Hands tied to deal October 28, 2005 Guy Hands has finally taken control of East Surrey Holdings, the utility company he was forced to purchase by the Takeover Panel. Hands’s Terra Firm fund made a 525p-a-share offer for Northern Ireland gas distributor East Surrey in April, but then tried to get out of the deal when the country’s gas regulator said it [...]
Debt crisis looms as home repossessions rise October 27, 2005 Fears that Britain is plunging towards a bad debt crisis were heightened yesterday as figures suggested proceedings to repossess homes have risen by 55 per cent. Actions begun by lenders rose to 29,991 in the three months to the end of September from 19,359 last year. There has been a 66 per cent rise in [...]
The new drug habits October 21, 2005 Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to biotechnology ventures to help them rescue their flagging profits. Investors are looking at biotechnology companies to reinvigorate a moribund drug industry in a way the big pharmaceutical giants have failed to do over the last two years. Observers say companies such as America’s Pfizer or Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, known as [...]
Partygaming winners are the founders October 17, 2005 PartyGaming, the online poker company, reveals its hand on Friday and investors in this summer’s flotation will be able to see the cause of their losses. The company came to market on the back of rapid growth: this week it will reveal that growth has ground to a halt. Do not compare this week’s revenue [...]
Advisers in all night Refco talks October 17, 2005 Refco held a second day of weekend meetings yesterday as a group of about 50 advisers gathered in New York in an effort to salvage the disgraced group’s regulated futures brokerage arm and determine the fate of its ailing operations. The advisers had begun emergency meetings on Saturday that stretched late into the night to [...]