Threat of disruption from German Lufthansa strike February 22, 2010 Germany is bracing for a four-day strike at flagship airline Lufthansa from today that threatens to disrupt travel to and from Europe’s biggest economy. Lufthansa’s pilots plan to go on strike in a row over pay and job security, fearing the company could try to cut staff costs by shifting jobs to foreign subsidiaries such [...]
VT mulls £233m payout to block Babcock deal February 22, 2010 THE takeover battle between shipbuilder Babcock and services company VT Group has taken a twist after one of VT’s largest shareholders urged the board to open its books. Fund manager Tim Steer of Artemis said chief executive Paul Lester should cooperate with Babcock to encourage the larger firm to increase its £1.25bn indicative offer. Steer, [...]
It’s time to start bidding up the predator February 22, 2010 IT must be awfully hard for VT?Group to fend off Babcock, when it has been in hunter mode itself recently. It has been spinning a takeover of Mouchel with talk of synergies and scale, but balks when Babcock uses similar language. VT’s trump card, a shareholder payout totalling as much as £230m or 126p a [...]
Orange set to finally merge with T-Mobile February 22, 2010 ORANGE and T-Mobile look set to become the UK’s biggest network after their long anticipated merger received the thumbs up from Brussels. A drawn-out investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) looked likely but a string of concessions appear to have smoothed the way for the merger to go ahead as early as this [...]
Bharti will sign letter of intent over Zain deal February 22, 2010 Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain and India’s Bharti Airtel are expected to sign a letter of intent for their $9bn (£5.8bn) African assets deal this week. The letter will include the official offer and the schedule of payment. Bharti is in exclusive talks until 25 March to buy Zain’s African business, excluding Morocco and Sudan. It [...]
KPMG: Public services to require radical changes February 22, 2010 The delivery of public services must be redefined according to a study compiled by accountancy firm KPMG. Recommendations contained within the report suggests that UK public sector companies need to go through a raft of radical changes to successfully redefine their role. “At the moment there is a lot of focus on short-term measures to [...]
Ethical site for pensions is launched February 22, 2010 A new website has been established to allow trustees to lobby fund managers over how their pensions are invested. The scheme, set up by FairPensions and backed by the Co-operative and Unison, hopes to sway upcoming shareholder votes by BP and Shell over the development of environmentally damaging oil sands fields. FairPensions hopes reaching out [...]
Google hacker tracked down February 22, 2010 The US claims to have identified the Chinese hacker responsible for the state sponsored attacks on Google and other firms. Analysts say the code, which exploited holes in Internet Explorer, came from a freelance security consultant. The news follows revelations that the spyware was launched from within educational institutions in China with close links to [...]
Hilton close to new debt deal February 22, 2010 Hotel giant Hilton is close to finalising a deal that would cut its debt by $4bn (£2.6bn). Private equity vehicle would inject around $800m into the chain by buying back part of the debt at a reduced rate and pushing back some maturity dates. Blackstone bought Hilton at the height of the buyout boom for [...]
Candys set to lose US deal February 22, 2010 THE Candy brothers have been dealt a fresh blow as their plans to develop luxury apartments in the Beverley Hills district of Los Angeles are set to be scrapped later this week. The eight-acre site was to be turned into 235 apartments, shops and restaurants. Instead it will be sold at auction on Thursday after [...]
