Sky recruits Lazard bank advisers to explore mobile push as BT confirms takeover talks with O2 and EE December 1, 2014 Sky has appointed advisers, including investment bank Lazard, to examine its UK mobile options, City A.M. understands. The move, first reported by the Financial Times, comes as the telecoms sector has lit up with deal talk over the past week since BT confirmed its takeover talks with O2 and EE to enter the mobile [...]
Pret a Manger-owner Bridgepoint to buy Zizzi and Ask for £250m December 1, 2014 Private equity giant Cinven has agreed to sell its portfolio of Ask Italian and Zizzi restaurants to Pret a Manger-owner Bridgepoint for £250m. The deal marks Cinven’s exit from the Gondola Group after it sold both its Pizza Express and Byron restaurant chains over the past 18 months for around £1bn combined. Cinven took the [...]
Vesuvius pulls out of bidding for Morgan Advanced after rejection December 1, 2014 Morgan Advanced Materials, formerly Morgan Crucible, has rejected an all-share takeover proposal from engineering group Vesuvius that it said would have exposed its shareholders to the lower margin iron and steel sector. Shares of Morgan, which makes insulation products used in medical instruments and fire protection systems, rose 2.95 per cent to 300.4p yesterday to [...]
Altice moving into Portugal November 30, 2014 FRENCH multinational cable and telecoms group Altice has agreed to buy the Portuguese operations of Brazil’s Grupo Oi for about €7.4bn (£5.8bn), it said last night. “Altice announces that it has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Oi to agree the purchase of the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom,” said Altice. Altice beat out a [...]
Vodafone eyes up Tesco’s video service Blinkbox November 30, 2014 Vodafone is eyeing up Tesco’s video streaming service Blinkbox following its chief executive’s comments that the firm intends to push into home broadband and TV in the UK next year. While the mobile operator is looking at Blinkbox, along with a number of other interested parties, it is “nowhere near final terms on a deal,” [...]
Cargiant’s Old Oak Common plans threaten QPR stadium expansion November 30, 2014 Cargiant, the west London-based vehicle warehouse, is teaming up with the Livingstone brothers’ London & Regional Properties group on one of London’s largest redevelopment projects. The plan to regenerate the west London Old Oak Common site with 20,000 new homes is set to clash with rival plans from Queens Park Rangers (QPR) football club chairman [...]
Just half of Britain’s boardrooms expect the economy to improve November 30, 2014 CONFIDENCE in the economy in Britain’s boardrooms is collapsing, with a third of board members believing that global economic conditions will decline, up from just five per cent last year. Meanwhile just 45 per cent of board members expect the UK economy to improve over the next year, down from 80 per cent in December [...]
Boris eyes car-free Sundays November 30, 2014 MAYOR Boris Johnson suggested yesterday that car-free Sundays could become a fixture in London, after he cycled through a pedestrianised part of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. As part of a six-day regional tour through south-east Asia, Johnson took part in a mass cycle with new Indonesian president Joko Widodo. For the last 16 years Jakarta [...]
Software firm Sophos eyes £1bn valuation in 2015 London float November 30, 2014 COMPUTER security company Sophos, owned by private equity giant Apax Partners, is reportedly planning a London listing next year that could achieve a valuation of £1bn for the business. Sophos is close to appointing an independent adviser to run a stock market listing in the first half of 2015, according to The Sunday Times. The [...]
Most companies still unprepared to deal with whistleblower risk November 30, 2014 LESS than one in 10 managers at multinational companies says whistleblowing is currently an important issue for their firm, despite the fact that 12 per cent have blown the whistle and nearly half would consider it. The figures from law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer come in the wake of a spate of high-profile whistleblowers this [...]
