Financial News

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's third biggest building society Portman is to take over smaller rival Lambeth Building Society to create a group with assets of almost 19 billion pounds, Portman said on Monday. Qualifying borrowers and savers of Lambeth, Britain's 20th biggest building society, are expected to receive 400 pounds each if the deal goes through. The building societies said subject to approval by Lambeth members and the Financial Services Authority, the deal -- structured as a merger - ...

Leading US telecoms firm AT&T has agreed to buy smaller rival BellSouth in a deal worth $67bn (£38.2bn). Under the deal, AT&T will gain full ownership of Cingular Wireless, America's biggest mobile phone firm. The takeover will create a new giant in the US telecoms sector, with a market capitalization of $165bn. It will also see BellSouth returning to its old stable. It and several other operators - dubbed the Baby Bells - were spun off from AT&T in the 1980s. Mobile major  ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- The $67 billion combination of telecommunications giants AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. will shower millions of dollars in fees on five investment-banking firms with established ties to the companies. AT&T (T) said Sunday that it would acquire BellSouth (BLS) , consummating a long-rumored deal that would create a gigantic communications provider that reaches de ...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- After a decade of deal-making, the phone industry is running out of buyers and sellers. The latest deal, AT&T Inc.'s (T) agreement Sunday to buy BellSouth Corp. (BLS) for $67 billion, would remove one of the few major targets left in the phone business. BellSouth, the dominant local carrier in the South, was arguably the best-managed phone company in the U.S. It ...

By Richard Milne in Frankfurt and Lina Saigol in London Published: March 5 2006 17:50 | Last updated: March 5 2006 17:50Linde, the German industrial gas and fork-lift trucks group, will on Monday announce the £8bn ($14bn) agreed all-cash takeover of UK rival BOC, six weeks after making its initial approach. The deal, which is pitched at £16 a share, values BOC at a 40 per cent premium to its market capitalisation before the approach and will create the world's largest industrial gases group ahe ...

Jeff Prestridge, Mail on Sunday5 March 2006 PORTMAN, the third-biggest building society, will this week announce the takeover of Lambeth, triggering four-figure windfalls for the 67,000 customers of its London-based rival. WANT TO KNOW MORE? DEAL FINDER: Savings accounts DEAL FINDER: Current accounts BLOG: The rise of charging ATMs POLL: Some building societies have been accused of a lack o ...