain drops US president race December 4, 2011 FORMER pizza magnate Herman Cain dropped out of the US presidential race during the weekend after accusations of sexual misconduct overwhelmed his bid to win the Republican nomination as an anti-Washington tax reformer. Cain’s departure set off a competition among other candidates to win over his conservative supporters with voting to start next month in [...]
Shortfalls in benefit plans hit new highs December 4, 2011 RISING inflation expectations and lower corporate bond yields helped to push up pension deficits at the UK’s biggest companies to the highest level seen this year, new data today shows. The funding gap in defined benefit schemes for all companies in the FTSE 350 rose to £80bn at the end of November, up by 25 [...]
Reform of pensions may be insufficient, warns Lord Hutton December 4, 2011 THE government could have to make further cuts to public sector pensions because the outlook for the British economy has worsened, Lord Hutton, the former Labour minister, warned yesterday. Hutton, who was work and pensions secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, said the calculations contained in his recently-published review of public sector pensions now appeared “too [...]
Aviva mulls selling off part of UK annuity book to bolster capital base December 4, 2011 AVIVA, the UK’s biggest insurer, is considering selling off part of its portfolio of UK annuities to strengthen its balance sheet after a fall in its regulatory capital surplus due to volatile stock and bond markets over recent months. Aviva is the UK’s biggest provider of individual annuities with a 23 per cent market share, [...]
