The Evening Standard (London, England) articles from March 2007

The Evening Standard (London, England) archives from March 2007

Aviva sees record profits as chief executive bows out.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Mar. 1--Insurance guru Richard Harvey delivered record profits today in his last set of results as chief executive of Norwich Union group Aviva. Harvey said operating profits soared by 46 percent last year to...

Record [pounds sterling]9.4bn and bumper divi at RBS.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nick Goodway Mar. 1--Royal Bank of Scotland, the owner of NatWest, dispelled any lingering fears among investors that it is set to embark on an expensive buying spree by announcing a mighty 25 percent increase in its dividend for...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
March 1, 2007... Mar. 1--ATTHERACES ON COURSE TO ITS FIRST-EVER PROFIT FOR ARENA: Attheraces, the once-troubled dedicated horse racing TV channel, could make its first full-year profit, co-owner Arena Leisure indicated today. The racing channel, whose...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Mar. 1--AN EQUITABLE WAY TO END REWARDS LOTTERY: It would be a pity if the volatility in stock markets over the past few days is allowed to pass into history without giving people pause for thought about its impact...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
March 1, 2007... Mar. 1--Estate agent Foxtons has earned a reputation for selling houses at premium prices. So is founder Jon Hunt now trying to flog his business the same way? Press reports have claimed the agency could fetch [pounds sterling]400 million...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Sarah Marks Mar. 1--Widespread relief in the City today that a line appeared to have been drawn under the two days of heavy losses that wiped more than [pounds sterling]64 billion off blue-chip shares was soon shattered by a new...

Black seeks court bar on wife's e-mails on expenses.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Bill Condie Mar. 1--Fallen press baron Lord Black has asked a US federal judge to bar prosecutors from using 11,000 e-mails he exchanged with his wife as evidence against him at his fraud trial due to start this month. The...

National Express spends big in bid to rule on rail.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Mar. 1--National Express is spending 20 percent of its dwindling profits from the railways on a desperate bid to regain its crown as Britain's premier train company. The passenger transport group admitted today that...

Conran Restaurants dishes up a new name after buyout.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Mar. 1--The London restaurants empire set up by Sir Terence Conran and favoured by the rich and famous changed its name today. Conran Restaurants -- which includes Coq d'Argent and the Paternoster Chop House in the...

Beate Uhse drooping as Germans go off sex shops.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Allan Hall Mar. 1--Three years after Europe's largest erotic-shops chain, Beate Uhse, pulled the plug on its UK stores, it is finding that sex isn't selling any more. Internet porn, late-night blue movies on TV, an unsuccessful...

This month in Odyssey.(Science Scoops)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Alligators, such as the one pictured here, are the original "Keepers of the Everglades." Writer Mary Ann McGann describes why in her article "Knee Deep in the Glades," beginning on p. 32: When the dry season approaches and water levels...

Flying high?(Science Scoops)(Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShip Two suborbital tourist vehicle)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... It's almost here. The ride you've been waiting for-suborbital flight! As reported in Popular Science, New Mexico-based Virgin Galactic--a company that plans to fly 500 passengers a year to an altitude of over 60 miles--has unveiled a mockup of...

Rare opportunity.(Science Scoops)(Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs rover Opportunity)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Martian rover Opportunity has been on the run since January 2004. That's rare; no one expected the little rolling robot to last so long. Now a high-resolution camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given us another first: a...

Sponge job.(Science Scoops)(Whitey Hagadorn et al. study microscopic embryo)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... More than 550 million years ago, thousands of microscopic animal embryos drifted into sea water laced with sulfur compounds. These sulfides killed the animals, but they also helped to preserve them as fossils. Discovered in South China in 1998,...

Watch out, energizer Bunny.(Science Scoops)(MIT is developing a micro-engine)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Speaking of cutting-edge research going on at MIT, get this: Alan Epstein (Aeronautics and Astronautics Department) and his colleagues are working on putting a tiny, gas-turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter. The...

Intelligent mini-bots fly.(SCIENCE SCOOPS)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Swarms of intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may soon be helping the military in dangerous missions. UAVs already serve the military as "eyes in the sky" for battalion commanders planning maneuvers. But these hand-launched vehicles...

What's the matter.(Science Scoops)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... What happens if you mix matter with antimatter? If you said "annihilation," you're... Well, maybe you should read on. You see, while it's a well-known fact that matter and antimatter don't mix (the two annihilate each other in a fierce...

The Everglades: paradise lost.
March 1, 2007... A LOW SUN BURNS ACROSS A VAST PRAIRIE of razor-sharp sawgrass bathed in shallow water. Dewdrops sparkle on webs spun by giant spiders amid the blades. The Sun climbs higher, and an alligator slips out of the marsh, lowering itself on a muddy...

Ecology 101: will we pass the Everglade test?
March 1, 2007... IN 1900, AMERICANS AGREED THAT THE EVERGLADES was a disgusting swamp, and dreamed of draining it. By 2000, Americans had concluded that the Everglades was a national treasure, and launched an $8 billion effort to restore it. Our attitudes...

Katrina's lesson.
March 1, 2007... THE EFFORTS TO RESTORE the Everglades are monumentally expensive and complex, but they pale in comparison to those needed to restore the rapidly vanishing wetlands of coastal Louisiana, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. When French...

Can a wetland save a wetland? Engineers are helping to restore America's largest natural wetland by constructing the world's largest artificial one.(Activity to Discover)
March 1, 2007... IT'S 16,000 ACRES OF MARSHLAND, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS NEAR THE FLORIDA COAST. But this wetland is human-made. Welcome to southern Florida's Stormwater Treatment Area 3/4. A cornerstone of Everglades Restoration, STA 3/4 is the world's largest...

It's all about the water: an interview with hydrologist Christopher McVoy.(People to Discover)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... PEOPLE TOOK LESS THAN A CENTURY TO change the Everglades through drainage, construction, farming, and other activities. Now, the federal and state governments hope to restore part of the Everglades. But the project can't just "go with the flow"...

How would you save the glades?(Activity to Discover)
March 1, 2007... We understand what the Everglades used to be like. But trying to restore part of it gets very complicated. Engineering questions deal with how to accomplish different goals. However, different "fixes" all cost money. They could have other...

Deck of cards.(Brain Strain)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... You are sitting in a small hut in Everglades National Park, playing a game of cards. Your partner hands you a metric ruler and with a quizzical look asks, "If a pack of new playing cards measures 1.3 centimeters when you look at it sideways,...

Taking care of home: the Miccosukee remember.
March 1, 2007... MICCOSUKEE INDIAN SCHOOL NESTLES within "the grassy waters." Noel Jim, a 12th-grade student at the school, can see the Everglades from her desk. "Without it, I would feel empty," she says. The Everglades fills the lives of many Native...

Silent guardians: (inspired by tales of the Timucua, Seminole, and Miccosukee peoples).(Short story)
March 1, 2007... WHEN ALL THE ANIMALS lived in the Sky with the Creator, the world was no more than a large ball of mud. The Sky encircled the world. Occasionally, Wind and Rain would leave the Sky to visit the world, but they would always return to the comfort...

Knee deep in the glades.
March 1, 2007... MY COMPANION AND I ARE ANKLE DEEP IN FRIGID WATER SO MURKY THAT WE CAN'T SEE OUR FEET, when our guide on this off-trail trek through the Everglades calmly starts to tell us a slightly spine-tingling tale. "I was doing this last year," he...

Your turn to help.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Want to help preserve the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades? Everglades National Park has lots of ways for you to get educated and involved, from ranger-led pro grams to hands-on activities to teacher workshops. The park rangers also speak at...

What does it take to be a cameback kid? Florida's alligators ... and panthers.
March 1, 2007... At the beginning of the 20th century, every pond, lake, and river in the Everglades had its fill of American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). Some writers of the time said that if alligator heads were stones, it would have been possible...

Keeping tabs on the "pinks" of Florida bay.(roseate spoonbills)
March 1, 2007... On a warm April morning, an orange-red Sun rises to a full circle above the horizon on Florida Bay. It's 7 a.m., but six field biologists are already out in their boats, each headed for a different tiny mangrove island in the bay. Before the...

Here fishy, fishy, fishy!(Activity to Discover)(animal parenting)
March 1, 2007... How many times have you heard your parents A say that it's hard work raising kids? Too many times, right? Well, if you want "hard," try being a roseate spoonbill parent! Like human parents, both roseate spoonbills help in the raising of...

Nature walk with aliens!
March 1, 2007... You wouldn't expect to find a camel in Norway. Or a penguin in Paraguay. So what are trees from Australia, fish from Brazil, and snakes from Africa doing in the Everglades in Florida? Sure, they aren't from Mars--but they are aliens, just...

Star chart.(All-Sky Chart)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The monthly All-Sky Chart depicts the sky (minus the Moon) as it appears at 7 p.m. (your local time) on March 15. Useful all month (except for planet positions), the chart is also accurate for 8 p.m. on March 1 and 6 p.m. on March 31. To...

A total lunar eclipse.(STARGAZING COMIC)(Brief article)(Cartoon)
March 1, 2007... ON SATURDAY, MARCH 3, THE EASTERN HALF OF NORTH AMERICA WILL EXPERIENCE A TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OCCURS WHENEVER A FULL MOON GLIDES THROUGH EARTHS SHADOW. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AND...

You've got mail!(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... Dear ODYSSEY, I think that your magazine is the greatest! It makes science even fun than it already is. Keep up the good work! Now, on to my story expressing my opinion about whether animals have emotions or not that you asked for in the...

Ask a scientist.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... In an interview with ODYSSEY in the November 2006 issue, "Science of emotions," Thomas Lewis, MD, assistant clinical professor at the University of California at San Francisco's School of Medicine and author of A General Theory of Love...

Mana-tees.(ANIMAL ANGELS)
March 1, 2007... If I ran an Everglades souvenir shop, I would sell tee shirts with pictures of Florida's manatees (Trichechus manatus) on them. My "mana-tees" would feature these "sea cow" creatures. Manatees are roughly a cow's size (averaging about 10 to 12...

[pounds sterling]425m buyer motors in at RoadChef.
March 2, 2007... Mar. 2--Motorway service stations group RoadChef -- best-known for Europe's largest operation at Clacket Lane on the M25 in Kent -- has changed hands again with its sale today for [pounds sterling]425 million. Nikko Principal Investments,...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
March 2, 2007... Mar. 2--PHOTO-ME SOUNDS PROFITS ALARM AS SALES FAIL TO CLICK: Photo-Me International, the world's leading photobooths provider, issued a profits warning today after what it called "difficult market conditions." It said profits for the year...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
March 2, 2007... Mar. 2--TOM FOULKES, director general of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was about to board the Eurostar for Paris last November when he was arrested and detained for carrying a knife -- measuring 50mm, it was part of a credit card-sized...

GAP facing investors' ire after 35 percent profits drop.
March 2, 2007... Mar. 2--GAP, the iconic US clothes store planning a big push into Britain, today admitted it is facing a difficult year after revealing a 35 percent fall in profits. Although still regarded as the arbiter of casual American style, Gap's...

Swiss stalking engineering firm Bodycote.
March 2, 2007... Mar. 2--Bodycote, the specialist engineering group, could be destined to fall into foreign hands after a [pounds sterling]1 billion takeover bid for the company was unveiled today. Sulzer, the Swiss engineering group, outed itself today as...

Evening Standard, London, Christopher Fildes column.(Column)
March 2, 2007... Byline: Christopher Fildes Mar. 2--THIS WAY OUT FROM BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL: Private equity, says Nicholas Ferguson, began with the first land deal between Cain and Abel. It ended in tears, but from then on things could only improve. Now,...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
March 2, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Mar. 2--TIME FOR CARE BUT THE SHARE PARTY'S NOT OVER YET: We do not have a global economic crisis, but we are possibly in the early stages of a global financial crisis. The ups and downs in the world's stock markets...

'Good luck' spells [pounds sterling]5.6bn for Buffett's Berkshire.
March 2, 2007... Byline: Bill Condie Mar. 2--Warren Buffett has again woven his magic to turn in a 29 percent jump in profit at Berkshire Hathaway, making $11 billion ([pounds sterling]5.6 billion) or $7144 a share in 2006, up from $8.5 billion in 2005....

Rank warns of new smoke ban damage.
March 2, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Mar. 2--The smoking ban in England and Wales later this year will see profits plunge further at Mecca Bingo, parent group Rank admitted today after reporting a dive in profits in 2006. Rank today reported a 15...

Footsie edges ahead as fightback goes on.
March 2, 2007... Byline: Simon English Mar. 2--The FTSE 100 index was moving tentatively upwards today after a torrid week on the markets that has sparked fears of a global meltdown. Another difficult period for the Dow Jones Average in New York...

CORRECTION: On-screen punters boost William Hill.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Mar. 5--The Evening Standard has issued an updated version of the story slugged EV-BETTING-SHOPS, moved by McClatchy-Tribune Business News for Mar. 5. Please delete or kill the previous version and use the corrected...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
March 5, 2007... Mar. 5--BUYOUT TALK AS ENDEMOL BOSS LEAVES WITH A [pounds sterling]2.6M PAY-OFF: Tom Barnicoat, chief operating officer at Big Brother maker Endemol, quit today with a pay-off of [pounds sterling]2.6 million and a contribution to his pension...

Evening Standard, London, Chris Blackhurst column.(Column)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Mar. 5--We live in a land of make believe. The private equity boys are criticised for their money-grabbing ways. It starts to get serious, so they dream up the perfect sop. They wheel out a City heavyweight, Sir...

BA dives on fears of open-skies pact bias.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Mar. 5--Shares in British Airways crashed today after the flag carrier admitted that a new open-skies agreement could seriously damage it and Europe's other major airlines. Hopes for an agreement to open up American...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
March 5, 2007... Mar. 5--At 76, has Warren Buffett reached an age when the mind can wander towards, ahem, the finer things in life? In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, he tells how he and vice chairman Charlie Munger go about their deals....

Footsie kicks off the week with another plunge.
March 5, 2007... Mar. 5--London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares dived below the psychologically important 6000 level as the stock market kicked off trading this morning -- a worrying sign that investors face another week of turmoil. Following a further...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Mar. 5--One consequence of the current market turbulence and the continued widespread evidence of frayed nerves ought to be to make an increase in interest rates much less likely on Thursday when the Bank of...

CORRECTION: HSBC takes [pounds sterling]5.5 billion hit as bad debts soar in US.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Nick Goodway Mar. 5--The Evening Standard has issued an updated version of the story slugged EV-HSBC, moved by McClatchy-Tribune Business News for Mar. 5. Please delete or kill the former version and use the corrected one...

[pounds sterling]13bn missed in official sums on London's GDP.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Simon English Mar. 5--The Government is undervaluing the contribution made by the City of London to Britain's economy by more than [pounds sterling]13 billion, new figures show. Research by London-based think-tank The Centre...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Mar. 5--Like punch-drunk boxers, City investors were on the ropes again today, taking another pounding as share prices and sterling fell sharply. In London, the FTSE 100 index briefly dipped below 6000 before...

SMG delays its results in the wake of board coup.
March 5, 2007... Mar. 5--Virgin Radio owner SMG today put off the announcement of its 2006 financial results by a month following the boardroom coup that took place last week. The Scottish ITV broadcaster also beefed up its board with the appointment of...

Aussie team wins race for Olympic village deal.
March 5, 2007... Byline: Bill Condie Mar. 5--A consortium led by Australian developer Lend Lease has beaten its French rival Bouygues to win a contract to develop the [pounds sterling]5.3 billion Stratford City Olympic village. The project will be...

Don't listen to BA on open skies, bmi tells ministers.
March 6, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Mar. 6--The British airline with most to gain from deregulation of transatlantic flights, bmi, has warned ministers not to listen to "protectionist rhetoric" from British Airways. A draft "open-skies" agreement...

Mobile and internet vision of new bank services giant.
March 6, 2007... Mar. 6--Two of the biggest names in British banking services are to merge, forming a single company which will handle over eight billion transactions a year. Voca, the payment services group formerly known as Bacs, is joining forces with...

Inchcape drives down Marques total.
March 6, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Mar. 6--Inchcape, one of Britain's biggest car dealers, has dumped Ford and its clutch of premium brands Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. In a multi-million-pound forecourt sale of 47 dealerships around the country,...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
March 6, 2007... Mar. 6--POTENTIAL INVESTORS in Grant Bovey's Imagine Homes will be puzzled why the 2005-6 accounts are late at Companies House. Last October, Anthea Turner's husband was letting it be known that the six months for the period to September 2006...

Barclaycard to cut 600 jobs at call centre in Manchester.
March 6, 2007... Mar. 6--Barclaycard is to axe more than 600 jobs as it closes a call centre in Manchester and moves the work to Mumbai and Delhi in India and to Teesside. The credit-card firm said the call centre, which handles customer services and sales...

NeutraHealth in good shape with 250 percent profits growth.
March 6, 2007... Mar. 6--The rise of "cosmeceuticals" as Britons become more health-conscious -- and vain -- has led to a sharp injection in profits at NeutraHealth. With 43 percent of Britons reckoned to be regularly taking vitamin and mineral supplements to...

Footsie stages a rally on hopes turmoil is at an end.
March 6, 2007... Mar. 6--The FTSE 100 index rebounded today amid signs the massive global equities sell-off could be nearing an end. Asian shares recovered overnight despite another tough trading session in America that saw the Dow Jones average end off 63.69...

Lord Black's Ravelston is fined [pounds sterling]3.6 million for fraud.
March 6, 2007... Byline: Bill Condie Mar. 6--Lord Black's private holding company, Ravelston, has pleaded guilty in Chicago to fraud as the fallen press baron and other ex-Hollinger executives prepare for their court case next week. The company,...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
March 6, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Mar. 6--People assume the Budget in a couple of weeks will be pretty dull because the Chancellor has no money to spend so there can be no mass dishing-out of largesse and, because he expects not to be in the job much...

Doyles put Jurys Inns up for sale with a likely [pounds sterling]680m tag.
March 6, 2007... Mar. 6--Jurys Inns, the Irish hotel chain with outlets in London, has been put up for sale by the controlling Doyle family with a likely price tag of e1 billion ([pounds sterling]680 million) or more. The business was taken private 13 months...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
March 6, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Mar. 6--A second profits warning within a matter of weeks sent shares of Debt Free Direct reeling again today. They slumped 16p to 291p, sparking fears this could be the prelude to a fresh sell-off of the...

Fergie's team mulls [pounds sterling]1bn HSBC tower bid.
March 6, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Mar. 6--A property investment fund backed by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and broadcaster Sir David Frost is lining up a bid for the [pounds sterling]1 billion HSBC Tower at Canary Wharf. More than 30...

Premier Foods in good health as sales of Quorn increase by 13 percent.
March 6, 2007... Byline: Nick Goodway Mar. 6--Acquisitive Premier Foods is busy tucking into Campbell's brands Oxo, Batchelors and Homepride, which it bought for [pounds sterling]450 million last summer, and will shortly complete the [pounds sterling]1.2...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
March 7, 2007... Mar. 7--MORE on the disappearance of Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, the former head of voicemail software group Comverse, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission's Public Enemy Number One over the stock options scandal. He's in Namibia and has...

Treasury raid shatters calm of entertainment Svengali.
March 7, 2007... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Mar. 7--Patrick McKenna tells how he was once on a plane. His wife, Margaret, was next to him. He was reading an article about directors' pay and it said the highest paid director at the Really Useful group, where...

It's do or die, says Eurotunnel chief as debt revamp plan goes to vote.
March 7, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Mar. 7--Eurotunnel chairman and chief executive Jacques Gounon today told shareholders it was "do or die" for the troubled company in its battle to avoid bankruptcy. He warned them that if they do not agree to the...

Pools giants are drawn to a merger.
March 7, 2007... Byline: Simon English Mar. 7--Two of Britain's biggest remaining football pools brands are set to join forces in a deal worth around [pounds sterling]50 million. Sportech, which owns Littlewoods Pools, revealed today that it is in...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
March 7, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Mar. 7--Any comment about European directives should, I always feel, begin with an apology -- not for what one is about to say, but because it is so difficult to get to the heart of what these things actually mean in...

Resolution chief's exit spurs sale talk.
March 7, 2007... Byline: Sarah Marks Mar. 7--Closed life fund insurance group Resolution ousted its chief executive in a shock move today -- raising serious questions about the management and future direction of the group, which effectively put itself up...

ITV 'risk' strategy in hunt for growth.
March 7, 2007... Byline: Nick Goodway Mar. 7--ITV must take more risks, back new shows and drop successful series before they become boring, new chairman Michael Grade said today. Shows like Bad Girls and Footballers' Wives, both of which came to an...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
March 7, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Mar. 7--Cairn Energy's brief reign as a blue-chip company will come to an abrupt halt today with the oil explorer's poor share-price performance resulting in it being dropped as a constituent of the top 100 companies....

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
March 8, 2007... Mar. 8--CHELTENHAM looms and Paddy Power, in its latest mailshot, provides punters with a handy Festival guide to understanding the nuances of racing's bluffers. "We're hopeful of a good run" hides the message "the horse will be leading after...

Evening Standard, London, Neil Collins column.(Column)
March 8, 2007... Byline: Neil Collins Mar. 8--Are you lost without Lost? If so, you're in a tiny minority of cable subscribers who are finding the prospect of blank screens on their Sky channels too much to bear. At least that's the spin being put on the...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
March 8, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Mar. 8--Resolution Life yesterday announced the departure of chief executive Paul Thompson and the elevation to that post of current finance director Mike Biggs. Or rather, it didn't quite. It announced Biggs had got...

Crest Nicholson bows to Sir Tom and co's [pounds sterling]715m.
March 8, 2007... Byline: Simon English Mar. 8--Housebuilder Crest Nicholson was sold today to a consortium including Scottish tycoon Sir Tom Hunter in a deal worth [pounds sterling]715 million. Under the long-awaited deal, Castle Bidco, a consortium...