Saga dips toe into M&A waters with Destinology deal August 13, 2014 Saga, the over-50s specialist, yesterday made its first acquisition since floating earlier this year, buying a 75 per cent stake in online travel firm Destinology . The deal, believed to be worth £20m, comes in the wake of Saga’s listing on the London stock market in May. The purchase will be funded from existing [...]
Chiquita and Fyffes $1bn banana merger may be split August 11, 2014 A MERGER between two of world’s largest banana rivals Fyffes and Chiquita was thrown in doubt yesterday after new suitors weighed in with a rival $610.5m (£364m) takeover bid. Juice maker Cutrale and the Brazilian investment firm Safra announced that they have offered $13 per share in cash to Chiquita shareholders, a 29 per cent [...]
Balfour Beatty rejects Carillion merger as profits drop 53 per cent August 11, 2014 Balfour Beatty has said it had "lost confidence" in merger talks with Carillion, as the British infrastructure company separately announced today that half-year profits have dropped by over 50 per cent compared to the same period last year. The company is currently in an offer period which extends to 21 August 2014, and had [...]
Carillion and Balfour revive merger talks August 10, 2014 CARILLION and Balfour Beatty have resumed talks over a possible £3bn merger, which would create one of the UK’s largest construction firms. Negotiations broke down at the end of last month due to a dispute over Balfour’s planned sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a US engineering design business it bought in 2009. Carillion said it would [...]
Balfour Beatty and Carillion resume £3bn merger talks as clock ticks on deal August 10, 2014 Balfour Beatty and Carillion have resumed talks over a potential £3bn merger between the two construction companies, less than two weeks after they were called off because of disagreements between the firms. The Sunday Times reports the construction firms resumed contact last week and the Balfour Beatty board met on Friday to discuss the deal [...]
Ribbon cut on Dixons Carphone merger by chief Seb James August 8, 2014 Dixons Carphone chief exec Seb James and his deputy Andrew Harrison cut the ribbon on their £3.8bn mega-merger yesterday, visiting most of the seven newly branded stores with a pair of scissors. “It was quite an early start, we’ve been running around all day trying to make it to all of the stores,” James told [...]
Dixons Carphone share price falls on first day of trading after £3.6bn merger August 8, 2014 Shares in Dixons Carphone rose yesterday morning only to close down 1.8 per cent in their first formal day of trading since Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail merged to create a £3.6bn consumer electronics empire. The FTSE 250 company aims to exploit the ever-growing presence of consumer electronics in people’s lives and the so-called [...]
Recovery led to 2013 surge in legal mergers August 3, 2014 THE NUMBER of mergers in the UK’s legal sector has jumped by nearly two thirds in the past year, with more than three times as many recorded in 2013 than in 2009, according to figures released this morning. The data, produced by accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy, revealed that there were 385 mergers in the sector [...]
Balfour Beatty and Carillion share prices tumble as £3bn merger talks called off July 31, 2014 Construction firm Balfour Beatty saw its share price tumble six per cent this morning after revealing its £3bn merger talks with Carillion were over. Carillion also took a hit as shares fell five per cent. Balfour Beatty said discussions over a potential merger, news of which emerged last week, had been terminated over a disagreement [...]
Carillion bosses set to snap up top jobs after Balfour Beatty merger July 27, 2014 Carillion chairman Philip Green is expected to head up the £3bn construction giant that will be created from the company’s planned merger with flailing rival Balfour Beatty. Usually after a merger the top roles are divided, but Carillion’s chief executive Richard Howson is also set to take up the same role at the combined company, [...]