A well-connected City Spy reader gets in touch about the UBS scandal and alleged rogue trader Kweku Adoboli. "Perhaps people are looking the wrong way for who caused UBS's losses," he says... more
SVG Capital, which invests in private-equity firm Permira's deals, has cashed in winnings after Permira more than doubled its money with a hugely successful punt on the Chinese gambling market
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Big rises in the valuations of Hugo Boss and Asian gambling group Galaxy Entertainment drove a 25 per cent jump in SVG Capital's asset value in the first six months of the year... more
Clearly stung by the IMF's decision to back George Osborne's economic plans and his refusal to adopt Plan B on the deficit, David "Danny" Blanchflower is on the offensive... more
Alittle over a year ago, I dissed the plans for a £1.7 billion flotation of New Look on the highly scientific grounds of where my teenage daughters liked to use my credit card. They preferred Primark at one end of Oxford Street and Top Shop at the other... more
Tom Singh takes back management control of his New Look fashion empire, ousting the chief executive and chairman and moving himself into the top job... more
Fashion chain New Look's value is slashed by almost half by its private-equity backers after it failed to float with a £1.7 billion price tag 12 months ago... more
Private equity firms Permira and KKR are planning to sell eight million of their non-voting preferred shares in German broadcaster ProSiebenSat1 — nearly 4% of the business... more
East London Bus Group buckles under the weight of its debt and collapses into administration, to be bought immediately by its one-time owner Stagecoach... more
City Comment: You could be forgiven for not noticing that Guy Hands has been desperate to raise extra capital to keep EMI out of the clutches of its bankers... more
Sir Mervyn Pedelty, former chief executive of Co-op Financial Sevices, and a non-executive director of insurance groups Hiscox and Resolution has died at the age of 61... more
SVG Capital, the stock market listed way into private equity giant Permira, today said that it expects conditions for selling on companies or floating their shares to improve particularly among its more mature and defensive investments ... more
A rare deal emerged from the frozen wastelands of the private-equity industry today as Permira struck a £225.5 million deal to buy life insurer Just Retirement after nearly a year of negotiations ... more
The private-equity market is expected to be dead for the next year or so but one of the first big deals to come on to the market could be the giant AA-Saga Group combine ... more
London-listed Indian mining group Vedanta's huge debt mountain threatened to cast a long-term shadow over its expansion plans as credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said it had placed the group on its CreditWatch list with "negative implications"... more
Shares in soft drinks supplier Britvic slumped 15p to 275½p after its biggest shareholder was forced to dump almost 14% of the company, worth £80.1 million, in the market place... more
Finance: SVG Capital, the listed private-equity fund that backs Permira, went cap in hand to shareholders for funds, and warned the value of its investments have plunged 40% in the last six months... more
IN a week when one of our largest charities, the Wellcome Foundation, has invited bids for its £3.8 billion (£2.6 billion) private-equity portfolio, when the American giant KKR - the original barbarian at the gate - sold a large chunk of its own portfolio at a discount and both Carlyle in the US and Permira, one of the biggest British houses, sent a message to potential investors offering help should they struggle to meet their funding commitments, it becomes pretty obvious the stresses of the credit crunch are biting in this sector too. ... more
Afternoon:
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