| CATEGORY: PRESS ROUND-UP SHORT SECTOR: MEDIA |
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Emap, Rio Tinto, Resolution |
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Tue 13 Nov 2007
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - Publishing giant Reed Elsevier has emerged as a surprise suitor for Emap's business publishing division, which is valued at about £1.2bn-£1.4bn, writes the Telegraph.
Reed submitted a first-round bid for the whole of Emap's business-to-business publishing unit, which publishes titles such as Retail Week, and has been given access to carry out due diligence.
BHP Billiton yesterday raised the stakes in its $153 bn (£74 billion) battle for control of Rio Tinto by offering to buy back $30bn of shares if it succeeds. In a move designed to raise the pressure on Rio’s board to agree to talks and secure a recommended offer, BHP is taking its sweetened proposals directly to key investors that hold cross-shareholdings in both of the mining giants, says the Times.
The property market is set for a more severe slowdown than in 2005, with house prices are already falling in almost all areas of the UK while even the rampant London market has recently hit the buffers. New buyer enquiries have been withering for almost a year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported on Tuesday, and now the first signs are emerging that home owners are rushing to try to sell before the market tumbles, writes the FT.
Saudi Arabia has made clear Opec would not announce a production increase at this weekend’s Riyadh summit. In an interview with the Financial Times, Ali Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, said “there will be absolutely no discussion” by heads of states or their oil ministers on short-term supply and demand at the organisation’s summit, which will concentrate on with longer-term strategies of producers.
Greater disclosure on who is really controlling the shares of a company has been proposed by the City watchdog. The Financial Services Authority yesterday launched a three-month consultation on "contracts for difference" (CFD), derivatives which allow holders to have an economic interest in a company without having direct ownership of the shares, reports the Telegraph.
A possible wave of protests against soaring fuel prices will be discussed by hauliers today, amid fresh signs that spiralling energy costs are hurting the economy. The meeting of representatives of more than 1,300 Scottish hauliers comes as British Airways prepares to implement its third fuel surcharge of the year. The hauliers are worried that many of their businesses could go bust because of the pressures of higher fuel costs, reports the Times.
Meanwhile, food prices are increasing at their highest rate for more than a decade, official figures showed yesterday. Increased wheat, dairy, meat and vegetable prices mean food factories are having to pay six per cent more for their raw ingredients than a year ago - the highest annual rate since 1993, said the Office of National Statistics, reports the Telegraph.
Permira will seek to speed its transition from a British buyout group to a global private equity giant today when it names Damon Buffini, a co-founder and managing partner, in the new role of chairman. Under the management shake-up, Mr Buffini will focus on Permira’s overall strategy, funding and developing new businesses and will relinquish control of the day-to-day running of the buyout business, says the Times.
Resolution is set to use executive meetings with Pearl, its suitor, to mount a last-ditch attempt to win more cash from the “zombie” funds group in exchange for an agreed takeover. Clive Cowdery, Resolution’s chairman, is hoping that his support for a formal takeover by Pearl Assurance is worth at least 10p on top of Pearl’s already tabled 720p-a-share cash bid, worth £4.9 billion, writes the Times.
Gordon Brown must take a major slice of the blame for the Northern Rock "shambles", one of the Prime Minister's previous appointees to the Bank of England will claim today. In his appearance before the Treasury Select Committee, leading economist and former Monetary Policy Committee member Willem Buiter will blame Mr Brown's decision to hive off the key regulation role from the Bank to the Financial Services Authority for creating the foundations for Northern Rock's downfall, reports the Telegraph.
Etrade lost more than half its market value yesterday after the online brokerage issued a profit warning and a key industry analyst said that the company may go bankrupt. The shares plunged by $5.04, or 58 per cent at the close, as the market digested a regulatory filing on Friday, which said that the broker would need to take “significant writedowns” this quarter relating to mortgage-backed securities and bad loans, reports the Times.
The sub-prime gloom on Wall Street spread to Asia yesterday triggering a sell-off in Tokyo which sent stocks to a 15-month low. Analysts said investors had been spooked by a strong yen and falls in the US on Friday on the back of fears of further banking losses. Only a handful of shares rose in Tokyo as the yen jumped to an 18-month high against the dollar, putting pressure on the shares of exporters, writes the Independent.
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