Travelodge chiefs to share in £26m
The top 37 managers of Travelodge will share £26 million after the sale of the budget hotel chain to Dubai International Capital (DIC), the owner of Tussauds Group, for £675 million. DIC, which is buying from Permira, is backing the incumbent management, led by Grant Hearn, chief executive, and Keith Hamill, chairman. It will focus on expanding the 291-unit chain’s UK presence while expanding in India, Spain and Eastern Europe.Foot
Foot Locker move
Foot Locker, America’s biggest retailer of sports shoes, said that it had appointed Evercore Partners to advise it “on a range of matters”. Speculation over a buyout has been circulating since May. Foot Locker made no comment on buyout interest.
Advertisement
Apple put on delinquent list
Apple has been added to Nasdaq’s list of “delinquent companies”, a step that brings the firm closer to a potential delisting. The move comes after the computer company said last week that it would have to delay its third-quarter results as it presses on with an internal inquiry into stock options. The iPod maker has admitted that it will probably be forced to cut earnings for the past four years — when it reported profits of more than $3 billion (£1.5 billion). Apple also faces criticism over working conditions at an iPod plant in China.
Tobacco shares up
Shares in the big cigarette companies rose after an American court rejected US government demands that the tobacco industry fund a $10 billion (£5.3 billion) stop-smoking campaign on Thursday night. Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco were both in demand on relief that the industry had not been hit by the proposed levy.
Advertisement
Microsoft buyback
Microsoft unveiled plans to increase its share buyback programme by $16.2 billion (£8.6 billion) to about $36 billion over the next five years after an unconventional tender offer for its own stock fell flat with investors. The US software group said it had succeeded in repurchasing only $3.8 billion of its shares in a tender offer priced at $24.75 a share this week.
Alitalia soars
Shares in Alitalia, the Italian airline, soared in Milan after reports in the French media that France had offered Italy a deal under which Air France-KLM would rescue the financially troubled airline in return for a commitment by Enel, Italy’s biggest electricity supplier, that it would not intervene in the proposed merger between Gaz de France and Suez.
Gazprom boost
Advertisement
Gazprom will become the top emerging markets stock, outpacing Samsung Electronics of South Korea, after Morgan Stanley reweighted Russia’s gas monopoly from 2.9 per cent of its emerging markets index to 5.9 per cent from next month. Traders said that that would boost the share price of the world’s largest gas producer. Index trackers will be able to invest more in the company.
Options revoked
Comverse Technology, acting in the wake of criminal charges levelled last week against its three former top officers related to options backdating, said it had cancelled the trio’s employment agreements and revoked their stock options. Kobi Alexander, David Kreinberg and William Sorin were charged with conspiracy related to a decade-long scheme to manipulate options.