Business Grapevine

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The housebuilder has announced preferred bidder status for a residential scheme at Staffordshire. The project is to take place on a 16 acre site formerly occupied by Staffordshire Police. The police relocated to a new site over 12 months ago. A spokesman from the agents acting said “The selection of Taylor Wimpey following a robust process undertaken by Staffordshire Police Authority will deliver a broad mix of family homes sympathetic to the surrounding area and able to address housing need in this part of Staffordshire.”

100 new jobs are anticipated at a DIY store opening in Bangor. The shop is scheduled to open to the public in April, 2012. The site was formerly occuped by Focus DIY at Caenarfon Road and the outlet will be first in the north wales area for the retailer. A spokesman advised of a potential 100 job opportunities, both full and part time. All levels of ability will be required from general store assistants up to managerial posts for the more ambitious. A councillor said “I’m pleased to see the opening of any shop, because it means work for people in the area. We don’t have a lot of industry in this part of the country, and we depend on shops like this to give people work. We’re annoyed when we see shops leaving Bangor and people who have worked there for years losing their jobs, so I’ve been pushing for shops like this to come to the city. It’s tremendous when we get people places to work in Bangor.” Founder, Chris Dawson, stated “We would like to welcome the locals to the store’s opening, so that they can see first-hand what we are about. I would like to thank the council for welcoming us to Bangor with such open arms. It’s also fantastic to be creating so many jobs for the local area.”

A new foodstore has been agreed at Dalston in Carlisle. A sum of £500,000 has been earmarked to undertake the development. The site at Townhead Road is scheduled to open to the public at the end of March 2012. The present store in the village is to close and all staff will transfer and a number of new job opportunities are expected. An operations manager stated the new site would be larger and brighter. He said "The Co-operative is proud of its record of operating at the heart of many communities. We look forward to continuing to meet the community’s daily food shopping needs and make our contribution to local life.”

The outdoor clothing and equipment retailer has announced a new store in Ulverston in line with plans for expansion and growth in the U.K. The store is to form part of a larger retail development being undertaken in the area by Booths supermarket. The usual range of outdoor and camping goods will be on offer. Graham Booth, Booths property director, said: “We very much look forward to bringing more quality companies to the site, to share the large existing car park and to support our the offering of our Ulverston store.” Around 30 new jobs are expected in due course.

A new store has been opened at Yardley in the West Midlands. The supermarket has taken the place of an old shopping precinct. At the store opening, a presentation was made by Yardley Primary School providing £1,000 towards the Yardley Fundraisers project, aimed at improving facilities for the children. Store manager Simon Warren stated “It was a pleasure to cut the ribbon alongside Coun Ward – my team and I were delighted to have the opportunity to show her the new store. We have really enjoyed working with the staff and pupils at Yardley Primary School over the last few months and so it was fantastic to be able to provide the Yardley Fundraiser with the launch donation.” A petrol station is scheduled to open at the site towards the end of 2012.

The fashion retailer has announced a sale of the firm. However, the move will result in a possible 224 store closures. Edinburgh Woollen Mill have agreed to purchase 388 stores operating under the banner name together with the head office and supply sites in Wales. KPMG have announced the successful sale. 6,000 jobs will be safeguarded but over 3000 staff will be laid off by store closures. In addition 16 redundancies are expected at the headquarters. A spokesman said “Today’s deal ensures the continued trading of a well known name on the high street. While it is unfortunate that redundancies have been necessary, we are pleased that we have been able to preserve the majority of the business and jobs. Like many other retailers, Peacocks suffered from a decline in consumer spending due to the tough economic conditions and this, combined with a surplus of stores and unsustainable capital structure led to the business becoming financially unviable. However, a strong brand presence and loyal customer following meant that Peacocks attracted a great deal of interest from both trade and private equity bidders, leading to today’s successful sale.”

It is feared that up to 140 jobs could be axed with the closure of the firm's factory in York. The factory, which makes salads and coleslaw, has lost a contract with a supermarket chain. The factory, on Shipton Road, in York was previously owned by Fisher Foods before being bought by the international food group in 2003. It is understood the firm is trying to secure new contracts to keep the factory operating.


Mergers & Acquisitions

The British Gas owner is to acquire the Total non-operated portfolio of producing oil and gas assets (and associated infrastructure) in the Central North Sea (CNS). The acquisition, worth $388m (£246m), is expected to add around 5% to Centrica's existing 2P (proven plus probable) reserves, an addition of 22m barrels of oil equivalents (36% gas, 64% oil). The portfolio includes seven producing fields in three major areas - Greater Amrada, the Alba field and the Mungo and Monan cluster - and is expected to produce 9,300 barrels of oil equivalents per day. "Today's announcement marks another step in the growth of our upstream oil and gas business," said Managing Director Mark Hanafin. "This acquisition in the North Sea provides a good fit with our existing portfolio and strategy, bringing strong cash flow and adding value for Centrica. It underlines our commitment to invest where we see attractive opportunities, securing future energy supplies for the UK," he said. It expects the purchase to add immediate cash flow and raise its scale in the CNS region. "The transaction will also help to maintain the mix of oil in its upstream portfolio," the firm said. The agreement is subject to UK government approval and other closing conditions. source sharecast

The world's largest interdealer broker, has acquired Singaporean shipbroking company Island Shipbrokers Pte Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Its shipping arm, ICAP Shipping, has been involved with Island Shipbrokers since its inception and the synergy and working relationship between the two are said to be already "excellent". Island Shipbrokers's core business is tanker chartering, sale and purchase, new building contracts and shipping projects. It has net asset of $2.4m and gross assets of $8.4m. "Island Shipbrokers' extensive experience in the tanker chartering and sale and purchase markets will complement our existing London and Shanghai operations and strengthen ICAP Shipping's growth in the Asia region," said Shipping's Chief Executive Officer Henry Liddell. "Island Shipbrokers is a leader in Asia and we are delighted to welcome such experienced professionals onboard," he said. source sharecast


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Mergers & Acquisitions Grapevine is a weekly digest of M & A activity within the UK. It covers the past week, but is updated daily. It is a source of accurate and reliable information concerning UK Mergers & Acquisitions activity. The Mergers & Acquisitions Grapevine service contains much more than the standard free service, a sample of which is provided on this page, and is ideal for companies that wish to remain well informed about Mergers & Acquisitions, as well as those companies that would like to offer their products, services or consulting skills to organisations experiencing significant corporate changes. Companies undergoing mergers, performing acquisitions or divestments would obviously fit this description.

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The FTSE 250 European industrial property firm, has offloaded a portfolio of five "non-core" UK industrial estates to Ignis Asset Management for £80.2m. The sales represents a net initial yield of 6.3%, 7% including the benefit of rent top-ups and guarantees. The disposal of the five estates is in line with the group's strategy announced in November 2011 to focus its UK multi-let industrial portfolio on London and the South East - "this disposal marks a positive step forward in the execution of these plans," the statement said. The industrial estates - Trilogy in Fareham, Southern Cross Distribution Park in Southampton, Emersons Green in Bristol, Gatwick Gate in Crawley and Motor Park in Portsmouth - have a total lettable space of 74,734 square metres and is currently fully let. "We continue to make good progress on our strategic objectives, which includes the reshaping of our portfolio to ensure that we hold the highest quality assets in the strongest markets," said Chief Investment Officer Phil Redding. "With this disposal, our plans have taken a further, positive step forward following the recently-completed acquisition of the prime UKLF logistics warehouse units. The sale of these assets demonstrates that, despite the uncertain economic environment, investor demand for industrial assets remains resilient," he said. source sharecast

The Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT) has spent £60.51m buying industrial park assets from SEGRO. The income from the properties totals £4.67m per year, representing a net initial yield of 7.34%. The transaction will be financed primarily through the use the £150m credit facility that the firm agreed with Barclays Bank in May 2011. The assets include Emerald Park East in Bristol, a modern industrial estate which generates £1.71m per year; Gatwick Gate in Crawley, yielding £1.11m per year and Motor Park in Portsmouth which generates £1.84m per year. The Chairman, Christopher Hill, said of the deal: "This transaction fits well with our strategy of acquiring good quality assets that, particularly in these uncertain economic times, both complement our existing portfolio and offer strong, defensive income characteristics." source sharecast

The paper and packaging firm is aiming to buy out the minority interest in its Polish operation Mondi Swiecie. If the company can persuade all the outstanding shareholders to sell their stakes the deal will cost around €280m. The all cash offer of €16.48 per share is being made at a premium of 15.6% over the average share price of the last three months. The expected completion is mid-April but is dependent on Mondi achieving minimum acceptances of 14% of Mondi Swiecie shares (to bring the Mondi Group's total interest in the company to not less than 80%). The plan would then be to de-list Mondi Swiecie from the Warsaw Stock Exchange, with the absorbed company adding 9.4% to Mondi Group's underlying earnings. source sharecast

The International engineer group has spent £22m in cash on buying Brazilian isolation valve business Grupo InterAtiva. InterAtiva operates a 9,000 square metre facility near Sao Paolo in which it design, assembles and distributes isolation valves to several end markets including oil and gas, sugar and ethanol production and water treatment. The group, along with its 70 employees, will join IMI's Severe Service division. The consideration, which is being funded by IMI's existing resources and banking facilities, is in addition to a deferred consideration of up to £21m subject to financial targets over the next three years. "InterAtiva has existing strong customer relationships and approvals in Brazil with both the major engineering, procurement and construction firms and also with the major oil and gas companies," IMI said. "With an experienced management team, and capacity for final assembly, it will be a strong platform for IMI's existing severe service isolation valve brands, including Orton and TruFlo Rona, to enter this market." source sharecast

Infrastructure investment firm HICL Infrastructure has acquired majority control of the Dorset Fire & Rescue project after doing a deal with Morgan Sindall Investments. HICL has bought an additional 33.5% equity and loan note interest in the project from Morgan Sindall Investments, bringing the group's total interest in the project to 67%. The total consideration paid by the group was £3.8m, which is in line with the current valuation of similar UK private finance initiatives projects in the group's portfolio. The acquisition was funded from the group's existing cash and debt resources. The project is a 27-year concession to design, build, finance and maintain a combined Police and Emergency Services Headquarters building in Poole, a Fire Station in Poole and a Fire Station and Fire Services headquarters building in Dorchester. source sharecast

The Bank's insurance business has been renamed Direct Line Group ahead of a possible initial public offering (IPO). The sale was forced on the bank by the European Competition Commission in exchange for allowing the British tax payer to fund the bank's £45bn bailout in 2008. The terms of the EU's judgement state that the IPO, or a sale to another insurance firm or private equity business, must leave the bank with a stake below 50% by 2013. By 2014 the bank must have achieved a complete exit. Direct Line Group could be a FTSE 100 company. As well as the Direct Line brand, the group will include Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag. Direct Line itself is Britain's biggest car insurer while the combined group earned written premiums of £4.4bn in 2010.

The gold miner has reported that progress is being made at the El Facho structure of its Zamora gold project through its Spanish joint venture with Ormonde Mining. Two drill rigs are on site and drilling is now taking place on the fifth and sixth holes of the nine hole programme. The current drilling campaign has completed over 1,000m of core drilling across the four completed holes and the two holes currently in progress. Core samples from the first two holes have been forwarded for testing and results are expected soon. The joint venture will also shortly begin drilling at the highly prospective Peralonso permit area in Salamanca Province, where previous drilling returned some interesting results including an interval of five metres grading 5.4g/t gold. The firm also said it is now progressing quickly towards spending €0.5m over the initial eighteen months of the joint venture to earn its majority interest in the permits that are the subject of the agreement with Ormonde. The company anticipates that expenditure on the joint venture will be around €0.45m by the end of March 2012 and it is expected that Aurum will have earned its majority stake shortly thereafter. source sharecast

The mobile telecoms and software firm, has purchased Dialect Technologies, a New York specialist provider of Internet protocol (IP) telecoms technologies. The acquisition establishes the firm in the strategically important US market. The AIM-listed company will pay $0.8m in total, with $0.273m having already been handed over, while $0.227m is due within one year of the takeover and a further $0.3m is payable which the firm achieves certain targets in 2014. Costis Papadimitrakopoulos, Chief Executive Officer,, said: "We are very excited by the acquisition of Dialect. It represents a significant strategic step for Globo as it strengthens our international mobile product offering and provides a platform for our expansion into the US enterprise market." source sharecast

The acquisitive advertising conglomerate has announced that XM Asia, a division of WPP's wholly-owned operating company, JWT, has agreed to acquire a stake in Magnivate, a leading digital agency in Indonesia. Magnivate, which was founded in 2010, has clients which include Danone, Samsung and Unilever. The agency's unaudited revenues for the year ended December 31st 2011 were around IDR 16bn (c.£1.1m), with gross assets at the same date at about IDR 7 bn (c.£0.49m) The firm also announced that its wholly-owned operating company, tenthavenue, in partnership with GroupM, has agreed to acquire Wisereach, a leading mobile marketing agency in China. The businesses in the Asia Pacific region now generate annual revenues of over $4bn, while Greater China is currently its fourth largest market with revenues of $1.1bn. source sharecast

The group has proposed to buy Australia-listed mining equipment manufacturer Ludowici for A$294m (£200m), stepping on the shoes of Danish peer FLSmidth which made an indicative proposal for the firm last month. The FTSE 100 engineering solutions provider says it would pay A$7.92 per Ludowici share, representing a 10% premium to FLSmidth's indicative proposal of A$7.20 a share, announced on January 23rd. Nevertheless, the "indicative proposal is subject to the satisfactory completion of due diligence and may or may not lead to an offer," the group said. Brisbane-based Ludowici provides vibrating screens, centrifuges and complementary wear resistant products and services to the mining industry with a focus on coal applications. "Ludowici is a well known and respected brand in the coal processing sector," said Chief Executive Keith Cochrane. "The potential acquisition would extend Weir's offering in minerals processing and expand our exposure to the attractive and fast growing coal sector where Weir is relatively unrepresented. As a part of the global Weir Minerals business, we would look to accelerate the growth of Ludowici, consistent with Weir's 2010 acquisition of Linatex." source sharecast

The private equity investor which owns Hugo Boss and Birds Eye frozen food firm iglo, has seen a 10.9% rise in its net asset value (NAV). The unaudited NAV per share at the end of 2011 was 350.2p. The movement has been driven by a significant increase in the valuation of Hugo Boss, which rose £96.1m between 2010 and 2011 on the back of improved earnings. Iglo jumped £18.1m. During the course of the year SVG received £247m in distributions including the part sale of its stake in the Chinese gaming firm Galaxy Entertainment for £70.5m. It says it will return £170m to shareholders in the form of tender offers and share buy backs during 2012. source sharecast

The construction firm is to commence a new project at the Bevis Marks site in London. Outline plans show a 170000 square feet office accommodation scheme to be designed and built an estimated cost of £50M. The building is to be built to a BREAAM standard with a roof garden at the top. Designed to be over 80% more efficient than the building presently standing at the site.

The car components firm is closing its factory in Powys and relocating to a new base in Wrexham after landing a £12m order with General Motors. The firm's 49 staff in Welshpool have been offered jobs at the Wrexham site, which opened earlier this year. The company won an order last year to supply interior parts for the new Vauxhall Astra. The firm makes components for some of the world's leading motor manufacturers, including Bentley, Audi and Volvo. The company's expansion is being backed with money from the Welsh government's repayable business finance scheme. Its new site, a 70,000 sq ft building on Wrexham Industrial Estate, was previously occupied by German company BoS, which switched production to Hungary and Romania four years ago with the loss of 125 jobs.

The construction giant has announced a major project award for Associated British Ports. The firm will undertake the design and build of a new ro-ro site to be used for vehicle transfer into this country. A 250 metre long jetty will be built together with a 195 metre long smaller jetty and a large floating site together with a bridge link. The jetties will be built using driven steel tubular piles with a mixture of precast and in situ concrete decks. Included in the works will be dredging, construction of a large car parking area together with maintenance and engineering works.

The construction giant has announced a new contract to refurbish the underground stations at Liverpool. Jag Paddam, Infrastructure managing director, stated : “On this project, whilst a number of the stations themselves will be closed, we will be undertaking a series of night time working schedules so that trains can continue to pass through and thus minimise disruption to the travelling public.” Construction is set to commence in April, 2012 with completion in 18 months.

The construction firm has announced the award of a £4M supermarket contract at Warrington. The work is being undertaken for Sainsbury's - Contracts Manager, Chris Allott, stated “We have a wide range of retail experience including the construction of a shell for Sainsbury’s in Neston, Cheshire, in December 2010 and we’re delighted to have won this most recent project.” Completion of the exterior is scheduled for April, 2012.