Hugh Osmond looks to buy firms in debt December 13, 2009 HUGH Osmond, the entrepreneur who built up Pizza Express and Punch Taverns, is amassing a £1bn war chest to begin a spending spree on distressed companies. Sun Capital, Osmond’s private equity firm, is already in the process of raising capital for the venture, and is understood to be preparing for a stock market listing early [...]
Deutsche Bahn to shunt 14,000 out of their jobs December 13, 2009 GERMANY’S national rail company, Deutsche Bahn, is planning to cut 14,000 jobs, an unnamed board member told a German newspaper. The cuts are necessary because of the ongoing effects of the economic crisis, said a source on the rail operators’ supervisory board. But there would be no forced redundancies until the end of next year. [...]
Habitat will not be broken-up as the long-awaited sale to Hilco is confirmed December 13, 2009 HABITAT’S protracted sale finally took place yesterday, when parent company ICAF Antillen sold the furniture company to Hilco. ICAF, acting on behalf of the Kamprad family, which also owns Ikea, sold Habitat Group to Retail Investments Limited, a specialist retail investments group led by Hilco. There had been speculation that Hilco would divide Habitat and [...]
Ex Merrill star hired by Morgan Stanley’s Gorman December 13, 2009 MORGAN Stanley said yesterday it had hired former Merrill Lynch president and chief operating officer Gregory Fleming to run its investment management group. Fleming — one of the architects of Merrill Lynch’s sale to Bank of America — will be president of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He will also be responsible for Morgan Stanley’s global [...]
SFO in Icelandic bank probe December 13, 2009 THE SERIOUS Fraud Office (SFO) is preparing to announce a formal investigation into collapsed Icelandic banks that operated in the UK. The inquiry, which will examine Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbanki, follows months of intelligence gathering by officials at the SFO and is expected to be announced soon. The SFO has been in close touch with [...]
Cash rich VT eyes buyout of Mouchel December 13, 2009 VT GROUP, the shipbuilder-turned-support services company, has made two takeover approaches for a rival, it emerged over the weekend, as it shifts focus away from its defence roots. Outsourcing and engineering group Mouchel, whose share price moved massively on Friday after an interim management statement, is thought to have snubbed the secret offers. The move [...]
Iraq will be a leading force at Opec’s upcoming meeting, US official says December 13, 2009 IRAQ’S string of deals with oil majors has catapulted it to importance ahead of Opec’s meeting in Angola later this month, according to the US. The oil cartel is set to meet on 22 December, and much focus will be on Iraq following new ambitious output targets set by Baghdad over the weekend. Iraq’s “supergiant” [...]
Election and stock shortage to keep housing sales static December 13, 2009 HOUSE asking prices are likely to remain static in 2010 as post-election uncertainty and continued shortage of stock creates a challenging environment for the housing market, property website Rightmove will say today, as it reveals that asking prices fell for a second consecutive month in December. Rightmove expects December’s 2.2 per cent drop in prices [...]
Shanks set to open its books to Carlyle December 13, 2009 WASTE management company Shanks is set to agree to open its books to suitor US private equity firm Carlyle Group, it emerged yesterday, as a takeover battle brewed for the firm. Shanks is expected to sign an agreement with Carlyle later this week, allowing the US firm to see its accounts after its £536m offer, [...]
Google ready to release mobile December 13, 2009 Google has released an experimental mobile phone to employees, with access to the public expected to be offered in January. Asking employees to test products has become an established tactic for the search engine giant. A phone from Google has been rumoured for a while, and could revolutionise mobile phone use, with people using social [...]
