L&G Ventures, the private equity arm of Legal & General, has made a cash offer to buy 1,000 local pubs from Bass, the hotel group, for around £620m.... [more]

The leaders of the city chapters of First Tuesday, the UK-based internet provider networking group that rose to prominence amid the bubble in web stocks, look set to buy the company back from Yazam, a... [more]

Pearse Flynn, a Glasgow-based businessman and former managing director of Newbridge Networks, a Canadian technology company, has made an approach to buy the non-mobile assets of Eircom, the former sta... [more]

Smith and Nephew, the medical devices group, that has undergone a radical restructuring, is looking for acquisitions to bolster its target of double-digit earnings growth from next year. The company i... [more]

Friends Provident, the mutual life insurer, is preparing to abandon its planned £4bn stockmarket flotation in favour of a sale to a rival insurer. Insurance industry insiders say that Satchel, the CE... [more]

Inflexion, the quoted venture capitalist, raised £40m last year and appears to have invested wisely. There are rumours in the market that a number of disposals are in the pipeline.... [more]

Sair Group, parent company of airline Swissair, has put its hotel division Swisshotel up for sale, in a move analysts believe could raise up to £500m. The company is understood to have asked its advi... [more]

The owner of the new economy magazine Business 2.0 confirmed that he had retained Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co to explore strategic options including the sale or joint venture. Future Network plc,... [more]

Atlantic 252, the ailing longwave radio station that broadcasts music to Britain from Dublin, is for sale. RTL, the pan-European TV and radio broadcaster that owns 80 percent of the station and RTE, ... [more]

Danka Business Systems, the photocopier supplier, is negotiating to sell its document outsourcing division, Danka Services International as part of a three pronged refinancing plan. Danka refused to c... [more]

RMC, the worlds biggest ready mix concrete producer is preparing to make a further £300m worth of disposals this year to improve prospects for the £2bn company. The management have identified several... [more]

Hamleys, the toy retailer has ended discussions about a possible sale of the business and decided to remain independent. ... [more]

Gearhouse Group, whose shares were suspended in December because it was unable to report its full year results called in the receivers Ernst and Young. The company hires out equipment for conferences... [more]

EuroTelecom, the communications and internet group chaired by the serial entrepeneur Chris Akers, has appointed administrators just ten months after raising £16m in a London listing. PWC, the adminis... [more]

Stanley Leisure, the gaming group, that owns Crockfords Casino in Mayfair, has made an approach to buy the 860 strong chain of Coral betting shops owned by Deutsche Bank's Morgan Grenfell Private equi... [more]

Elementis, the speciality chemicals group that put itself up for sale in December, reported a strong rise in full year profits, but warned that energy costs would affect performance in 2001. Pre-tax ... [more]

BP Amoco, the energy group, is said to be close to finalising the sale of Burmah Castrol's speciality chemicals business after whittling down to two financial buyers and one trade buyer. ... [more]