Gambling deadline gets punted December 18, 2012 William Hill has been given more time to finalise a £485m takeover of rival gambling group Sportingbet. Britain’s largest bookmaker is making a joint bid with smaller betting firm GVC Holdings.The companies have provisionally agreed a cash and shares deal which would value Sportingbet shares at 56.1p each. The deadline for a formal offer to [...]
Aim debut for Fusionex December 18, 2012 Fusionex, the Malaysia-based company specialising in software products and solutions delivery debuted on the Aim market yesterday. The group’s shares were priced at 150p each, valuing the company at £64.5m. The offering raised £12m, placing 7.6m shares, and was three times oversubscribed. Panmure Gordon acted as nominated adviser and sole broker. This was Panmure’s fourth [...]
Sandy batters Lloyd’s insurers with £286m hit December 18, 2012 SUPERSTORM Sandy has left members of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market with a bill of at least £286m, it was revealed yesterday. The enormous storm swept through the Caribbean and north-eastern US at the end of October, hitting New York and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The resulting damage is expected [...]
Women motorists face cover hikes from Friday December 18, 2012 WOMEN are set to pay more for many insurance products from this Friday as the industry takes advantage of rule changes to hike premiums, according to ratings agency Fitch. An EU ruling that comes into force on Friday will ban insurers from considering gender when pricing products, hitting groups that currently enjoy favourable rates such [...]
Samsung ends Apple lawsuits December 18, 2012 SAMSUNG has shelved a number of legal attempts to have Apple products banned in European countries including Britain. The Korean company announced the move yesterday following a US judge’s refusal to hand down a ban on Samsung devices including its popular Galaxy smartphones. Samsung said that the retreat showed its preference to compete in the [...]
Insurers can weather disasters December 18, 2012 THE losses to insurers from Hurricane Sandy are substantial, although not in the league of last year’s natural catastrophes with their appalling toll of human misery in New Zealand and Japan, floods in Thailand and Hurricane Irene in the US, all of which made 2011 the year with highest catastrophe-related economic losses in history, according [...]
Britons are feeling less than festive about Europe December 18, 2012 EVERY month YouGov runs its EuroTrack survey, a multi-country study tracking public opinion in the UK, Germany, France and the Nordic countries. Looking at the latest data, the results of two questions (one a serious political issue, the other more light-hearted) grabbed my attention. First, the serious political issue: how would people in the countries [...]
Petrofac set to hit 15pc profit growth in 2012 December 18, 2012 OIL services company Petrofac is on track to deliver net profit growth of 15 per cent this year, it said yesterday, boosted by a strong pipeline for next year. The FTSE 100 firm, which designs and builds oil and gas infrastructure, said that operations continued to perform in line with expectations, with particularly good performance [...]
Whitbread in £51m sale and leaseback of Premier Inns December 18, 2012 HOTEL and restaurant group Whitbread has agreed a £51m sale and leaseback deal on seven Premier Inn sites, as it frees up cash to spend on its expansion. The FTSE 100 firm, which also owns Costa, yesterday said it is to sell the buildings to NFU Mutual and Standard Life Assurance, which will lease them [...]
Japanese boost for Rolls-Royce December 18, 2012 Rolls-Royce yesterday signed a $1bn (£620m) contract with Japanese Skymark Airlines to deliver Trent 900 jet engines for six craft. The company has also signed a letter of intent to supply Trent 700 jet engines for up to 10 A330s, which will enter service in 2014. Skymark – a new customer for the firm still [...]
