ICI is to sell Nobel Enterprises, the Ayrshire-based manufacturer of industrial coatings with 280 staff, to Inabata of Japan for an estimated £35m.... [more]

Advanced Marketing Services has expanded its book distribution business with the acquisition of two London-based companies - Airlift Book Company and HI Marketing.... [more]

BP is to sell 494 German petrol stations to PKN Orlen of Poland for £90m, in order to gain regulatory approval for the acquisition of Veba Oil.... [more]

Deutche Telekom, the German telecoms company, is selling its telephone directory business DeTeMedien. Deutsche Bank is advising on the deal, which could fetch around 1bn Euros.... [more]

RPS Group has acquired Ecoscope Applied Ecologists, the Cambridgeshire-based ecological consultancy with 16 staff, for £2.8m.... [more]

Duke Street Capital is to acquire Sporting Index, the sports spread betting company, for £53m.... [more]

John Crowley, the road maintenance company with annual turnover of £30m, has been acquired by Volker Wessels Stevin of the Netherlands.... [more]

Maxwell Stewart has acquired One Media Communication, the domestic cabling company, for undisclosed terms.... [more]

Lavendon Group, which rents out powered access machines, has received two bids for the company. The troubled business is capitalised at around £54m.... [more]

UK software group Orchestream has received a bid of £7.9m from Texan company Metasolv.... [more]

PressTech Controls, the Hemel Hempstead-based controls manufacturer, has been acquired by QuadTech of the US for undisclosed terms.... [more]

Centrica is to raise £289m from the sale of the recently-acquired Enbridge water heaters business in Canada to The Consumer's Waterheater Income Fund, and some of the proceeds may be used for further ... [more]

Wincanton is to acquire the P&O Trans European logistics business, which employs 7,000 people, for £152m.... [more]

Delta is to sell its Birmingham-based electrical division, which has 3,400 staff, to Eaton Corporation for £130m.... [more]

Several bidders are circling Six Continents' pubs business and offers of around £3bn are believed to have been made. Interested parties include CVC, Candover and Spirit.... [more]

House of Fraser, the department store group, has received an offer of £200m from businessman Tom Hunter. The bid has been dismissed as too low, but is thought to signal an attempt to merge the group w... [more]

Pilkington, the glass manufacturer, is to sell its aerospace division. There are several interested parties, including the engineering group GKN.... [more]

Safestore the self-storage company valued at £32m, has received an offer. The bid is believed to be from one of its biggest investors, Soros Real Estate, which already owns 25% of the company.... [more]

The founder of Direct Line, Peter Wood, who now runs Esure, has made a bid of £200m for Cox Insurance.... [more]

AuSPeD, the developer of quality monitoring systems, has undergone a reverse takeover by Contemporary Enterprises for an initial £1m.... [more]