… while China’s Alibaba plans to buy back its 40 per cent stake October 10, 2011 China’s Alibaba Group has held talks with state-owned investment company Temasek over buying back the 40 per cent stake in itself held by Yahoo. Alibaba – a huge success story in China – could even bid for the whole of Yahoo, allowing it to push into the US. Jack Ma, the chief executive of Alibaba, [...]
Chaos at LMS as closure of fund agreed October 10, 2011 THE WIND-DOWN of troubled private equity fund LMS Capital could take more than three years after the failure of efforts to resolve a dispute between chairman Robert Rayne and a group of independent directors. The group of non-execs, led by John Barnsley, yesterday called on Lord Max Rayne’s son to resign, just weeks after he [...]
Bank fees from private equity at 14-year low October 10, 2011 UK investment banks saw their fees from arranging private equity buyouts shrink dramatically in the past three months to the lowest level since 1997, data yesterday showed. The UK slipped to fourth place in Europe for buyout-related fees in the third quarter from first place a year ago, claiming only a 9.6 per cent share [...]
A Tale of TWO PAPERS: How to Fix the euro and erase the fixings October 10, 2011 DRAWING A BLANK ON EURO SOLUTION All hail a new experiment in open-sourced journalism, kicked off yesterday by the Guardian. The paper, edited by Alan Rusbridger (pictured) has generously opened up its daily news list for feedback from readers throughout the day, detailing the gist of most of the stories vying for space in its [...]
Colfax stalls Charter offer for one week October 10, 2011 ENGINEERING group Charter International had to delay giving shareholders the full details of the offer from US buyer Colfax for another week, it said yesterday. Charter’s board was due to publish the full scheme of arrangement for the takeover yesterday but it asked the Takeover Panel to grant it another week’s grace as it finalises [...]
Urenco might best be privatised through an IPO October 10, 2011 WITH the transactional markets still deathly quiet, it’s tempting to think of investment bankers sitting around twiddling their thumbs or frequenting their gyms rather more than usual. But there’s still plenty of speculative work going on, and some less speculative work, as well as the odd IPO being planned, such as that of Polymetal I [...]
Jardine Lloyd Thompson snaps up Chilean broker October 10, 2011 INSURANCE broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson paid £10m in cash for a controlling stake in Chile’s number four broker yesterday as it completed the deal announced in June. JLT said it had gained control of broker Orbital Corredores de Seguros after completing the purchase of a 50.1 per cent stake in Alta, its parent company. Alta [...]
YouGov profit surges as its US unit grows October 10, 2011 YouGov saw its full year profits soar as key acquisitions hit the ground running. The online market research company saw its adjusted pre-tax profit rise 43 per cent to £5.8m, boosted by a strong performance in the US, which now represents its largest market. Revenue there rose 230 per cent after the integration of Harrison [...]
iPhone 4S breaks pre-order records with 1m on first day October 10, 2011 THE iPhone 4S has broken Apple’s previous records for pre-orders, clocking up more than 1m in a single day. The handset, which received a muted reaction on its launch last week, surpassed its previous one-day record of 600,000 sales for last year’s iPhone 4. One company alone – AT&T – sold 200,000 contracts for the [...]
Three says it will be hit hard by Ofcom’s delay of mobile auction October 10, 2011 Network operator Three has said Ofcom’s decision to delay the mobile spectrum auction, which will eventually allow faster mobile data use, will hit its customers and give its larger rivals an unfair advantage. The network said the delay until the end of next year widens the “massive competitive and commercial imbalance” it suffers from. It [...]
