Poundland agrees to probe by authorities into 99p Stores deal May 6, 2015 POUNDLAND said yesterday it has agreed to proceed with a full-scale investigation by the competition watchdog over its proposed £55m tie-up with 99p Stores. The bargain chain said last month that it was considering whether to continue to pursue the deal or walk away after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raise concerns over 92 [...]
Poundland brings forward competition probe into 99p Stores deal May 6, 2015 Bargain store Poundland has bought forward a competition probe into its offer to buy rival 99p Stores for £55m. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) previously said the tie-up could create "a realistic prospect of less competition" in 80 local areas – and an additional 12 areas where they will be competitors in the near future. It said [...]
M&A activity in the UK increased 90 per cent in 2015, to highest levels since 2007 thanks to Shell’s BG deal and AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller December 9, 2015 UK M&A activity is at its highest level since 2007, up 90 per cent from last year to $516.5bn (£344.4bn), according to EY. The number of deals increased more modestly, from 2,822 to 2,932, showing that 2015 has indeed been the year of the megadeal. UK companies are seen as a particularly attractive acquisition opportunity [...]
Telecoms firm Daisy in talks with Phoenix IT May 21, 2015 TELECOMS company Daisy is in discussions with cloud IT firm Phoenix to take it over in a £180m cash deal. The bid is in conjunction with the private equity fund Toscafund, which helped Daisy de-list and go private in August last year. Phoenix said it “is in advanced discussions” with Daisy and Toscafund, at a [...]
Australia’s Wesfarmers in advanced talks to buy Home Retail Group’s Homebase for £340m January 13, 2016 Home Retail Group last night signalled the break-up of its retail empire after revealing that it is in advanced talks to sell Homebase to one of Australia’s biggest listed companies for £340m. The Perth-based Wesfarmers, which operates department stores and supermarkets as well as coal production facilities, began talks with Home Retail in September before [...]
Stock exchange reshuffle puts Inmarsat in FTSE 100 June 2, 2015 Troubled banknote printer De La Rue is likely to tumble out of the FTSE 250 less than a week after it posted a £20m decline in profits during the last financial year. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) yesterday announced several potential changes to its indices, with supermarket group Morrisons expected to move from the [...]
Addison Lee is taking the fight against Uber to the Big Apple February 7, 2016 To an outsider Addison Lee might look like a company that’s losing momentum. Disruptive rival Uber has burst on to the scene, and defied recent attempts (in the UK, at least) to use the strong arm of regulators to clip its wings. But Addison Lee insists that it had a great Christmas, and the minicab giant [...]
Mark Zuckerberg is selling £1.4bn Facebook stake December 2, 2015 Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is to sell 41.4m of his shares in the company, worth around $2.3bn (£1.4bn). That's part of an offering of 70m Class A common shares, according to a SEC filing. We expect that the majority of the net proceeds Mr. Zuckerberg will receive upon such sale will be used to [...]
FTSE 100 index closes lower as miners and banks slide February 9, 2016 The FTSE 100 index extended its losses on Tuesday after having traded with some volatility over the course of the day. The UK's blue chip index fell 0.88 per cent to 5,632.19 points as banks and miners continued to tumble. “It’s becoming a ‘get yer hard hat on’ situation with bank stocks coming down left and right [...]
Hyperloop: Elon Musk’s crazy transport system just came a step closer to its 2020 launch goal as it’s about to be tested in Nevada December 9, 2015 Hyperloop, the ambitious (some may say crazy) project to build a high speed transport system that would shoot people from A to B in pods travelling almost at the speed of sound, will begin testing its technology as soon as spring 2016. The brainchild of Tesla and Space X entrepreneur Elon Musk, work will begin on testing [...]