City grandee Michael Spencer tables bid for Naked wine dealer Lay & Wheeler August 14, 2019 City bigwig Michael Spencer is said to have tabled a bid for Lay & Wheeler (L&W), a fine wine merchant set to be sold by Naked Wines. BI Wine & Spirits, which is chaired and part-owned by Spencer, is among interested buyers circling the luxury merchant, Sky News reported. Read more: Naked Wines hopes US [...]
Grant Shapps questions whether Heathrow third runway plan ‘stacks up’ August 14, 2019 Transport secretary Grant Shapps has cast doubt over the Heathrow third runway after he questioned whether the £14bn plan “stacks up”. Shapps, who replaced Chris Grayling when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister last month, said that while parliament had voted in favour of the third runway, there were “questions about whether the whole plan stacks [...]
Lion Air ‘urgently’ needs more Boeing 737 Max jets to support growth August 14, 2019 Indonesian airline Lion Air “urgently requires” more Boeing 737 Max jets, after two crashes involving the model – one of which was a Lion Air jet – left the entire global fleet grounded in March. The airline’s co-founder, Rusdi Kirana, told Reuters that once regulators allowed the plane back in the skies, it needed more [...]
Woodford to offload stake in Push Doctor-backer ADV to Legal & General August 13, 2019 Beleaguered fund manager Neil Woodford is set to offload his firm’s stake in Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV), which has backed startups including GP on-demand service Push Doctor. Woodford Investment Management is expected to strike a deal this week to sell its 40 per cent stake in ADV to fellow shareholder Legal & General, Sky News [...]
The wings of the Red Arrows are elevating UK trade interests across North America August 13, 2019 IT IS more than a decade since the unique sight of the Red Arrows – Britain airborne in formation – was last seen in the skies of the United States Yesterday, they took to the skies in Canada at the Gatineau Airshow, marking the beginning of an 11-week tour of North America, which includes visits [...]
Crunch time: Kettle Foods poised for takeover by Irish group Valeo August 12, 2019 The owner of high-end crisp brand Kettle Chips is set to be swallowed up by Irish food group Valeo as the two companies near an agreement in takeover talks. Valeo Foods, which owns brands including Rowse Honey and Barratt confectionery, is in advanced talks to buy Kettle Foods’s operations in the UK and Ireland, Sky [...]
By trolling Anthony Scaramucci, Trump has crossed a line August 12, 2019 When I woke up on Sunday, like a lot of entrepreneurs and people who work in the media, I reached for my smartphone to check Twitter (Mrs B was still asleep; I am an early riser). One story that caught my eye straight away was President Trump – where would Twitter be without him, or [...]
Southeastern among franchises placed on public takeover watch list August 11, 2019 The Southeastern franchise is one of six that could go the way of LNER and be taken over by the government as sources warned there was little time for a new operator to be appointed by April next year. The bidding competition for the Southeastern franchise, which runs services between London, Kent and parts of [...]
British Steel: Turkish military pension fund ‘planning nearly £1bn investment’ August 11, 2019 The Turkish military pension fund which hopes to buy stricken industrial firm British Steel is said to be gearing up to invest nearly £1bn in the company. Ataer Holding is a front runner out of a handful of potential buyers still being considered by the government’s Official Receiver (OR), which also includes industrial conglomerate Liberty [...]
SSE in talks to sell energy retail business to Ovo Energy August 11, 2019 Energy giant SSE is weighing up whether to hive off its 5.7m-customer energy retail business to independent supplier Ovo Energy, in a deal believed to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. SSE’s energy services arm supplies electricity and gas to households across the UK. It also does maintenance work such as boiler repairs, meter-reading [...]