Arriva soars after foreign bid approach March 17, 2010 ARRIVA, the bus and train operator, has received a £1.4bn takeover bid from Deutsche Bahn, the German state-run transport group. Shares in the Sunderland-based company soared yesterday following the news of the 700p per share offer, rising by almost a fifth – their biggest jump for 15 years – eventually closing up 16.8 per cent at [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES RBS eyes £10bn debt buy-back as it plans balance sheet shake-up Royal Bank of Scotland is planning a vast balance sheet restructuring in an attempt to boost its capital strength and its standing with bond investors. The move could involve at least £10bn (€11bn) of the bank’s £28bn of debt being bought back [...]
Margaret Cole FSA Head of enforcement March 15, 2010 WITH polished marble floors and bright red-and-white logos, high street upstart Metro Bank will try to bring a glitzy experience to deposit taking when it opens in the summer. The first two branches in Holborn and South Kensington will open in early June, with two more in Kensington High Street and Fulham Broadway to follow [...]
DTZ on target as hopes of a recovery rise March 15, 2010 PROPERTY broker DTZ Holdings yesterday said it remains on target to meet market expectations for its full year results, anticipating £70m of cost savings for the period. Boosting hopes of recovery in the sector, DTZ reported better levels of activity in its key markets of London and Paris and increased activity in the investment and [...]
Liberty sells flagship store March 15, 2010 Upmarket British retailer Liberty is selling its distinctive mock Tudor department store building in London’s West End for £41.5m to pay off debt, it said yesterday. The 135-year-old firm, 68-per cent owned by property group MWB Holdings, said it had exchanged contracts to sell the freehold interest in the 125,000-square-foot store to Sirosa Liberty, a [...]
High street sales bounce back after sterling falls March 14, 2010 RETAIL sales in London rebounded in February with a like-for-like surge of almost ten per cent fuelled by a drop in the value of sterling. The rise came after a dismal start to the year as freezing conditions kept shoppers at home. Across the UK sales were only up an average of 2.2 per cent [...]
Acquisitions are back on the agenda this year March 14, 2010 M&A teams in investment banks all over London must be salivating at the prospect of a wave of new deals. Acquisitions are back on the agenda. In many ways it makes sense. Last year many companies re-trenched, rebuilt their balance sheets and hoped for the best. They have been hoarding cash but now wonder if [...]
City mourns Sir Brian Pitman March 11, 2010 SIR Brian Pitman, one of the most respected bankers of his generation, has died aged 78. Pitman, who was latterly chairman of Virgin Money, led Lloyds Bank for 18 years before retiring almost a decade ago. In his time as chief executive and then chairman of Lloyds, Pitman built the bank from a £1bn business [...]
Liberty unveils demerger as profits tumble March 9, 2010 LIBERTY International will split its retail and commercial property businesses in a bid to “achieve greater value for shareholders.” The shopping centres arm of the business will become a real estate investment trust (REIT) called Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) with a market cap of around £2bn. And its London based portfolio will become Capital & [...]
Alternative exchanges give traders an edge March 8, 2010 ANOTHER shake-up of London’s trading landscape is underway after the London Stock Exchange (LSE) announced on Monday that it would sell 9 per cent of Turquoise, its European trading facility, to three investment banks. Barclays, JP Morgan Cazenove and Nomura each bought a 3 per cent stake of Turquoise for £1m. The multiple owners of [...]