Private company M&A deals plunge as confidence and bank lending dries up November 2, 2009 MERGERS and acquisitions among private companies in the UK plunged 65 per cent over the past year as funding from the banks dried up and firms entrenched themselves for the recession, new research has shown. M&A activity among unlisted firms fell to £6.8bn in the year to July, down from £19.5bn the previous year, according [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 2, 2009 Close Brothers Corporate FinanceThe independent corporate finance advisory firm has appointed Will Thompson to head up its support services sector team. Thompson joined the firm in March this year to lead the European healthcare services team, having previously been at Morgan Stanley. He has also worked at Lazard and Barings. He has advised on numerous [...]
Hard work will define the TwentyFirst century November 2, 2009 THIS WEEK I spoke at Deutsche Telekom’s Innovation Day in Berlin, celebrating the fifth year anniversary of its Innovation Labs. The theme was Connected Life and Work, and there were a lot of interesting discussions about work-life imbalance in the future. One of the speakers said that the rest of society would learn from workaholics [...]
Dubai oil firm buys Dragon in $2bn deal November 2, 2009 DUBAI’S state-owned oil refiner is buying oil explorer Dragon Oil for $1.9bn (£1.2bn) as the emirate seeks a safe haven from the recession-hit property market. The Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) agreed to pay 455p a share for the 48 per cent of Dragon it did not already own, valuing the Turkmenistan-focused oil firm at [...]
Orange to sell iPhone next week November 2, 2009 ORANGE said yesterday that it will start selling the Apple iPhone from 10 November, ending O2’s exclusive carriage deal in the UK. But there was no sign of the price war that consumers had anticipated, with France Telecom’s Orange setting similar tariffs and contract structures to O2. The network operator will provide the sought-after 3GS [...]
Dutch government buys secret bank data as it begins clampdown on tax November 2, 2009 THE Dutch government has said it has received a list of hundreds of people who have evaded taxes with secret accounts at banks across Europe, and it plans to pay off the informant who slipped it the information. The deal echoes an early 2008 case in Germany, where the government purchased data on tax evaders [...]
Heathrow estate sold for 16.2m November 2, 2009 The Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust, managed by Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, yesterday completed the disposal of Mereside Park to Royal London Asset Management for a capital value of £16.2m reflecting a Net Initial Yield of 6.78 per cent. The fully let Heathrow estate, originally developed by BAA Lynton and funded by Scottish Windows in [...]
Starbucks partners up with RED November 2, 2009 Starbucks UK yesterday announced a new partnership with RED to generate a contribution to the global fund to help support AIDS programs in Africa. Every time a customer pays with a registered Starbucks RED card, the coffee chain will make a 5p contribution to the Global fund. Since RED’s launch three years ago, partnerships and [...]
London to maintain hedgie lead November 2, 2009 London will retain its position as Europe’s hedge fund capital due to its leading position on investor protection and regulation, due diligence specialist Sigma Partnership said yesterday. The group also said fear of an exodus of fund managers from the UK due to the tax burden was exaggerated, and that there is a reluctance from [...]
Ryanair issues threat to Boeing over planes November 2, 2009 RYANAIR, the European budget airline run by colourful Michael O’Leary, signalled a U-turn in its growth plans yesterday, saying it might stop expanding if it fails to negotiate a better deal with Boeing on new aircraft. The carrier, which has been following an aggressive growth-plan despite the slump, is talking to the US planemaker about [...]
