Mike Ashley and Rangers board draw fan protests over £10m Ibrox loan offer January 17, 2015 The board of Rangers football club and shareholder Mike Ashley have drawn the ire of football fans over a potential £10m loan to the struggling Scottish club. Hundreds of Rangers fans gathered at the Ibrox Stadium last night to protest against the offer made my the Sports Direct and Newcastle United owner who wants the [...]
Retail investors stage a comeback – Editor’s Letter January 12, 2015 After a year of being virtually ignored by those organising fund-raisings on the London stock market, the retail investor is heading back to the stock market. As we report today, the tool hiring specialist HSS intends allocating a tranche of its shares in its forthcoming flotation to retail investors. This follows Trainline.com’s decision to do [...]
HSS Hire IPO: Equipment rental company tools up for float with retail offer January 12, 2015 The equipment hire firm is banking on UK economic growth. Equipment rental company HSS Hire yesterday started the engine on a £103m float aimed at selling a quarter of the company’s stake and reducing its £200m debt pile. The listing, like that of the Trainline.com, announced last week, will include a retail offering to [...]
Profits soar at deals specialist STJ Advisors January 11, 2015 Profits more than tripled at equity dealmaking firm STJ Advisors in 2013-14, the firm’s financial reports show. Since then it has benefited from the boom in the initial public offerings (IPO) market over 2014. STJ brought in £9.8m in revenues last financial year, up from £3.9m in 2012-13. That resulted in profits of £7.03m, up [...]
Pietersen sacking circus could all have been avoided, insists Broad January 11, 2015 ENGLAND bowler Stuart Broad has queried the merits of sacking maverick batsman Kevin Pietersen from international cricket and insists the subsequent furore could have been avoided if the saga had been handled better. Pietersen has been discarded by England since his career was brought to an enforced halt last February following last winter’s disastrous Ashes [...]
Rangers: A Phoenix Suns fan explains why Robert Sarver is “better than most” sports team owners January 8, 2015 Robert Sarver, the American financier and owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball franchise, is firmly set on a takeover of Rangers. The 53-year-old has now made two attempts to buy the Scottish football giant, after upping his original £18m bid by £2m as well as offering £6.5m as a short-term loan for emergency [...]
Intel pledges $300m investment towards diversity in technology following GamerGate criticism January 7, 2015 After getting caught up in the GamerGate saga last year, Intel will invest $300m (£198.28m) into an initiative to improve diversity in the technology and gaming industries. Chief executive Brian Krzanich said the company will actively hire more women and under-represented minorities in his keynote address at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las [...]
The fictional town of Trumpton enjoys Ukip’s website failure January 6, 2015 The lolz were mighty yesterday when it was revealed that Ukip’s website was down. At first, political satire site Guido Fawkes suggested Ukip hadn’t paid its bill – as Kippers were faced with a holding page from domain site 123-Reg when trying to access their party’s web page. Who was in charge of paying that?! [...]
Chinese tycoon Guo Guangchang wins battle to buy Club Med January 4, 2015 Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang is set to buy French holiday resorts firm Club Med in a deal worth over €900m (£704m) after winning a long-running bidding war against Italian rival Andrea Bonomi, it was revealed yesterday. Billionaire Bonomi conceded defeat late on Friday. Guangchang’s conglomerate Fosun International had raised its bid for the holiday company [...]
The four most shocking things that happened in 2014 December 23, 2014 1. THE RUSSIA SAGA (Source: Getty) Russia flexed its muscles at the beginning of the year, taking the opportunity during the uprising in Ukraine to plant pro-Putin flags in the Crimea region, triggering a string of catastrophic events to unfold. And it’s likely we’re far from seeing the final act of this epic Russian novel play [...]