Sunday Papers: LVMH finalises Hermès deal - tips, comment and bids

The Sunday Times

* LVMH yesterday finalised the €1.45 billion purchase of a 14.2% stake in Hermès.

* The Co-operative group is preparing a surprise sale of its £18 billion life assurance business, which provides cover to nearly three million customers in Britain.

* Potash Corporation will this week seek to bolster its defence against a hostile takeover bid from BHP Billiton with sparkling third-quarter earnings; the fertiliser producer is expected to report $472 million in pre-tax profits.

* Dealmakers at the London arm of TPG Capital, the private equity firm, have shared a £22 million payout for the year to December 2009.

* Brit Insurance, sponsor of the England cricket team, is expected to succumb this week to an £850 million takeover bid from Apollo and CVC Capital Partners, the buyout firms.

* Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP who has become a government education adviser, is leading a pack of bidders for $4 billion of Nigerian oil fields being sold by Royal Dutch Shell.

* Vico Capital, the property company started by Dublin solicitor Brian O’Donnell, tries to sell Sanctuary Buildings in Great Smith Street for €202 million to fund repayment on debt taken out on Canary Wharf investment.

* Thor Equities, the American investment company, and Meyer Bergman, the European private equity firm, have bought Burlington Arcade in London’s West End for £104 million.

* One of Britain’s largest caravan and holiday home groups, Park Holidays, is up for sale for about £200 million.

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* David Kuo, the director of the investment website Motley Fool, holds the iShares FTSE 100 exchange traded fund as the “bread and butter” of his pension fund.