MONDAY
Sony beats off fierce competition from Time Warner to buy MGM with a $5 billion (£2.8 billion) bid. Sony was joined at the last minute by Comcast, the cable TV giant. The consortium will pay $12 a share, or about $4.8 billion, including the assumption of $2 billion of debt, for the studio and its catalogue of 4,100 films. Lonrho Africa, the last remnant of Tiny Rowland’s empire, sells its Kenyan safari park for £8.32 million to Fauna & Flora International, the conservation body, of which Sir David Attenborough is vice-president. Compass Group, the caterer, is in talks to acquire Keith Prowse, the corporate hospitality company, for £10 million to £20 million. Entertainment Rights, the media group, buys Tell-Tale Productions, creator of the Tweenies, for £3.1 million.
TUESDAY
Jarvis admits it paid its disgraced directors £807,000 in retrospective bonuses that were withheld in the wake of the Potters Bar rail crash, which killed seven people, even though the company has not been cleared of responsibility for the May 2002 accident. Citigroup apologises for its controversial €11 billion (£7.5 billion) bond trade last month, ahead of a meeting by senior EU debt officers to discuss the implications of the bank’s aggressive trading strategy for Europe’s debt markets. The US Attorney General’s office demands boxes of documents relating to the alleged oil reserve fraud at Royal Dutch/Shell. Richard Caring, the retail entrepreneur, raises his bid for Wentworth golf club by £10 million to £110 million in an attempt to fend off rival bidders.
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WEDNESDAY
Santander Central Hispano, the Spanish bank, is in pole position to take control of Abbey after HBOS abandons plans to launch a rival bid. Richard North, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group, is sacked at the instigation of non-executive directors, led by David Webster, IHG’s chairman. The sacking comes less than a week after he delivered a 55 per cent jump in first-half profits and promised to return £1 billion to shareholders through £2.2 billion of asset disposals. BP’s stake in a Siberian gasfield is in jeopardy after the Russian Government threatens to withdraw the production licence for the operation within a month. British Airways announces it will cancel 966 flights from Heathrow over the next three months to alleviate strains at the airport.
THURSDAY
Tesco considers launching into Britain’s mortgage market to boost sales in financial services. Tesco Personal Finance — a joint venture between UK’s biggest supermarket and Royal Bank of Scotland — will decide on the plans in October. Sir Philip Watts, the ousted chairman of Shell, announces plans to challenge the Financial Services Authority in court, claiming it treated him unfairly in relation to the oil group’s reserves mis-statement scandal. Southern Cross Healthcare declares its intention to bid for Westminster Health Care, the nursing home operator with an estimated price tag of £450 million, which will make it the sector’s third-biggest operator.
WINNER OF THE WEEK
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Emilio Botín, the chairman of Santander Central Hispano, looks increasingly likely to succeed with his £8.9 billion bid for Abbey, the UK’s sixth-biggest bank. HBOS abandoned plans to launch a rival bid on Wednesday over fears that it could overpay if drawn into a bidding war.