Financial News

Tony Hazell, Daily Mail7 April 2006 MORE than 800,000 Bristol & West savers will see their accounts fully merged into Britannia from the beginning of July. WANT TO KNOW MORE? DEAL FINDER: Current accounts DEAL FINDER: Isas and savings accounts SPECIAL REPORT: Mutual watch OTHER STORIES Child trust funds - one year on New Isas for new tax year New on the market Post Office account pays 4.75% Link urged to end Post Office deadlock USEFUL SAVINGS LINKS EMAIL US: Conta ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Lexar Media Inc., the flash-card memory maker, has yet to win the support of one of its biggest shareholders for its pending merger with Micron Technology. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Thursday, the investment group of billionaire Carl Icahn said Lexar officials tried to "persuade" them in an April 5 meeting to support Micron's offer of roughl ...

The European bond market must improve documentation in new issues to avoid intervention from regulators, some of the region’s biggest investors have warned. // Trade associations representing European investors, companies and investment banks on Thursday proposed steps to improve the documentation that states the rights and commitments of investors and borrowers in new bond issues. Bond investor ...

By Siobhan Kennedy and Richard Barley LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity firms could set their sights on UK mid-cap companies after failing to clinch a string of multibillion-pound takeovers of blue-chips, a top Morgan Stanley banker said. In the past few weeks, the cash-rich firms have been forced to walk away from a series of proposed deals after their bids were rejected by chief executives who said they could create better value by remaining independent. "There's still a huge amount of priv ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Hot on the heels of a record earnings report and following an approximately 60% rise in its shares over the last year, Lehman Brothers Holdings management issued another vote of confidence in the firm's outlook Thursday in announcing a 2-for-1 stock split. "They are confident in performance going forward; essentially it is a way of politely telegraphing the market that t ...

Prudential shares perked up on Thursday amid speculation that Axa was preparing a move for the life assurer. // Prudential jumped 4 per cent to 677½p as rumours circulated that the French insurer was ready to make a move on Prudential just two weeks after Aviva abandoned its £17bn approach. Observers thought there might be something behind the chatter, pointing out that one of the reasons Aviva ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Car dealer Lookers Plc (LOOK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) confirmed on Thursday it rejected a proposed takeover bid by Pendragon Plc (PDG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) after Britain's biggest car dealer said it had posted its offer document to Lookers shareholders. Lookers reiterated its advice to Lookers shareholders to "reject this inadequate offer of 1.15 Pendragon shares per Lookers share." Lookers said in March that Pendragon's all-share offer valued each of its shares ...

Analysts said the approach was likely to be from Oaktree, a US private equity firm that has ice cream operations in northern Europe. Richmond is interested in expanding on the Continent and has targeted regions like Scandinavia and Germany.Richmond's announcement sent the shares up 50p to 656.5p, valuing the Leeming Bar-based company at more than £150m.Steve Scott, of Brewin Dolphin in Leeds, said ...

By Louise Heavens LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 index rose to fresh five-year highs on Thursday, with PartyGaming leading the charge after dealers cited opposition to a U.S. bill aimed at cracking down on Internet gambling. By 10:47 a.m. the FTSE 100 index was up 7.7 points at 6,051.8 -- losing some altitude from an earlier rise to 6,073.3, the highest level since February 2001. Dealers said the mood was somewhat cautious ahead of the Bank of England's interest rate announcement at midday. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Nordic bourse operator and technology firm OMX (OMX.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) has hired Credit Suisse to advise it on a possible tie-up with the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research) The Daily Telegraph newspaper said on Thursday. OMX, which runs exchanges in Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen and the Baltics, has asked the investment bank to look into a ti ...