Shares in Avis spike on news of takeover June 14, 2011 SHARES in car hire firm Avis Europe leaped 58 per cent yesterday as investors rushed to benefit from its takeover by US counterpart Avis Budget. Avis Budget said it would pay £636m in cash for Avis Europe to reunite the two firms after 25 years and create a group with revenues of $7bn (£4.3bn). The [...]
New Oz offices lift turnover at Norton Rose June 14, 2011 TURNOVER at City law firm Norton Rose increased by nine per cent last year, with the group’s new Australian addition providing a boost to its latest results. Combined group turnover for the year to 30 April was $814m (£496m), an increase of $144m from the previous year’s figure of $670m. Norton Rose merged with Australian [...]
PhosAgro to try London’s IPO market June 14, 2011 FERTILISER producer PhosAgro is planning a Moscow and London initial public offering (IPO) worth more than $500m (£305m) next month, the latest in a string of Russian firms to test a lacklustre market for new listings. Launching the offering yesterday, PhosAgro chief executive Maxim Volkov said the company planned to float 10-15 per cent of [...]
Spanish troubles threaten to upset Bankia’s share listing June 14, 2011 BANKIA, Spain’s third-largest bank by assets, yesterday denied suggestions that it might delay its initial public offering in the wake of telecoms giant Telefonica cancelling the planned flotation of its call centre unit Atento at the end of last week. Telefonica blamed “the unfavourable state of the markets” for its decision. Bankia – which groups [...]
AFME: Securitisation market will be critical to EU recovery June 14, 2011 EUROPE will need a much larger securitisation market if it is to foster growth, Simon Lewis will say today in his role as chief executive of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), a regional industry body. “Europe’s funding needs in the coming years will be considerable – the ECB estimates that €1,000bn (£883bn) of [...]
Trader fined £1.3m by FSA June 14, 2011 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned a trader for market abuse and ordered him to pay more than £1.3m in damages. Self-employed trader Barnett Michael Alexander was fined £700,000 and ordered to pay £322,818 in restitution to firms that experienced a loss as a result of his actions. An additional £306,312 was also transferred to [...]
HSBC sells Russian consumer banking division to Citigroup June 14, 2011 HSBC has agreed to sell part of its Russian retail banking business to Citigroup in a deal valued at around $10.7m (£6.5m). The British bank said in April that it would quit its Russian retail operations, becoming the latest in a string of international lenders to pull the plug on consumer banking in the country. [...]
FSA wins first criminal conviction against a boiler room fraudster June 14, 2011 The FSA has won its first criminal conviction for boiler room fraud. David Roger Griffiths Mason has been sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from being a director for six years after pleading guilty to a string of charges. In a far-reaching scam lasting six months, Mason coordinated the sale of shares in [...]
Capgemini in Prosodie talks June 14, 2011 Europe’s largest computer consultancy Capgemini is in talks to buy closely-held outsourcing and payment services provider Prosodie for an enterprise value of €382m (£337m) to expand its offerings to large telecoms, financial and retail clients. The cash deal would boost earnings per share from the first year and chief executive Paul Hermelin said that Capgemini [...]
Ericsson to acquire Telcordia June 14, 2011 Ericsson, the telecoms technology and service company, today announced that it has reached an agreement with Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus to buy Telcordia, a global leader in the development of mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services, for $1.15bn (£700m). Ericsson’s deal is expected to close before the end of the year.
