Tui Travel and German parent in merger talks January 16, 2013 TUI TRAVEL is in talks to merge with its German parent Tui AG, it announced yesterday, sending its shares up four per cent. However, analysts have raised concerns that the nil-premium merger will not be enough to entice Tui’s UK shareholders. FTSE 100-listed Tui Travel, the group behind holiday companies Thomson and First Choice, said [...]
Russian freight train firm looks for London IPO January 15, 2013 FREIGHT train operator NefteTransService (NTS) is set to become the first Russian firm to join the London stock market this year. NTS Holding announced its intention to float on the main market yesterday, and a source said the firm expects to raise up to $500m (£311m) for 25 per cent of its global depository receipts. [...]
The future of oil: It’s change or be changed for the largest corporates January 13, 2013 PRESSURES are building on the world’s largest quoted oil firms. Environmental disasters and the economic downturn have taken their toll, but more profound trends are undermining traditional business models in the industry. And it won’t be enough to tinker around the edges. The response must be as radical as that that followed the oil company [...]
Hearst profits hit by deal January 8, 2013 THE OWNER of Cosmopolitan and Esquire magazines, Hearst, saw profits more than halve in 2011 in the UK after its £76.6m acquisition of Hachette Filipacchi’s British business. Hachette Filipacchi’s UK arm, which publishes magazines including Elle, was bought by the US-based publisher alongside the US, Russian and Ukrainian businesses in 2011, although the price of the [...]
Best of the Brokers January 8, 2013 TUI TRAVEL Morgan Stanley yesterday downgraded the travel company from “equal weight” to “underweight” with a target price of 250p, expecting seasonal losses to be higher due to an accounting change and poor cash flow. However, the analyst still sees Tui Travel as a “well-managed business, with strong market shares in European tour operating” that [...]
Actor Depardieu meets Putin and picks up Russian passport January 7, 2013 FRENCH film star Gerard Depardieu received a hug from President Vladimir Putin and a new Russian passport yesterday after abandoning his homeland to avoid a new tax rate for millionaires. Putin signed a decree on Thursday granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu, who has fumed over French President Francois Hollande’s plan to impose a 75 per [...]
Russian offer for Depardieu January 3, 2013 ACTOR Gerard Depardieu has been granted Russian citizenship after vowing to avoid the new top earners’ tax rate planned by French President Francois Hollande. Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to the “Cyrano de Bergerac” star. Depardieu, 63, bought a house in Belgium last year to avoid the mooted French tax rate, which would [...]
Which Russian oligarch would live in a giant house like this? January 3, 2013 IT has been hard to avoid the stories about the making of Rivendell, the fictional Hobbit colony out in New Zealand. But here is a current construction that leaves the film village looking elf-like in comparison. Russian oligarch and chairman of Evraz, Alexander Abramov, is the owner of New Zealand’s biggest, most expensive new residential [...]
You would be mad to miss this January 3, 2013 FILM Iron Man 3 In cinemas 26 April While Iron Man 2 was met with mixed reviews, director Jon Favreau made a big comeback with The Avengers last year, which quickly became the highest grossing comic book film of all time. Expectations for the third installment of Iron Man, then, are high and so far [...]
Adebayor could leave club this month, admits Spurs manager January 1, 2013 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 vs READING 1 TOTTENHAM manager Andre Villas-Boas fears he will lose Emmanuel Adebayor this month to the Africa Cup of Nations, after the Togo striker ended his scoring drought in yesterday’s victory over Reading. Defender Michael Dawson and midfielder Clint Dempsey also netted as Spurs came from behind to record their seventh [...]