VCTs in for a lucrative year February 1, 2010 Venture capital trusts (VCTs) are looking forward to a bumper year due to the coming rise in the top rate of income tax and reduction in pension tax relief for high earners, the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) predicts. Matthew Woodbridge, head of investment products for Chelsea Financial Services, said: “The Budget bombshells that were [...]
Balfour Beatty buys hotel firms February 1, 2010 Balfour Beatty announced yesterday it has acquired Multibuild Hotels and Leisure and Multibuild Interiors, based in Stockport, for £1.9m. The firms specialise in the construction and fit-out of hotel and leisure facilities. The international infrastructure group operates in construction services, professional services, support services and infrastructure investments.
Cashmere firm jumpers for joy February 1, 2010 Dawson International, the cashmere and bed linen company, saw its share price rise nearly 30 per cent yesterday to 2.25p after it announced that full-year results would be ahead of expectations. The company, which supplies cashmere to the world’s leading fashion designers, said that knitwear sales had been helped by the timing of high margin [...]
RBS ponders sale of HQ at Gogarburn February 1, 2010 JUST five years after the completion of Gogarburn – Royal Bank of Scotland’s vast headquarters near Edinburgh and the darling of disgraced former chief Sir Fred Goodwin – and the £350m office complex may already be heading for the block. RBS is considering the merits of a sale and leaseback of the property to shore [...]
Catalyst February 1, 2010 Steve Currie advised on the £44m sale of Minivator from Gresham to Handicare. He is a partner at finance house Catalyst and has over 15 years’ corporate finance experience working at private equity and corporate advisory firms. He recently advised on the management buyout at Farrow & Ball, which was funded by European Capital. He [...]
Handicare in £44m deal as private equity rush continues February 1, 2010 THE private equity resurgence continued yesterday as Gresham Private Equity prepares to sell stair-lift company Minivator to Handicare Group in a deal worth £44m, City A.M. has learned. The UK buyout firm made a return of more than three times the £14m it paid for the mobility aid manufacturer in 2004. The mid-market deal comes [...]
Confidence rises among corporates February 1, 2010 Corporate confidence is increasing, but the majority of companies are still taking a cautious approach in 2010, research has found. The survey by Ernst & Young, which polled senior executives at nearly 900 companies, found that, despite consensus that restricted access to capital will constrain growth this year, nearly a third said they intended to [...]
CITY VIEWS: will the government’s push to drive smoking underground work? February 1, 2010 ADRIAN TURNER | PELDON ROSE “I think it’s a good thing, although I’ve never actually had anything against smokers. I think all the government’s measures against smoking are good in principle, but personally I think that banning it from pubs was a bad idea.” JAMES HOLMES | LLOYDS TSB “I’m trying to quit, so anything [...]
Toyota plans quick fix as crisis grows February 1, 2010 TOYOTA detailed plans yesterday to fix 2.4m vehicles equipped with faulty accelerators in the US as the first lawsuits landed on its desk. Lawyers claimed the world’s largest carmaker had endangered drivers by ignoring signs of trouble. Toyota, scrambling to contain the fallout from the sweeping recall on its finances and reputation, said it would [...]
Shell signs £8bn ethanol deal February 1, 2010 BRAZILIAN sugar and biofuel giant Cosan plans to merge its ethanol and fuel distribution units with Royal Dutch Shell in a deal worth up to $12bn (£7.5bn), extending a trend of growing foreign investment in the fast-growing industry. The deal significantly expands Shell’s ethanol operations in Brazil and follows moves by British oil major BP, [...]
