Rio Tinto gets ready to offer £2.5bn to take over Australia’s Riversdale Mining December 22, 2010 MINING group Rio Tinto could announce its A$3.8bn (£2.5bn) offer for Riversdale Mining today, before time runs out on Riversdale’s trading suspension on the Australian stock exchange. Talks between the two companies were ongoing yesterday, with Rio understood to be offering around A$16 a share for Mozambique-focused Riversdale. Riversdale could instead announce a longer suspension [...]
Usmanov hints at £700m Arsenal offer December 21, 2010 ARSENAL’S second largest shareholder Alisher Usmanov has reignited the battle for ownership at Emirates Stadium by declaring his intention to move to the brink of launching a formal £700m takeover offer. Russian billionaire Usmanov already owns almost 27 per cent of the Premier League outfit, but wants to increase that to 29.9 per cent – [...]
The City is back but under new management December 21, 2010 BRITAIN’S financial landscape has been transformed since we last shone a light on the City’s most powerful figures two years ago. The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred 2011 list ranks the most influential figures in UK finance as we head into the new year. It should be no surprise that it is very different from 2009. [...]
Currency wars and rate hikes: another year in emerging FX December 21, 2010 CHEAP money and attractive returns have seen investors plough their money into emerging market currencies. Yet hot money inflows have forced currency appreciation despite authorities’ best efforts at capital controls and other methods of weakening their exchange rates. Thanks to highly accommodative monetary policy in the West and efforts to remain competitive among the emerging [...]
Russia tycoon creates new potash giant December 20, 2010 A RUSSIAN billionaire moved yesterday to create the world’s second-largest potash miner by uniting Russia’s top two producers, Uralkali and Silvinit, in a $1.4bn (£900m) deal. Uralkali, which like Silvinit is effectively controlled by Russian mining-to-banking tycoon Suleiman Kerimov, offered to buy rival Silvinit for cash and shares. Uralkali’s offer for 20 per cent of [...]
Algeria mulls offer for BP assets December 19, 2010 ALGERIA is considering snapping up assets oil giant BP wants to sell in the country, before it allows another firm to buy them. Russian oil company TNK-BP wants to buy BP’s assets in Algeria, which include stakes in two major gas-producing fields, but Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach has the right of first refusal. BP’s [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 19, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES APAX PLANS €11BN FUND Apax Partners aims to cement its position as Europe’s biggest private equity group next year by raising a new €11bn-plus ($14.5bn) fund – the biggest buy-out fundraising since the start of the credit crisis. Led by Martin Halusa, who replaced Sir Ronald Cohen as head of Apax six years [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES SIENNA MILLER CLAIMS REIGNITE HACKING ROW Lawyers representing the actress Sienna Miller have alleged that a senior executive at the News of the World ordered a private detective to hack into her mobile phone voicemail account, reigniting a controversy over journalistic practices at the tabloid Sunday newspaper. GOLDMAN’S SZE TO LEAVE FOR HEDGE [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 13, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES US REGULATOR WIDENS STANFORD PROBE TO BROKERS US securities regulators have broadened their investigation into the alleged $8bn Ponzi scheme run by Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire, to include brokerage executives who invested their clients’ money in Stanford International Bank products. JPMORGAN CUTS BACK ON US SILVER FUTURES JPMorgan has quietly reduced a [...]
Journey into the mighty history of Samarkand December 12, 2010 AROUND Tashkent airport, giant hoardings proclaimed in English: “Uzbekistan Airways Wish You Good Luck”. It might have been more unsettling to read that message driving into Heathrow before our departure. In fact, we’d had an incident-free flight on Uzbekistan Airways to Uzbekistan’s capital. Tashkent sounds endlessly exotic but isn’t really. Much was destroyed by a [...]