FIRMS NEED NEW WAYS TO RAISE CASH February 15, 2010 IT has not been good news of late for UK IPOs. First the US travel group Travelport pulled its £1.2bn London flotation after failing to win investors’ support in turbulent markets. The next day, Madame Tussaud’s operator Merlin Entertainment put its £2bn flotation on hold, with severe market volatility blamed for the delay. Fashion retailer [...]
A DERIVATIVE THAT covers all the bases January 20, 2010 ALEXANDRE HOUPERT HEAD OF LISTED PRODUCTS, NORTHERN EUROPE, SOCIETE GENERALE THERE was a time when people were frightened to enter into investments. The financial crisis meant that many investors took a painful hit, and elected to steer clear of the markets. But 18 months on, and investors are starting to come back. As before, many [...]
Betfair hires banks to plan autumn float January 24, 2010 ONLINE gambling exchange Betfair is understood to have appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to advise on a £1.5bn flotation. The company, which is backed by Japanese lender Softbank, is thought to be examining an autumn listing which would potentially net co-founders Ed Wray and Andrew Black hundreds of millions of pounds. The news will [...]
Icap chief nets £45.4m January 11, 2010 MICHAEL Spencer, the founder and chief executive of Icap, has cut his and his family’s stake in the world’s largest inter-dealer broker, raising £45.4m. Spencer, the treasurer of the Conservative Party, sold more than half his personal stake at 440p, raising £14.6m. Separately his family firm, IPGL, also placed 7m shares at 440p each, raising [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 21, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph ITV’S NEW CHAIRMAN: UK FACES ‘NATIONAL CRISIS’ Archie Norman, the chairman of ITV, has said that the UK is facing an economic “national crisis” worse than that faced by Margaret Thatcher at the end of the 1970s. In his first interview since becoming chairman of the broadcaster, Norman also revealed [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 18, 2010 ETX Capital The financial spread betting firm has appointed John Wilson, the outgoing chief executive of the London Stock Exchange’s dark pool trading facility Baikal, as its new executive chairman. Wilson leaves following the LSE acquisition of Turquoise, having spent two years at Baikal. Meanwhile, Andrew Edwards, formerly managing director and trading director at ETX, [...]
Tullow set to get government approval on Ugandan oil deal January 18, 2010 SHARES in FTSE 100 oil explorer Tullow Oil jumped yesterday after analysts predicted the company would have little trouble persuading the Ugandan government to accept its offer to buy $1.35bn (£827m) worth of oil fields in the country from its partner Heritage Oil. The stock closed up 2.24 per cent at 1,369p on the London [...]
Pearl courts bondholders January 5, 2010 PEARL, the insurance group founded by pizza entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, has tabled a deal it hopes will resolve a dispute it has been embroiled in with its bondholders. The firm suspended interest payments on £500m of bonds last year, sparking protests from the bondholders. The clash is an obstacle to the company’s hopes to achieve [...]
Standard Chartered launches India depositary receipt sale May 25, 2010 STANDARD Chartered yesterday launched a share sale to raise up to $588m (£410.3m) from investors in India, a country where the bank is on a mission to bolster its presence. The emerging markets-focused bank opened its four-day sale of 240m Indian Depositary Receipts (IDRs) – a derivative instrument with Standard Chartered shares as its underlying [...]
AstraZeneca agrees to pay £500m in HMRC settlement February 23, 2010 ASTRAZENECA has paid Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) £505m to settle a tax dispute. The Anglo-Swedish drugs company owes the government over so-called transfer pricing – the price at which a group sells goods or services from one section to another. Astra will pay £350m next month and a second installment of £155m in [...]