That meeting - part 2

Today's business splash in The Times is rather intriguing.

Harry Wilson - City editor at The Times and a former colleague from time at The Daily Telegraph - reveals that Eric Daniels, former chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, was told about Libor rigging at a BBA meeting in 2008.

Friday Fun - the billionaire entrepreneur, the intrepid hack and, er, Twitter

Is that Benji Martin sitting alongside Sir Richard Branson (see below)?

Well, if it is I take my hat off to the top Telegraph reporter because I have to admit, I can't say I ever got to appear in a public picture with such a powerful business person during my 8-year career on the paper.

An economics scoop

The times they are a changin in the high-flying world of British economics journalism.

When I was young M&A reporter on The Daily Telegraph landing fact-based deal scoops I always used to wonder why economics journalists didn't attempt to do carry out a similar style of reporting.

Green Day

The Telegraph interview with the head of the Serious Fraud Office caught my eye as I was re-reading recent business coverage. Here is the link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/09/britains-anti-fraud-chief-david-green-battles-the-critics-and-ci/

The acerbic commentator, the SFO and lingering investigations

The Serious Fraud Office took a bit of pasting yesterday in the British business press following it's move to close its criminal investigation into the $5 trillion-a-day global currency markets after two years of investigation.

Among the business commentariat, Alistair Osborne - a former boss and colleague during my time at The Daily Telegraph but now at the The Times - was being particularly acerbic towards the SFO, dubbing it the "seriously flawed office". Here is a link to Alistair's caustic column, which also raises some important points:

The maverick retailer, the upper class fund manager and ... spoof

James "Quinny" Quinn, the group business editor of The Daily Telegraph, has just published a rather good story about the urbane Crispin Odey upping his stake in Sports Direct to back over 5pc. Here is the link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/12098486/sports-direct-crispin-odey-share-price-fall-5pc-investor.html

4 into 3 or 6 into 5?

Ben Marlow's comment piece in today's The Daily Telegraph is worth a read.

Marlow - a former colleague from time as a cub reporter at Mergermarket.com and a top hack - makes some interesting points about Britain's beleaguered supermarket sector and the potential for consolidation. In case you missed Marlow's article, here is the link:

Mega consortium comes together for London City Airport; China's HNA also rumoured to have submitted first round offer - part 3

This slipped under the radar yesterday thanks to some end-of-year merrymaking but I note that Ben Martin over at The Sunday Telegraph ran a story about a "mega consortium" coming together to mount a £2 billion bid for London City Airport.

Here is a link to Ben's piece:

Mega consortium comes together for London City Airport; China's HNA also rumoured to have submitted first round offer

I have a little update on the sale of every City dealmakers' favourite airport.

Ever since news of the £2 billion sale of London City airport broke in the Financial Times this summer bidders have been circling the asset.

Tuesday review

I thought I would do a little newspaper review on a Tuesday as there were plenty of brilliant stories knocking about in the British business sections today.

First of, I would just like to congratulate my old mate Graham "Ruddy" Ruddick - a former colleague from my time at The Daily Telegraph and one of the nicest chaps in financial journalism - for landing a story about healthcare group Four Seasons of the front page of the main book, yes the main book, of The Guardian. Here is a link to Graham's piece:

Another brilliant Alex Masterley cartoon...

The Daily Telegraph's Alex cartoon made me laugh this morning. It's also spot on (as in factually accurate).

I can't quite find the link to today's section but if you have a spare moment during lunch, it's well worth reading.

Alex back and in fine fettle

Great to see The Daily Telegraph's Alex Masterley cartoon back from holiday and on cracking form - today's piece really did make me chuckle. Here is a link to his brilliant cartoon:

http://www.alexcartoon.com/index.cfm?cartoons_id=4965

Marlow cooks up another massive drugs deal

Ben Marlow's comment column in today's The Daily Telegraph caught my eye this morning. Not only is it a well written piece of prose but it also contains a story I myself had been chasing for the last month or so.

Ben's comment column - click on the link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11564744/If-its-Astra-bid-was-crazy-is-Pfizer-plotting-something-even-more-bonkers.html - appears to suggest US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is plotting a multi-billion bid for GlaxoSmithKline.

Who's the mug, now

Ben Wright, one of the senior Telegraph business bods, has written a rather insightful and amusing comment piece on dealmaking entitled "when it comes to picking prices for buying and selling, we're all mugs". Here is the link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11449742/Heres-why-mergers-and-acquisitions-activity-is-in-the-doldrums.html

Alex on the money - again

The Alex cartoon strip in the The Daily Telegraph was once again highly amusing. Here is a link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/alex/?cartoon=11385507&cc=11383320

Indeed, I can't help but wonder whether Mark Carney might go through a whole term as Governor of the Bank of England without ever overseeing a major change in UK interest rates...

Ruddy on Ashley

Graham Ruddick has written a particularly good viewpoint piece in this morning's Telegraph.

Graham - a jolly nice chap, a former colleague and one of the best young hacks I have ever worked with - attempts to unravel what maverick Mike Ashley is up to by shuffling his shareholdings about in Sports Direct.

FTSE 100 review of 2014 - top ten risers and fallers

Happy new year Betavillers!

There are plenty of excellent stock market review pieces out this morning in British national newspapers. I particularly enjoyed Martin Waller's 2014 review of the FTSE 350 in the The Times. Here is a link to his piece: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/markets/article4311050.ece

Vodafone, Vodafone - part 2

There appear to be some pretty divergent views within the financial media about what mega deal Vodafone is planning to do next.

Last Friday Bloomberg reported that Vodafone was looking at a $130 billion merger with Jon Malone's Liberty Global: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-28/vodafone-said-to-eye-takeover-of-malone-s-liberty-global.html

This morning, Christopher Williams of The Daily Telegraph seems to be reporting the exact opposite: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11270650/Vodafone-chief-denies-bid-for-Virgin-Media-owner-Liberty-Global.html

Hunting for Foxtons - part 2

Hat tip Harriet Dennys, the City diarist over at The Daily Telegraph, for tracking down Jon Hunt's spokesman and getting him/her to provide some sort of comment on the recent speculation the founder of Foxtons may be interested in buying the estate agency back of the public markets.

As Harriet points out today, a spokesman for the former Army officer refused to deny the takeover talk. Here is a link to Harriet's column:

German humour

Alistair Osborne's business comment column in The Times today is well worth read. Osborne is an acerbic writer and professional wind up merchant who I used to work with at The Daily Telegraph. His comment on Rocket Internet's IPO is particularly amusing. Here is a link to it:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/alistairosborne/article4217149.ece