Discount of $425m ends acrimonious battle over luxury sector’s biggest-ever deal
France’s LVMH will pay slightly less to buy the US jeweller Tiffany & Co after the two firms agreed to end a bitter dispute triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and salvage the luxury sector’s biggest-ever deal.
The new takeover price was set at $131.5 (£101.6) a share, down from $135 in the original deal, the companies said on Thursday, bringing the total price tag to about $15.8bn.
LVMH, or Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is the world’s biggest luxury goods group and is owned and run by Bernard Arnault, Europe’s richest man. Here are its main brands.
Related: Luxury player: why Bernard Arnault is making a blockbuster bid for Tiffany’s
Continue reading...Regulator says deal between controversial ticket resale firms would harm consumers
The takeover of ticket resale website StubHub by its rival Viagogo has been provisionally blocked by the competition watchdog, throwing the future of the controversial $4bn tie-up into doubt.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Viagogo, which pressed ahead with the deal despite a warning from the watchdog, must now address its concerns, potentially by selling all or part of StubHub.
Related: 170,000 jobs in UK's live music sector 'will be lost by Christmas'
Continue reading...Shares surge after news of hedge fund interest in buying UK’s fourth-largest broadband provider
Shares in Charles Dunstone’s TalkTalk surged by 16% after the telecoms company agreed to discuss a £1.1bn takeover bid.
The bid has come from Toscafund, the telecoms company’s second-largest shareholder. The TalkTalk board have agreed to negotiations but the hedge fund would have to get the backing of executive chairman and founder, Dunstone.
Continue reading...New state aid rules required to stop hostile countries getting access to firms, says chancellor
Britain needs new state aid rules in order to be able to protect itself against hostile states intent on stealing technological secrets and jobs, Rishi Sunak has said.
The chancellor said the UK had benefited from foreign investment but the government had to keep its eyes wide open to possible threats.
Continue reading...The Issas once worked at their parents’ petrol station. Now they own 6,000 forecourts in 10 countries
Mohsin and Zuber Issa were cleaning the toilets at their parents’ petrol station, they say, when they hit upon the idea of transforming the filling station into a “shopping destination”.
It turned out to be quite a big idea … their petrol station empire has since expanded to nearly 6,000 forecourts across 10 countries. It has turned the brothers into billionaires and on Friday it provided them with the firepower to take control of the vast Asda supermarket chain.
Continue reading...The pair and TDR Capital acquire majority ownership stake in supermarket
Asda has been sold to two billionaire brothers from Blackburn and the private equity firm TDR Capital in a deal that values the supermarket chain at £6.8bn.
On Friday, Asda, which is owned by the US retail giant Walmart, confirmed the sale to Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who made their fortunes running the EG Group petrol station group, and TDR.
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