Group Lotus, the sports car and engineering concern majority owned by Proton of Malaysia, is to sell a Coventry consultancy engineering business it bought only two years ago. ... [more]

Cedar Group, the troubled software company which issued a profits warning last week, has put Sword, its bingo gaming subsidiary, up for sale to avoid breaching its banking covenants. ... [more]

Whitbread has reopened talks with other bidders for its Curzon fitness clubs chain, in case the favoured buyer, a consortium led by P.R. guru Matthew Freud,is unable to complete the deal. The chain is... [more]

Pernod Ricard, the French drinks company, is currently in talks to dispose of its BWG grocery distribution operation. It is selling a number on non-core assets to focus solely on alcoholic drinks. ... [more]

The computer companies Hewlett-Packard and Compaq will offer to sell off part of their £11bn server business if regulators stand in the way of their £60bn deal. It is believed that in some areas the c... [more]

Brake-fluid-to-drinks dispensers group IMI is to sell businesses accounting for 35% of its turnover. The 10 businesses on offer include a copper and plastic pipe manufacturer and IMI’s building produc... [more]

Pirelli, the Italian tyre and cable maker, is to sell parts of its business empire in a £1bn+ disposal programme. Investment bank Lazard has been appointed to sell Pirelli Energy Cables & Systems, lik... [more]

Consignia, formerly the Post Office, is putting its entire 40,000-strong fleet of vehicles up for sale in a bid to save money. The company is seeking partners for the three main parts of its fleet ser... [more]

Hotel and restaurant company Whitbread has put 34 of its Brewers Fayre restaurants up for sale. Whitbread denies rumours that it is planning to quit restaurants and focus on its hotel and leisure oper... [more]

Charles Taylor Consulting has acquired the general aviation loss adjusting business of HCC Insurance Holdings of the US for £5.3m.... [more]

Smiths Group has sold two non-core businesses for £20m as part of a strategy to focus on aerospace medical and industrials... [more]

Three Star Engineering has sold its environmental division out of receivership to Adams Hydraulics of York saving 16 jobs and the business will be moved from the Lower Don Valley to new premises in Ba... [more]

Carphone Warehouse is acquiring 13 London stores from Odyssey Corporation the independent phone retailer for £0.6m... [more]

Portman Building Society is to acquire Sun Bank the Stevenage-based mortgage specialist with 180 staff from Sun Life of Canada for £95m... [more]

Ryland Group has sold its Renault dealerships in Warwick Rugby and Coventry to Sutton Park Motor for £1.6m... [more]

Medicals Direct has acquired the medico-legal and clinics operations of The Lancer Group in order to expand its business in the insurance and legal industries... [more]

Merant is to sell its DataDirect enterprise data business to Golden Gate Capital of the US for £21m... [more]

Danisco of Denmark has sold its Danisco Pack subsidiary in the UK to Mondi Packaging for £64m... [more]

Richmond Foods has confirmed plans to buy Nestle's UK ice cream business for £5.8m... [more]

David S Smith is acquiring a number of corrugated packaging operations from Mondi Packaging for £21m including sheet feeder plants in Hastings and Kettering... [more]