BAT targets tobacco firm in Colombia January 9, 2011 BRITISH American Tobacco is looking to take over a Colombian cigarette-maker for around £290m, sources close to the firm said last night A person close to BAT, which owns the Dunhill, Rothmans and Benson & Hedges brands, told City A.M. the firm has long been keen to buy Protobaco and plans to renew its efforts [...]
RBS set to sell Priory Group for up to £1bn January 9, 2011 THE Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) could finally be on the verge of selling care homes operator the Priory Group, famous for providing refuge to pop stars like Pete Doherty and Robbie Williams. RBS is poised to close a deal with private equity firm Advent International within the next few weeks. Advent was one of [...]
Focus on emerging markets is key January 9, 2011 THERE is no getting away from it: the outlook for cigarette makers is increasingly bleak. Last week, Citigroup released a comprehensive 72-page report on the future of smoking, which predicted that the habit could virtually disappear in developed countries within 30-50 years. Eventually, higher prices won’t be able to offset rapidly falling volumes. Somewhat fittingly, the [...]
UK must take centre stage in EU policy race January 9, 2011 LAST week, the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, made it clear that badly thought through regulation must not be allowed to undermine European competitiveness in financial services. Such a strongly worded public statement provides further evidence of the government’s belief that the financial services industry has a vital role to play in facilitating a [...]
Sporting Index hires Thomson Reuters exec January 9, 2011 SPORTS spread betting firm Sporting Index Group has hired former Thomson Reuters senior executive Mark Redwood as its non-executive chairman. Redwood, 50, led Thomson Reuters’ sales and trading activities until stepping down at the end of December. He replaces Richard Glynn, who left in 2010. The Sporting Index Group, backed by private equity investor HgCapital, [...]
Simon’s time is running out on Capital bid January 9, 2011 CITY banks including Citigroup, Lazard and Evercore could miss out on up to £60m in fees if Simon Property fails to make a bid for Capital Shopping Centres before the Takeover Panel’s deadline on Wednesday. It is understood that Simon’s board had not made a final decision on whether to bid £3bn as planned, raise [...]
A big week ahead for Portugal and the Euro January 9, 2011 WILL this be the week that Portugal becomes the latest Eurozone country to call in the EU and the IMF to bail it out? The answer to that question will become clear on Wednesday when Lisbon taps the bond market for the first time in 2011. If last weeks T-Bill auction is anything to go [...]
$1bn Facebook backer eyes Twitter stake January 9, 2011 DIGITAL Sky Technologies, the Russian firm with a $1bn (£644bn) stake in Facebook, is considering buying shares in micro-blogging site Twitter. In its recent financing round, Twitter was valued at $3.7bn, despite advertising revenues said to be around $100m last year. If DST went ahead with the move, it would mean that that the company [...]
Hands in £12m dividend from Terra Firma January 9, 2011 PRIVATE equity tycoon Guy Hands has taken a £12m dividend from his Terra Firma investment vehicle despite a fall in operating profits. The payment is the first significant dividend payment by the company since its inception nine years ago, with all previous payouts under £25,000 a year. However, Hands takes his £12m, released from cash [...]
Oil barrel price could hit $110 January 9, 2011 SPECULATION could push oil prices to rise to $110 per barrel within a few weeks, which may prompt OPEC to raise production, a member of Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) said yesterday. “Demand will increase slightly, but this increase in price is usually technical, due to analysts’ forecasts and speculations,” said Imad al-Atiqi, a member [...]
