Saturday Papers: FriendFinder Networks makes $210m bid for Playboy - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* The owner of Penthouse, FriendFinder Networks, has made a $210m bid for Playboy in an attempt to trump a bid by Hugh Hefner to take private the adult entertainment empire he founded and controls.

* Citigroup notched a second consecutive quarter in the black; the banking group, which had to be rescued by the government during the crisis, recorded net income of $2.7bn in the second quarter, down 37 per cent from a year ago; its investment bank reported net income of $1.7bn.

* Kent Reliance is poised to sign an agreement next week with JC Flowers that will see the 150-year-old building society relinquish control of slightly less than half of its assets in exchange for a £50m cash injection from the private equity group.

* BlueBay Asset Management projected lower-than-expected annual profits amid lacklustre inflows from investors; funds managed by the company fell 7 per cent to $34.3bn in the three months to the end of June; it forecasted a full-year pre-tax profit of £50m, about 10 per cent less than analysts’ expectations.

* Spain’s Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring has disposed of CajaSur, a failed savings bank previously run by Roman Catholic priests in Córdoba; the buyer is Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa,a savings bank from the prosperous Basque country in the north.

* Armajaro, which runs several commodities funds, took delivery on Friday of 240,100 tonnes of cocoa, the biggest delivery from London’s Liffe exchange since 1996, helping to drive prices of the basic ingredient of chocolate to their highest level in 33 years.

* Ocado will make a final push to persuade investors to back its initial public offering in the next few days as it looks poised to float near the bottom of the £800m-£1.1bn valuation range.

The Daily Telegraph

* BMW pays German – but not British – staff €1,000 thank you bonus.

* Kate Bleasdale, the colourful businesswoman behind listed medical recruitment company Healthcare Locums (HCL), has agreed a £6.7m deal to buy the business and assets of a company owned by her husband, John Cariss.

* Burberry has bought out its Chinese business partner for £70m; restructuring plan will enable fashion brand to keep tighter rein on global image.