Why Yahoo shares are jumping on Alibaba market debut March 17, 2014 Investors are proving just how excited they are about the news that Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, is heading for a market debut. Yahoo shares rose over four per cent at the opening bell, and leapt almost six per cent in pre-market trading today. That’s no surprise: Yahoo owns a 24 per cent stake in [...]
Alibaba heading to New York for market debut March 17, 2014 CHINESE e-commerce giant Alibaba said yesterday that it has decided to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, ending months of speculation that the firm would try to list in Hong Kong. The flotation could be the biggest since Facebook in 2012, with analysts estimating that Alibaba has a value of at least [...]
FTSE chairman Gareth Davis tells us why he’s in no rush to retire March 17, 2014 Serial chairman and former tobacco boss Gareth Davis tells Elizabeth Fournier how he juggles three FTSE-listed firms THE ROLE of a company chairman is a tricky one. As head of the board, a good chair is expected to lead from the front; hiring, firing and managing its members, while keeping one eye on governance and [...]
London tech stars to share £1.4bn from King.com float March 12, 2014 KING Digital Entertainment, the British firm behind hit mobile game Candy Crush Saga, expects to reach a $7.6bn (£4.5bn) valuation when it lists on the New York Stock Exchange this month, making its senior staff overnight multimillionaires. The company’s 22.2m shares are set to be priced between $21 and $24, according to an updated filing [...]
Fyffes to merge with Chiquita in appealing deal March 10, 2014 TWO OF the world’s largest banana rivals Fyffes and Chiquita unveiled a merger yesterday to create a $1bn (£600m) banana behemoth. US-based Chiquita and Irish-based Fyffes will come together in an all stock deal, creating a new $1.1bn company called ChiquitaFyffes listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The deal, which still requires approval from [...]
The world’s biggest banana company: Fyffes and Chiquita to merge March 10, 2014 Some banana news this morning. Fyffes and Chiquita, two of the world’s largest banana companies, have announced they’re combining. Fyffes shares have rocketed an astonishing 26 per cent on the news. Source: Google The company will be named ChiquitaFyffes (best not to attempt that with a mouthful of banana), and will operate in [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 10 March 2014 March 10, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Spotify’s credit line hints at IPO Spotify has secured a $200m credit facility from lenders including Morgan Stanley, bringing the Swedish music company a step closer to a potential initial public offering in the US, according to people close to the deal. The Stockholm start-up, which last year sold equity that implied a [...]
Just-Eat dials up bid to debut on growth market February 23, 2014 FAST food site Just-Eat is sharpening plans to list on the new high-growth segment (HGS) of London’s main stock market, making it the first company to join the fledgling platform if it pulls the trigger on the plans. The company’s backers are understood to be examining a proposal to offload just 10 per cent of [...]
Q and A: High growth segment February 23, 2014 Q What’s the High Growth Segment? A It’s an attempt by the London Stock Exchange to keep British technology firms in the country, rather than waving off the UK’s next answer to Google as it takes the well-trodden path to the Nasdaq or NYSE once it becomes big enough to list. Q What makes it [...]
The West has killed its entrepreneurs and replaced them with bureaucrats February 23, 2014 IF WESTERN economies have lost considerable ground to emerging powers over the last two decades, it is not simply because we lack the cheap labour of China and India or the natural resources of Russia and Brazil. It is because we have killed our own entrepreneurs at a time when our competitors made business creators [...]