Done Deals
- Financial adviser Carterbar has acquired Graeme Watson Independent Financial Advisers for an undisclosed sum
- South Korea-based STX Group has increased its stake in Europe’s largest ship maker Aker Yards to 88.4 per cent in a deal worth $632 million (£338.7 million)
- Birmingham-based Floors-2-Go has been bought out of administration by its founding family for an undisclosed amount
- News Corp and private equity firm Permira Advisers have completed a deal to take set-top box maker NDS Group private. The £33.7-per-share cash deal is worth a total of $1.52 billion (£814 million)
- Wynnstay, an agricultural and retail group has completed its acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent capital of Welsh Feed Producers
- Daft Media, owners of property site daft.ie, has bought a minority stake in online forum website boards.ie for an undisclosed sum
Deals in the pipeline
- AIM-listed Synchronica, a mobile e-mail and synchronisation specialist, has entered a conditional acquisition agreement with the operating subsidiary of rival AxisMobile. Synchronica has raised £5.1 million to fund the deal
- British bank HBOS may be offered Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Australian unit BankWest for $5.2 billion ($2.8 billion)
- Lonrho Mining has signed an option to sell its 80 per cent stake in Schmidtsdrift to New African Mining for approximately £7.2 million
- Oxford BioMedica’s shares jumped 27 per cent after it received a takeover approach from GeneThera. The bid, however, was rejected<
- Telecoms firm Vodafone, is in talks with TDC to buy part of their stake in Polish mobile carrier Polkomtel. Vodafone already owns 19.6 per cent of Polkomtel
- Israeli drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is in talk to purchase German rival Stada Arzneimittal
- Informa, a provider of specialist information to the global academic and scientific community, is subject to a bid by private equity firms Blackstone, Providence and Carlyle
