Argentina nears IMF deadline December 16, 2012 Argentina has until today to tell the International Monetary Fund how it plans to produce more reliable data on its growth and inflation, or risk being thrown out of the G20. IMF head Christine Lagarde in September gave Argentina three months to put it statistical house in order, though no immediate action is expected if [...]
MPs to grill Laidlaw over trains December 16, 2012 Sam Laidlaw will appear before MPs tomorrow to discuss his report into the botched West Coast Main Line franchise competition. Laidlaw, the chief executive of Centrica and a non-executive at the Department for Transport, earlier this month published a stinging paper on how poor leadership, overwork and flawed sums led to the collapse of the [...]
First Quantum sweetens bid for Inmet with £3.2bn offer December 16, 2012 CANADA-based First Quantum Minerals yesterday upped its offer for rival mining firm Inmet in a deal worth C$5.1bn (£3.2bn). First Quantum, which has assets in Africa, Australia, South America and Europe, is offering C$72 in a mixture of cash and shares for each Inmet share, which it says represents a 65 per cent premium to [...]
Berlusconi set to wed 27-year-old December 16, 2012 ERSTWHILE Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi has announced his engagement to his 27-year-old girlfriend, Francesca Pascale. The former premier, known for his anti-euro rhetoric, is eyeing up a return to Italian politics ahead of general elections expected in February. Mario Monti said last weekend that he would stand down as Italian Prime Minister once the 2013 [...]
Gruma buys back stake from ADM December 16, 2012 Mexican corn flour processor Gruma has purchased a 23.2 per cent stake of its own stock that was previously held by US agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, part of a $450m deal Gruma announced in a statement yesterday. In addition to the Gruma stake, the firm bought minority stakes in its units Azteca Milling, Molinera [...]
Vivalis and Intercell set to merge December 16, 2012 France’s Vivalis is set to buy Intercell in a deal valuing the Austrian vaccine maker at around €133m (£108m), and creating an enlarged player in the European biotech industry. Both companies are loss-making and the tie-up, billed as a merger of equals, will allow for cost savings of €5m-€6m a year, the companies said yesterday. [...]
Taxpayers face £50m bill from Comet failure December 16, 2012 THE owners of Comet are set to recover £50m from the collapse of the electricals chain while taxpayers are expected to fork out around £50m in unpaid tax and redundancy costs. A report by administrator Deloitte due to be published today is expected to show that Hailey Acquisitions Limited (HAL), Comet’s parent company, is entitled [...]
American fund sets sights on troubled HMV December 16, 2012 APOLLO Global Management, the American investment firm with almost £70bn of assets under management, is plotting to take control of HMV after buying a chunk of the retailer’s debts. The vulture fund has snapped up more than £20m of the struggling company’s senior debt from Allied Irish Banks, over 10 per cent of HMV’s outstanding [...]
John Lewis decks its halls with shoppers December 16, 2012 JOHN Lewis was the bearer of festive tidings yesterday as the group posted a second week of record trading. Sales at its 39 stores and online outlet reached £147.8m in the week to Saturday, up 11.1 per cent on last year. West End firms today voted to keep representative body New West End Company for [...]
William Hill set to finally make Sportingbet bid December 16, 2012 THE DRAWN-OUT negotiations over William Hill’s joint takeover of Sportingbet are set to come to an end this week, with a formal offer finally to be lodged. With a deadline of 5pm tomorrow approaching, William Hill and bid partner GVC Holdings are putting the finishing touches to a deal valuing Sportingbet at £485m, sources close [...]
