Alfred McAlpine has acquired Stiell, the facilities management company with 1,200 staff at offices in Glasgow, Manchester, London and Belfast, for £85m... [more]

Wagamama, the Japanese noodle bar chain, is soon to be put up for sale by Graphite Capital, the venture capitalist which owns a majority stake in the group. The chain could be worth up to £50m. Possib... [more]

The owners of the Financial Times, Pearson, have received several expressions of interest in FT Business, its specialist UK financial publishing arm. Lazard have been appointed to advise on the strate... [more]

McMullen & Sons, one of the oldest family-run pub companies in Britain, is putting its business up for sale for an estimated £200m. Assets include 150 mostly freehold pubs, and other properties in the... [more]

Marconi PLC is in talks to sell its Italian defence subsidiary Marconi Mobile. Bidders for the £400 million business are thought to include BAE Systems PLC, Thales of France and Finmeccanica SpA of It... [more]

Edison SpA and the US group Bechtel have appointed the merchant bank Rothschild to sell their stakes in the UK water company International Water. The companies each have a 50% stake in International W... [more]

Guardian IT plc has admitted it is in preliminary talks which could see it taken over. Main US rivals Sunguard Data Systems Inc and International Business Machines Corp are seen as the most likely riv... [more]

Energis, the telecommunications carrier, will put its loss-making overseas businesses in the Netherlands and Germany up for sale, in an attempt to regain the confidence of its banks following the rece... [more]

United Industries has sold its components and systems division to OSL Group for £6.2m, in order to focus on technical plastics... [more]

Freeway Software, the Wigan-based developer of payroll software, has been acquired by IRIS for an estimated £8m... [more]

Cadbury Schweppes has acquired a 51% stake in Kent Gida, the Turkish sugar confectionery company, for £90m... [more]

Lookers has acquired 452 (Birmingham) from Vauxhall Motor and the Rystar Aston and Selly Oak Vauxhall outlets from Ryland Group for a total £2m... [more]

Range Cylinders, the Wakefield-based manufacturer of hot water cylinders with 112 staff, has been sold by the Baxi Group to RCM for undisclosed terms... [more]

Spirent has sold its aerospace components business to Curtiss-Wright of the US for £42m, in order to reduce debt and focus on its network technology operations... [more]

Barclays is planning to acquire the UK credit cards business of Providian Financial of the US for an estimated £70m, in order to expand its Barclaycard operation... [more]

Tate & Lyle is looking to sell its North American molasses operations, including United Molasses, UM North America and United Storage... [more]

Invensys has decided to sell its industrial components and systems divisions, with sales of £2.3bn, to raise £1.5bn and halve the group's £3bn of debt. What remains will then be reorganised into 2 co... [more]

Formula One's broadcasting and marketing rights have been put up for sale by Leo Kirch, the German media mogul, who aims to break up his debt laden media empire. Advisors are soliciting offers for th... [more]

Tate & Lyle plc said it will pursue a sale of its molasses and storage businesses including United Molasses, UM North America and United Storage. PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance has been appo... [more]

VIP-Heinke, the Huntingdon-based manufacturer of rubber and plastic seals with 200 staff, has been acquired by a consortium including Close Brothers Private Equity and the management team of Grove Ind... [more]