Corporate Money articles from October 1999

Corporate Money archives from October 1999

EQUITIES.
October 6, 1999... Takeover activity drove Wall Street up 130 points on Monday, with news of a merger between Sprint Telecom and MCI Worldcom . In London, trading was buoyant on Tuesday with investors anticipating that the Fed would leave interest rates alone....

Wardour Street hopes for happy ending as MCP steps in where angels fear to tread.
October 6, 1999... There is a an old saying in Hollywood that a studio will do fine with six movies that lose money, three that do better than break even and with one blockbuster. Movie-making is not a business for the faint hearted. The financial rewards can be...

Europe's telecoms groups look to expand.
October 6, 1999... Continental European telecommunications groups jockeyed for market position this week, as consolidation looked set to continue. News of the mega-merger in the US between Sprint and MCI Worldcom via a [pound]80bn acquisition of the former had...

Diageo loses spirit.
October 6, 1999... Beverage group Diageo this week completed its programme of disposals with the sale of Cinzano to Italian group Campari for an undisclosed sum. Analysts had expressed a relative amount of dismay at the actions of Diageo of late, with emphasis...

Canary fails to sing.
October 6, 1999... The embarrassing failure of the cancellation of a major share placing not with standing, Canary Wharf purchased Texaco's headquarters for over [pound]80m this week. Institutional panic-selling led to a sharp fall in share price immediately...

LVMH in the Pink.
October 6, 1999... French group LVMH continued its recent expansion in the luxury goods sector this week, with the acquisition of majority stake in shirt-maker Thomas Pink for over [pound]30m. Pink, which had earlier hinted at the idea of flotation, operates the...

Whitbread keeps fit.
October 6, 1999... The mighty pub, restaurant and hotel group Whitbread strengthened its position as a major player in the health club market this week, with its [pound]78m acquisition of the Racquets & Healthtrack Group. The target company comprises six health...

Cedar set to expand.
October 6, 1999... Computer software company Cedar announced a 7-for-10 rights issue this week in an effort to tidy up its finances. The issue is set to raise [pound]26.7m, and this will be used to meet the group's increased working capital requirements, pay down...

BG restructuring.
October 6, 1999... The long-awaited index-linked bond issue programme from British Gas was announced this week, as the group unveiled plans for a [pound]500m 23-year note as part of its capital restructuring. The company decided in June that the it needed to...

PwC's global legal network.
October 13, 1999... PricewaterhouseCoopers has signalled its intention of forging a major international law network by adopting a common identity for its legal practices.They operate in 42 countries under 20 different names. The network has adopted the name...

"Fat cats" slimming.
October 13, 1999... UK "fats cats" are now on a strictly-controlled performance-related diet, claims a study by Hay Management Consultants on board room pay. Hay surveyed 7,582 executive directors in 356 companies. About half of the FTSE100 companies responded....

Round 2 to Leek BS.
October 13, 1999... Leek United Building Society has rejected Murray Financial's request for a special general meeting to discuss demutualisation because it claims some requisition forms were invalid so Murray did not have the backing of 100 valid members. The...

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley neck-and-neck entering the home strait.
October 13, 1999... A week before the end of the third quarter Goldman Sachs was cruising in pole position in the Corporate Money Financial Adviser M&A league table, almost [pound]20bn ahead of its nearest rival, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. But what a...

Downing launches first ethical VCT.
October 13, 1999... Downing Corporate Finance has launched what it claims is the UK's first venture capital trust with an ethical investment policy. The Pennine Downing Ethical VCT aims to raise up to [pound]10m to invest in companies which make a "positive...

Unilever's row with MAM to be fought out in court - eventually.
October 13, 1999... "We'll see you in court,"snapped the mighty [pound]4bn Unilever Superannuation Scheme this week as it launched a claim for damages of over [pound]100m against Mercury Asset Management, the UK's biggest fund manager, owned by Merrill Lynch. The...

Italian banking saga steps up a gear.(Company Business and Marketing)
October 13, 1999... The pace of consolidation in the Italian banking sector picked up significantly this week, with the news that Generali and SanPaolo-IMI had reached a compromise regarding the control of insurer INA. The sector, which had once been...

Green Flag for RBS.(Company Business and Marketing)
October 13, 1999... The Royal Bank of Scotland has moved to become the third largest operator of a motor breakdown recovery service via a [pound]220m offer for Green Flag made through its own telephone insurance division Direct Line. Green Flag is being sold by...

ICI sells acrylics unit.(Company Business and Marketing)
October 13, 1999... Imperial Chemicals Industries this week announced its decision to sell its acrylics business to a Charterhouse Development Capital backed newco, Ineos Acrylics, for [pound]505m. The disposal moves ICI one step closer towards its aim of...

Norcros goes private.(Company Business and Marketing)
October 13, 1999... Building materials group Norcros has been taken private via a management buy-out backed by NatWest Equity Partners in a deal valued at [pound]171m. The deal had been mooted as early as January, but failure to secure a debt structure meant that...

Miller looks south.(Company Business and Marketing)
October 13, 1999... Private Scottish building and property group Miller has made a recommended bid to acquire Cussins Property Group for [pound]23.2m. The offer, which values each Cussins share at 130 pence in cash, is designed to assist the company in its aim to...

Major Abbey move.
October 13, 1999... Abbey National this week announced plans to securitise up to 10% of its mortgage book in an effort to better manage its balance sheet. The book is currently worth [pound]60bn, and the issue would allow the group to remove [pound]6bn of debt...

Bonds.
October 20, 1999... Trading in US Treasury gilts was volatile on Tuesday, with the benchmarks closing lower for the seventh time running. In the UK, gilts ignored trans-Atlantic behaviour to perform relatively well, closing up. On the corporate front, the telecoms...

EQUITIES.
October 20, 1999... On Tuesday the FTSE steamed ahead thanks largely to takeover news and behaviour in New York. Unsurprisingly, Orange led the way closing up forty-nine points following the announcement of a bid for the group from Germany's Mannesmann. In New...

Merrill and Bloomberg appointed by funds to new E-Crossnet securities network.
October 20, 1999... E-Crossnet - the proposed new securities crossing network backed by 19 funding institutions - has taken a big step forward with the appointment of Merrill Lynch as broker and provider of clearing and settlement services, and Bloomberg as...

Apax spins off corporate finance arm.
October 20, 1999... Apax Partners has spun off its merged UK and Continental corporate finance and securities business. Financial services company Gold-Zack, listed on the Deutsche Bourse, has taken a 25 per cent shareholding in the new group with options to...

ABI updates statistics.
October 20, 1999... Over the 10 years to 1998, British insurers collected life and pensions premiums worth over [pound]482bn and paid out life and pensions benefits in the UK worth [pound]329bn, according to the latest statistical yearbook published by the...

Statistics White Paper.
October 20, 1999... A new independent Statistics Commission, a stronger scrutiny role for Parliament, and an enhanced role for the head of the Government Statistical Service, who will become the national statistician, is promised in a White Paper, Building Trust...

Pensions funds urged to plan for deflation.
October 20, 1999... Because state and many occupational pensions are adjusted for inflation, the implications for pensions of even minor outbreaks of deflation could be profound, warns a report by economist Roger Bootle, prepared for the National Association of...

Securities and Exchange Commission relaxes rules on cross-border mergers.
October 20, 1999... The US Securities and Exchange Commission is reported to have approved a sweeping relaxation of regulations on domestic and cross-border mergers. Current SEC rules are considered to be so onerous that non-US companies often exclude US holders...

Blue Circle double.
October 20, 1999... Blue Circle Industries continued its restructuring programme this week, as it announced the sale of its heating division to Baxi for [pound]480m. Baxi is a buy-out unit backed by equity financing from HSBC Private Equity, with debt financing...

Global UK expansion.(Global Crossing)
October 20, 1999... US-based telecommunications service provider Global Crossing increased its presence in the UK this week with the [pound]1bn acquisition of Racal Telecoms from London-listed Racal Electronics. Global owns and operates a state-of-the-art fibre...

Rexam disposal.
October 20, 1999... The largest UK quoted packaging company, Rexam, has announced the sale of its windows subsidiary to a leveraged management buy-out unit backed by Legal & General Ventures for [pound]122.5m. The disposal forms part of the group's intended...

Invensys' disposal.
October 20, 1999... Listed engineering group Invensys has sold its paper technology group to management buy-out unit backed by Apax Partners for [pound]491m. The move forms the first part of the company's divestment programme which sees the group concentrate on...

Traders cash in.
October 20, 1999... Former derivatives traders Philip Docker and Paul Varcoe have grown their technology company EasyScreen remarkably in less than a year. The company, which provides derivatives trading software, listed on Ofex with a value of [pound]2.5m in...

Vodafone issues.
October 20, 1999... It has certainly been an eventful week for Vodafone AirTouch. First it launched a E1.5bn bond dated October 2006. It followed this news with the confirmation of its plans to increase its activities in Poland via the increase of its interest in...

Bonds.
October 27, 1999... Another static week on the corporate bond front, with only two companies braving the conditions. Of these, the British Gas bond was a $50m note fungible with an issue earlier in the year. Gilts moved in different directions either side of the...

Equities.
October 27, 1999... Markets recovered somewhat from the recent slump on Tuesday, spurred on by plenty of takeover rumours. Confirmation of bid talks for Tarmac led the way for rises in other building materials companies' share prices. Tarmac surged ahead closing...

Australia opens venture capital market as globalisation sweeps away more barriers.
October 27, 1999... Further evidence of the impact of economic globalisation and the Internet comes from Australia where, in a major change in government policy, small overseas pension funds will now be exempt from capital gains tax on venture capial investments....

Lawyers launch risk consultancy.
October 27, 1999... Eversheds have launched a new risk management consultancy for public and private sector clients because of increased concerns over corporate governance issues in the face of a rising tide of regulation, such as the Turnbull Report. The firm...

Bank of America in first asset-based MBO.
October 27, 1999... In what Bank of America Business Credit claims is the first public-to-private deal in the UK to be funded by asset backed finance, the management buy-out vehicle, Composite Materials Technology, has bought stock market tiddler Jones Stroud...

Wolves springs back from Morland defeat to win favour from Mansfield Brewery.
October 27, 1999... Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, which lost the battle for Morland to Greene King, now looks set to take over Mansfield Brewery in Nottinghamshire. It is recommending W &DB's [pound]253m bid and this means that the Black Country brewer is on...

Mannesmann bid rings bond market alarm bells.
October 27, 1999... Mannesmann's [pound]20bn (E33bn) bid for Orange has caused alarm bells to ring in the European bond market coming as it does after a string of hefty issues in the telecommunications sector. The fear is that the large institutional investors are...

Crest goes Forward.
October 27, 1999... Delaware-incorporated Crest Group may well have lured industrial company Forward Technologies private via a 30p per share hostile cash offer. Forward recently disposed of its video and audio operations to concentrate on its plastic components...

GEI.
October 27, 1999... GEI International has announced its decision to dispose of its pharmaceutical division on a debt-free basis for [pound]22.5m. The purchaser is GEA, which is a subsidiary of German engineering and chemical group, Metallgesellschaft. GEI's...

Granada's take-away.
October 27, 1999... The board of restaurant operator Harry Ramsden has agreed the terms of a recommended cash offer from the Granada Group. Granada will pay [pound]20m in cash for the company, valuing each share at 193p. Chairman John Barnes noted that "Harry...

Braes set to grow.
October 27, 1999... A pack of heavyweight food executives has banded together to form the Braes Group. Boasting major industry players such as Leon Allen, former head of Tetley, and Nigel Garrow, ex-chief executive of Dalgety Foods, the group acquired the...