A-Z of Sunday business news

12 April 2012

THIS Is Money reads the Sunday newspapers so you don't have to. Here is our round-up of companies making the City pages this weekend:

Bizzenergy
Sunday Telegraph: The web-based energy trading company set up last year by former Eastern Group chief John Devaney is to float on the stock market with an expected valuation of £100m.

Camelot
Independent on Sunday: Sales of National Lottery tickets have plunged to a new low, averaging just £91m a week over the past three months, nearly £20m a week lower than during their peak in late 1997.

Compass
Sunday Telegraph: The catering group has sealed its deal to buy Restorama and Rail Gourmet from stricken airline Swissair for nearly £41m, half its original offer price.

Gambling
Sunday Telegraph: British casinos are to be allowed to play Wheel of Fortune for the first time as part of a shake-up of gaming laws by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Global Crossing
Sunday Telegraph: The telecoms group, which bought Racal Telecom in 1999 for £1bn, has put its UK business up for sale with a price tag of £500m. The company is thought to have held talks with several potential buyers, including Lattice, the gas network operator formerly part of British Gas.

Hotels
Sunday Telegraph: Deutsche Bank Private Equity has bought Barcelona's luxury Hotel Arts, Spain's tallest building, in a deal thought to be worth at least £154m.

Land Securities
Sunday Telegraph: The property company is to sell six shopping centres to Reit Asset Management for £250m, its largest disposal so far.

Manchester United
Sunday Times: The soccer club and its European rivals are discussing selling broadcasting rights to their Uefa Champions League matches on an individual basis rather than collectively.

Mmo2
Independent on Sunday: The recently-demerged cellphone arm of BT is to launch a £1.5bn bond in January to help fund its roll-out of third-generation mobile services.

P&O Princess
Sunday Times: Leading investors in the cruise firm want assurances that Carnival Corp is committed to tabling a £2bn offer, fearing the group is interested only in scuppering Princess's planned merger with Royal Caribbean.

The Observer: Carnival is preparing to drop some of the six conditions of its offer. The conditions include that Princess restrict dividends until the offer becomes final, and that the cost of unwinding its joint venture with Royal Caribbean in southern Europe be no more than $200m (£130m).

Railtrack
Sunday Times: Iain Coucher has been named managing director of the company the Government hopes will take over from rail network operator Railtrack. Coucher is currently chief executive of Tube Lines, the preferred bidder to operate the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Underground lines.

The Observer: Fresh calls have been made for an investigation into the market for Railtrack shares in the days leading to its administration. Tory peer Lord Hunt has told Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, that there is growing evidence a false market was created.

Saffery Champness
Independent on Sunday: The accountancy firm, which counts Chelsea soccer club among its clients, faces a cash crisis in its key Guernsey office. Four former partners are claiming more than £610,000 from the firm in court. But senior partner Clive Nicholson said in affadavits that the Guernsey office does not have the money to pay them.

Standard Chartered
Sunday Times: The bank is planning a clear-out of its board following the row that led to the recent departure of chief executive Rana Talwar. Seven non-executives have been on its board for nearly a decade.

Talkcast
Sunday Telegraph: The stricken media and communications group lost £87m in the 15 months to 31 March on sales of just £933,000. Investors in the high profile company, recently forced to break itself up, included Marks & Spencer Ventures and Durlacher, the technology investment and broking company.

Tax
Sunday Times: The Government may allow tax cheats to come clean without facing a penalty. It is considering an amnesty, in place from next April, that would allow small businesses and individuals to pay a proportion of the tax due while escaping further sanction.

Thames Trains
The Observer: The rail firm has filed a High Court law suit seeking more than £5m from the Health and Safety Inspectorate, demanding it contribute to compensating victims of the Paddington rail disaster. Thames has paid out £13m following the October 1999 crash, which killed 31.

TXU
Sunday Times: Banks BNP Paribas and ABN Amro have refused to participate in a £900m loan raised by the European arm of US energy giant TXU. The unit is Europe's largest energy trader since the collapse of Enron.

United Biscuits
Sunday Times: The snack foods group is preparing to return to the stock market just 18 months after it was taken private in a £1.3bn deal.

Virgin Express
Sunday Times: The airline, 51% owned by Sir Richard Branson, is to become part of Belgium's new carrier under a deal in which it merges with Delta Air Transport, a subsidiary of the now-defunct national carrier Sabena.

Vodafone
Independent on Sunday: The cellphone giant is expected this week to rake in nearly £1bn from the sale of a slice of Arcor, the German fixed-line telecoms business.

Whitbread
Sunday Times: The leisure group is planning to expand its David Lloyd fitness club chain through partnerships with schools.

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