Doughty bid snubbed by Aegis board July 10, 2011 SHAREHOLDERS in Aegis Group have been urged to put pressure on the firm’s board, after its directors allegedly snubbed a competitively-priced approach for its market-research unit Synovate. Aegis is alleged to have ignored an approach from Doughty Hanson, the private equity owner behind the Vue cinema chain. Instead, the company has entered into exclusive talks [...]
Corporate optimism is dropping sharply July 10, 2011 CORPORATE optimism in the UK has dropped at the fastest rate since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, according to a Deloitte survey of chief financial officers released this morning. Yet strong balance sheets and the availability of low-cost capital have seen risk appetite hold up at close to a three and a [...]
Key Murdoch man Hinton in firing line July 10, 2011 RUPERT Murdoch’s right hand man could become the highest-profile casualty of the scandal engulfing News Corp. Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton looks set to be dragged into the firing line after it emerged a report was commissioned in 2007 – on his watch – showing that phone hacking may not have been restricted to [...]
Labour defends its spin doctor July 10, 2011 LABOUR has continued to back its PR adviser Tom Baldwin – dubbed “Labour’s Coulson” – amid claims by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft that he sanctioned so-called “blagging calls” to extract information about his party donations. A Labour party spokesman said: “Tom Baldwin did not appoint private investigators. Tom Baldwin was not involved in the appointment [...]
Cross words left by staff July 10, 2011 DESPITE News International ensuring loyal sub editors scoured the pages of the final News of the World for signs of protest from angry staff members, it appears they missed a series of hidden messages in the crossword. Answers featured were “disaster” and “menace”. Clues included “Woman stares wildly at calamity” and “We’re off for a [...]
Hacking scandal damages News Corp’s bid for BSkyB – but politicians also hit July 10, 2011 VOICE OF THE CITY RUPERT Murdoch’s attempt to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB he doesn’t already own has been badly damaged by the hacking scandal, according to the City A.M./Politics Home Voice of the City panel. Over 29 per cent said the fresh allegations against the News of the World, resulting in the [...]
Huhne Bill to spark higher energy costs July 10, 2011 CHRIS Huhne, the energy secretary, is set to reveal the most radical reforms of Britain’s electricity market for two decades, in a move that will see household bills further increased in the coming years. The government will publish a white paper tomorrow designed to give utility companies the £110bn financial incentives needed to invest in [...]
AssetCo in fire sale talks with Bahrain’s Arcapita July 10, 2011 LONDON’S fire engine supplier AssetCo is in exclusive sale talks with Bahraini banking group Arcapita over a 2p-per-share offer, City A.M. has learned. AssetCo is racing against time to finalise a deal with Arcapita to fend off bankruptcy as it has accumulated debts of between £117 and £140m. It faces a court hearing today to [...]
Guy Hands looks to buy RBS aircraft finance wing July 10, 2011 GUY Hands is keen to swoop on Royal Bank of Scotland’s aircraft financing division with a £4bn bid. The financier wants to merge RBS Aviation Capital with Awas, the plane leasing firm owned by his investment fund Terra Firma. If he pulls off the acquisition, his jet hire business would be the third biggest in [...]
Green agenda is a big political risk July 10, 2011 Energy minister Chris Huhne engaged in a battle of words yesterday, dismissing claims that the UK could end up with energy prices “towards the highest in the EU” – as calculated by the Electricity Policy Research Group at Cambridge University. “Absolute nonsense” snapped Huhne, arguing that prices would eventually be lower if the UK moved [...]
