SANDWICH TALKS GO STALE June 20, 2010 DEAL discussions between the husband-and-wife owners of Eat, Niall and Faith MacArthur, and Waitrose have ended after the two sides were unable to agree a price for the sale of the fast food business. Eat, which is valued at between £100m and £150m, will now concentrate on expanding beyond its 100 outlets.
Daily Express boss Desmond eyes Five TV June 20, 2010 DAILY Express and Daily Star owner Richard Desmond has joined the bidding for ailing TV station Five, it emerged yesterday. Desmond, who has trumpeted his £1bn acquisitions war chest in recent weeks, is said to have registered his interest in the asset ahead of today’s first-round deadline. The newspaper tycoon, who owns the Daily Express [...]
Investors need to get used to lower returns June 20, 2010 Until last week I’d never been in The Galerie Doree, but if you ever get the chance it’s well worth a peek. Situated inside what is now the the Banque de France but was once the Hotel de Toulouse it equals anything in Versailles with a French version of the of the Sistine Chapel on [...]
More directors facing disqualification June 20, 2010 THE number of directors of insolvent companies facing disqualification proceedings for involvement in criminal activity has increased by 52 per cent in a year, new figures show. City law firm Wedlake Bell, which obtained the figures, has warned this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the year up to 31 March 2010, 265 [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 20, 2010 BAYER Citigroup said it believes that Bayer is an attractive “buy”. Citi said that sentiment is going to be set by the Xarelto data and it remains positive on this asset. According to Citi trading appears to have improved in Crop Science, Materials remains robust and the company will benefit from recent currency moves. WILLIAM [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 20, 2010 Aviva The insurance giant has appointed Dipak Warren as a corporate risk solutions director. Warren joins from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance in London, which she joined in 2000. In her last role as active underwriter and director of the firm, she was responsible for the syndicate business plan and performance across property, casualty, motor, PI, marine, [...]
The bike and car parts retailer who wants to own Britain on the move June 20, 2010 Halfords and its chief executive David Wild are having a good recession. Earlier this month, the bikes and car maintenance retail chain posted a strong set of full-year figures: pre-tax profits rose 42 per cent to £110m, while sales rose three per cent to £832m. The FTSE 250 business said the trend for healthy living [...]
Time Warner set to make a move on Shed June 20, 2010 TIME WARNER, the media giant behind Sex and the City, is close to acquiring Shed Media, the producer of iconic shows such as Footballers’ Wives and Supernanny. Shed has already announced that takeover discussions with a management buy-out group, backed by Bowmark Capital and Darwin Private Equity, have fallen through but at the time it [...]
Public sector accountants to hit job market June 20, 2010 PUBLIC SECTOR spending cuts by the government could force over 16,500 accountants and finance staff into unemployment, according to new research. Recruitment firm Ambition said with the government’s planned £6.2bn public spending cuts, accounting and finance departments are expecting they will have to shed the jobs, which currently make up 2.3 per cent of the [...]
NOMURA READY FOR ROOF WITH A VIEW June 20, 2010 Only weeks to go now before the biggest decampment the City has seen in a while; Japanese bank Nomura’s move back to the City from the Canary Wharf offices it inherited from Lehman Brothers a few years back. The bank, which will move its staff floor by floor to minimise disruption, starting on 12 July, [...]
