Thursday Papers: Reckitt snaps up SSL for £2.5bn - bid news and gossip

Paulson & Co is to launch a new fund open to retail investors

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by Himanshu Singh on Jul 22, 2010 at 03:02

Financial Times

* Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to buy SSL International in a £2.54bn deal.

* Paulson & Co is to launch a new fund open to retail investors that will track its existing investment strategies; the fund will be constructed as a so-called “Ucits” structure, domiciled onshore in Europe.

* BlackRock on Wednesday unveiled a second successive quarter of new business outflows reporting net outflows of $30.4bn in the second quarter; Larry Fink, chief executive, said outflows from clients would continue for “at least another quarter”; revenues surpassed $2bn in the quarter reaching $2.032bn, up 97 per cent on the same period a year ago.

* BlueOrchard has raised $195m for a type of private equity fund that will buy minority stakes in microfinance lenders to finance their expansion and modernisation.

* Sara Lee is reported to have hired investment banks to sell its North American bread business, which could fetch about $1.5bn.

* The board of United Biscuits, which is owned by private equity groups Blackstone and PAI Partners, met on Tuesday to approve a £2bn sale of the UK’s leading snack maker in an auction this year.

* PAI is holding a beauty contest between investment banks running an auction of its 50 per cent stake in Yoplait, which is likely to be valued at as much as €1.2bn.

* Morgan Stanley shares jumped sharply on Wednesday after better-than-expected quarterly results; the bank earned $1.4bn, or 80 cents a share, from continuing operations in the second quarter to June 30, against a loss of $138m, or $1.36 a share, in the same period a year earlier; revenue fell 12 per cent from the first quarter; institutional securities business earned $1.6bn on revenues of $4.5bn; fixed-income trading revenues more than doubled from a year ago to $2.3bn; equity trading revenues jumped 82 per cent to $1.4bn.

The Daily Telegraph

* Shop Direct Group increased its earnings by 38pc over the year to April 30.

* IG Group delivers record results on international growth; In the UK, IG Group's biggest market, revenues rose by 8pc to £163m; pre-tax profits were up 26pc for the year at £140m, on the back of total revenues of £299m, up 16.1pc.