Moonpig walks off with M&A prize after its sale to Photobox June 7, 2012 The Capitalist can sense a congratulations card coming on. Moonpig scored a triumph at the recent Vitesse Media M&A awards as its sale qualified it for the Large Company Deal of the Year. The online greetings card business won the award after its £120m sale to Photobox. While the judging panel commended company founder Nick [...]
Chelsea lose in £400m battle for Battersea June 7, 2012 HE MAY have earned a reputation for gazumping rivals in the football transfer market, but this time billionaire Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is the one who has been outbid. Abramovich had hoped to move the recent Champions League winners across the Thames to Battersea Power Station but yesterday saw his plans effectively sunk by a [...]
Europe hits Club Med bookings June 7, 2012 French holiday firm Club Mediterranee has said European bookings fell in the past four weeks and warned profits at its resorts would miss expectations this year as the region’s debt crisis meant fewer consumers planned holidays. Bookings over the past four weeks fell 2.7 per cent in Europe, but rose 1.5 per cent in America [...]
Barclays invests in Namibia June 7, 2012 Barclays plans to buy a 49.9 per cent stake in Namibia’s second-largest lender by assets, Bank Windhoek, the country’s central bank said yesterday, in a deal that gives the British lender a presence in the south-western African country. The value of the potential deal had not been determined as Barclays was yet to start talks [...]
EU waits for Google response June 7, 2012 Google has yet to offer EU regulators concessions to address concerns it may have abused its market dominance, the EU’s antitrust chief said yesterday. Nearly three weeks ago, competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia offered Google a chance to settle the probe and avoid a fine that could reach up to 10 per cent of the company’s [...]
Network Rail increases profit but debts soar June 7, 2012 NETWORK RAIL saw profits after tax almost double in the year to the end of March, but debt soared by £2.2bn after major projects such as the Thameslink programme put pressure on funds. The company, which owns most of Britain’s rail network infrastructure, said that profit after tax rose to £754m in the period from [...]
Airline traffic growth is knocked off course by Eurozone worries June 7, 2012 IAG, the parent firm of British Airways and Iberia, has been hit by Spain’s economic woes in the last month, undermining the strength in its long-haul London routes. IAG said yesterday that its traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose 6.6 per cent last month versus May 2011, while passenger load factor – a measure [...]
Bwin.Party executive pay deal dodges the shareholder spring June 7, 2012 BWIN.PARTY has survived its annual general meeting almost unscathed by the recent shareholder spring. Less than eight per cent of shareholders yesterday voted against the gambling firm’s remuneration report, which was backed by a majority of 92.36 per cent. This is a significantly better result than the average shareholder dissent so far this year, more in [...]
Russia’s biggest lender posts 13 per cent jump in earnings June 7, 2012 RUSSIA’S biggest bank, Sberbank, said yesterday that its net profit grew 13.1 per cent for the first five months of the year, driven by growth in loans to corporate and retail clients. The figures reported are under Russian accounting standards, which have various differences to international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in the way they account [...]
Synergy Health bets on the US with $25m SRI Surgical takeover June 7, 2012 SYNERGY Health said yesterday it would buy US based SRI Surgical Express to increase its presence in the world’s largest healthcare market and expand its reach out of the struggling UK and European economies. Synergy, a healthcare services provider, said it would pay $3.70 per SRI share, a two per cent discount to SRI’s closing [...]
