Better Capital tees up policy shift to widen investment net February 11, 2013 BETTER Capital, the private equity house run by seasoned investor Jon Moulton, yesterday announced plans to change its investment policy so it can invest in companies outside of the UK. The firm’s second fund, Becap 12, currently has two investments – fashion house Jaeger and double glazing firm Everest – but it wants to change [...]
HICL in demand as Nav rises February 11, 2013 HICL Infrastructure Company yesterday announced strong figures for the last six months after its net asset value increased close to three per cent. Shares in the fund now trade at 6.7 per cent premium to the Nav, a sign of increasing demand for the fund. HICL, which invests in roads and hospitals, said it planned [...]
RWS Holdings upbeat at AGM February 11, 2013 RWS Holdings, which provides intellectual property services to FTSE firms, yesterday predicted another years of group sales growth for 2013. Speaking at the business’s annual meeting, executive chairman Andrew Brode hailed an “encouraging” three months for the business as it looks to secure its tenth successive year of growth. The firm bought online patent filing [...]
GHG looks at debt restructuring February 11, 2013 Lenders to General Healthcare Group are in talks on a restructuring of its around £2bn debt pile, banking sources said yesterday, in a process which threatens to leave them nursing heavy losses. The company, one of Britain’s largest independent healthcare services providers, was bought in 2006 by a consortium comprising Apax Partners, Brockton Capital, London [...]
Blackberry falls as Home Depot chooses iPhone February 11, 2013 SHARES in Blackberry plummeted by as much as six per cent during early trading yesterday, after one of the US’s biggest retailers said it was replacing its employee handsets with Apple’s rival iPhone. A spokesman for DIY-chain Home Depot said as many as 10,000 of its management and corporate employees would switch their Blackberry models [...]
Walgreens to raise curtain on partnership with Alliance Boots February 11, 2013 US pharmacy giant Walgreens and Alliance Boots are to meet with investors and analysts in the City tomorrow to update on the progress of its merger that will see the creation the world’s largest pharmacy group. The meeting, which will be followed by a site visit to Boots’ headquarters in Nottingham, led to speculation this [...]
Insurers confident of growing revenue February 11, 2013 THE GLOBAL insurance industry is overwhelmingly confident of boosting revenues this year despite seeing little prospect of a return to economic growth, according to a PwC report out today. The research suggests 90 per cent of insurance chief executives expect to see revenues increase over the next twelve months, despite just 15 per cent of [...]
Smartphone popularity on rise February 11, 2013 The popularity of smartphones is set to soar even further in the next couple of years, according to the latest New Media Forecasts released by Zenith Optimedia. While more than one in three people (35.5 per cent) in 19 observed advanced markets had a smartphone last year, it expects this number to soar to 71.7 [...]
Dell insists it kept options open February 11, 2013 Dell had considered many strategic options before opting to go private, it said in a regulatory filing revealed yesterday. The struggling PC maker struck a deal last week to go private in a $24.4bn deal. It said it retained a management consultant to help assess its “strategic position” and concluded that the all-cash deal was [...]
L’Oreal to buy back €500m shares February 11, 2013 L’Oreal unveiled plans yesterday to spend about a third of its net cash, or €500m (£428m), on buying back shares as it reported a small rebound in fourth-quarter sales. The world’s biggest cosmetics group said turnover in the three months to 31 December reached €5.7bn, up 5.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis, helped by [...]
