Weekend review on Sky, Home Retail Group, J Sainsbury, Slater & Gordon, Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group.

There is plenty to reflect on in the British business press this weekend.

First off, I note that the Financial Times has done a reverse ferret of its position on whether wiley old Rupert Murdoch will have another run at Sky.

Back in early December 2015, the venerable newspaper was airing rumours about 21st Century Fox selling its stake in Sky - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3f8dd10-99a0-11e5-9228-87e603d47bdc.html#axzz3yqmVG5WT.

But on Saturday the Financial Times raised speculation that 21st Century Fox might look to revisit its bid for Sky following the appointment of James Murdoch of Chairman - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a1346788-c65a-11e5-993a-d18bf6826744.html#axzz3yqmVG5WT

To be fair, second guessing the Murdoch family's intentions is not for a faint hearted journalist -although I tried to have a crack late last year. Here are the links:

http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/skys-limit.html

http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/skys-limit-part-2.html

Moving on, The Sunday Times business section was once again packed full of juicy stories, with Oliver Shah digging up a compelling tale on J Sainsbury's takeover bid for Home Retail Group.

Olly line's about Schroders, Home Retail Group's largest shareholder, wanting at least 165p a share has subsequently been followed up by the Financial Times this evening. Here are links:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/article1662797.ece

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65c33632-c837-11e5-a8ef-ea66e967dd44.html#axzz3yqmVG5WT

There was another interesting nugget in The Sunday Times tucked away at the back of a story on  InterContinental Hotels Group written by Peter Evans.

The young hack reveals that Starwood confirmed in official documents it had talks last year with a "foreign bidder", widely believed to be IHG. And once IHG rejected a deal with Starwood it tried to rekindle talks with Starwood, according to the newspaper's interpretation on the documents.

I guess The Sunday Times article demonstrates how ridiculous IHG's denials and statements were when various newspapers, including the Financial Times, reported the FTSE 100 company had held talks with Starwood about a merger.

Elsewhere, there were a couple of pieces in The Sunday Telegraph that caught my eye.

Ben Marlow, an old colleague from my time at Mergermarket.com, has a genuinely intriguing story about how lenders to Slater & Gordon, the Australian outfit that bought Quindell for almost £640 million, have hired FTI Consulting to advise on debt restructuring.

Here is the link to Ben's piece:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/insurance/12131475/Quindells-spectre-still-looms-large-for-its-ill-fated-Aussie-owners.html

I understand Ben's tale is bang on the money, so it's potentially squeaky bum time for those shareholders in Slater & Gordon, who quite frankly have an appalling understanding of public relations and corporate communication (think about the number I times I broke stories about Slater & Gordon bidding for Quindell and the number of on-the-record denials of any such deal before sealing the transaction).

Also, The Sunday Telegraph has given Iain McVeigh of Jupiter Fund Management the chance to write yet another opinion piece about how Royal Dutch Shell's £40 billion takeover BG Group is/will be a terrible mistake. Yawn!