Ben Sherman, the fashion and shirts company, has been acquired by Oxford Industries of the US for £80m... [more]

Desira Group has acquired Abacus, in order to offer self-drive hire services at its Norfolk car dealerships... [more]

Most of the City's big banks, including Lehman, Deutsche, Citigroup and Bank of America are known to have run the rule over UK broker Cazenove, whose chairman David Mayhew insists the firm is not offi... [more]

Shearings, Europe’s largest coach holidays group, was put up for sale again yesterday after financial institutions rejected its proposed £100 million flotation because it was too expensive. The compa... [more]

North West Trucks has been acquired by Heatons Transport of St Helens for undisclosed terms, creating a combined group with 200 staff at depots in Huyton, St Helens, Wigan and Northwich... [more]

Maximuscle, the supplier of sports supplements and drinks, has been acquired by Piper Private Equity for £9.7m... [more]

Travelodge has bought the Thistle London Islington and Thistle London Ryan hotels for £55m... [more]

Abbey National is to sell its asset finance and leasing businesses to ING Lease UK, which will involve the transfer of about 243 staff.... [more]

Computer games maker Eidos, owner of the Lara Croft franchise, has effectively put itself up for sale after sounding its second profits warning in less than a month. Analysts lowered their forecasts l... [more]

Robert Tchenguiz, the property magnate, has bought a property portfolio of nine motorway service stations from Welcome Break for £270m. Mr Tchenguiz's Rotch Property Group has acquired the freehold s... [more]

The arrival of foreign competition in healthcare has prompted Britain's biggest private provider to launch a radical transformation of its business. Bupa Hospitals is to sell 10 of the smaller hospita... [more]

AEA Technology, the former commercial arm of the Atomic Energy Authority is continuing to refocus on its core divisions of rail, environment and development. Peter Watson, chairman, said the group wou... [more]

Comdirect, the online stockbroker, has been sold by its German parent to Lloyds TSB Development Capital for £16m... [more]

Eleco has acquired Prompt Profiles, the Norwich-based gutter and fascia supplier... [more]

Wilson & Garden, the manufacturer of blackboards, is to be bought out of receivership by Fundamental-e Investments... [more]

James Halstead has sold Belstaff International, the operator of several licensing arrangements for wax cotton jackets and leisure clothing, to an Italian licensee for £10m... [more]

White Young Green has acquired DWP Consulting, the Leicester-based building services consultancy, for £0.8m... [more]

Celtech, the operator of paper mills in Lancaster and Heysham, has been acquired by Goulds Design & Manufacturing of Heywood, creating a new group called Northern Tissue... [more]

Tibbett & Britten, the logistics group, has received a £328m takeover approach from Exel, which could lead to annual cost savings of £20m and the loss of 200 jobs... [more]

Morgan Crucible is to sell the auto and consumer business of its electrical carbon division to Energy Conversion Systems of the US for £33m... [more]