Silentnight bought by HIG May 8, 2011 British bedmaker Silentnight has been rescued from collapse by HIG Europe, the European arm of global private equity investment firm HIG Capital. The Lancashire-based firm, which has a £100m hole in its pension fund, went into administration over the weekend after failing to win the backing of creditors to cut its debts. But the company, [...]
Citigroup to advise Kazakhstan May 8, 2011 Citigroup has been named lead adviser to the Kazakhstan government for its People’s IPO programme, which will allow Kazakhstani people to invest in state-owned companies, as well as raise country’s profile as an investment hub. UBS, JSC Visor Capital and JSC KazKom Securities will also advise the government. PwC has been chosen as its accountant [...]
Barclays next to drop case May 8, 2011 BARCLAYS is to follow Lloyds in abandoning an industry-wide appeal against a high court ruling that will cost banks billions. The decision will leave other banks with little choice but to drop the case against the FSA on payment protection insurance (PPI). But City A.M. has learned that despite the likelihood of the banks giving [...]
Ecclestone says Sky deal would be suicidal for Formula One May 8, 2011 FORMULA One boss Bernie Ecclestone has warned it would be “suicidal” for the sport to accept a move onto Sky as part of a potential News Corp takeover. Ecclestone has fiercely opposed the “friendly” approach to F1 owner CVC Partners by Rupert Murdoch and Italian investment firm Exor, which has a 30.5 per cent stake [...]
Change in way ONS collects data could have skewed GDP figures May 8, 2011 THE Office for National Statistics (ONS) will look into claims that changes to its data collection methods may have skewed output figures for the building sector. Construction executives say the changes led companies to submit business data from six weeks earlier, rather than only during that month. The shift could mean GDP was overestimated towards [...]
Hackers give Sony another bad weekend May 8, 2011 SONY endured another nightmare weekend as hackers heaped more misery on the embattled firm. It has suffered a series of setbacks since falling prey to a massive security breach that compromised the accounts of more than 100m customers. It was forced to step in after hackers posted personal details – not including credit card information [...]
HSBC prepares for strategic overhaul May 8, 2011 HSBC will report its first ever quarterly results today ahead of a strategic overhaul to be presented to investors by chief executive Stuart Gulliver on Wednesday. The bank has previously only provided a quarterly trading update with few figures, but it has now decided to publish full results every quarter. The move comes as Gulliver [...]
Aspiring first time buyers believe house prices are back on the up May 8, 2011 THE number of aspiring first time buyers is at its highest for a year as people increasingly expect house prices to recover. One in three respondents expect house prices to increase, according to a Rightmove survey. At the beginning of the year, just over one in five prospective buyers expected house prices to lift. Yet [...]
All bets off on bid for Rank May 8, 2011 BRITISH gambling company Rank Group has urged shareholders to turn down an offer from majority shareholder Guoco, after the Hong Kongbased group made a mandatory tender after increasing its stake to almost 41 per cent. The offer is being presented by both sides as a regulatory formality to comply with UK takeover rules, which require [...]
Oil and gas firms could scrap £50bn of North Sea projects May 8, 2011 THE SURPRISE tax raid on oil and gas firms could prompt companies to cut capital expenditure by £50bn over the life of the North Sea reserves, a report is set to claim this week. Oil & Gas UK has overhauled its annual forecasts following the shock tax rise announced in the Budget in March, and [...]
