Greater London Enterprise has sold GLE Development Capital, its private equity arm, to UK Matrix Group, creating a new fund management company called Matrix Private Equity Partners... [more]

Elite Strategies is to sell ESP Financial, ESP Investments & Pensions and Croesus Financial Services to Croesus Holdings for £0.15m, leaving Elite with no trading operations... [more]

Aston Villa has received a £30m takeover approach led by Ray Ranson, the former Manchester City footballer turned financier. The statement from Aston Villa, in effect, puts the business up for sale a... [more]

Steven Cohen, the UK managing director of Courts, the furniture retailer, is rumoured to be preparing an estimated £80m bid for the company’s British chain. Courts hired Merrill Lynch and Cavendish Co... [more]

Analysts have heightened their calls for National Australia Bank to divest its four poorly performing banks in the UK: Clydesdale Bank in Scotland, Yorkshire Bank in Northern England, Northern Bank ... [more]

Brian Buchan paid the price for failing to sell SSL International's medical business to 3i on Tuesday, agreeing to step aside as chief executive at the company that makes Durex condoms and Dr Scholl s... [more]

PPL Therapeutics, the biotech company behind Dolly the cloned sheep, today confirmed it was in takeover talks that could save it from liquidation. Edinburgh-based PPL, which put itself up for sale las... [more]

Spherion Corporation, the IT recruitment, technology and outsourcing provider, is divesting its Asia-Pacific, UK and European operations. The move follows a decision by the group to focus on its opera... [more]

Doughty Hanson, the venture capital firm, is considering a possible London stock market flotation of Umbro, the sponsor of the England football team, for about £250m. However, it could also sell it to... [more]

Electronics and ceramics engineer Cookson is to put its precious metals business up for sale, according to an industry source. Cookson hopes to get around £100m for the business, which supplies precio... [more]

InterContinental Hotels Group accompanied its first year figures with the news that it would sell hotels worth up to £1bn and intended to float Britvic. The group said that it had raised £270m from se... [more]

Hays, the services group turning itself into a pure staff recruitment business, has put its profitable mail operations up for sale in a move bound to attract big European players such as Deutsche Post... [more]

Eight supermarkets in Merseyside and Cheshire were put up for sale last night as part of the £3bn takeover of Safeway by rival Morrisons. The existing Morrisons stores in Southport and Chester will be... [more]

Buyout specialist Candover is poised to sell its controlling stake in the world-famous Earls Court and Olympia exhibition halls, it was reported today. The private equity group, whose interests also i... [more]

The city was expecting an imminent sale of the non core polypipe division of IMI, the engineering group. The chief executive Martin Lamb has hinted that he is holding out for a lucrative offer from a... [more]

The Church in Wales is inviting offers from potential developers after putting its ministerial training college in Cardiff up for sale. The sale of St Michael's College in Llandaff village, an expensi... [more]

Royal & Sun Alliance is likely to sell its UK life business, although a deal is not imminent, according to a source close to the situation. It is believed that there are three or four interested parti... [more]

Switzerland's Nestle, the world's largest food group, said it may ditch its Perrier bottled water business in France unless unions agree to planned job cuts it says are needed to raise productivity. N... [more]

Mayflower, the British bus builder, has put one of its core subsidiaries up for sale in an effort to reduce debts. Robert W Baird has been appointed to find a buyer for Mayflower Vehicle Systems, whic... [more]

Thomas Cook, the German holiday company whose British arm is the UK's third biggest tour operator, is set to be broken up by its co-owners, Lufthansa and the retailer Karstadt. The plan for sell-offs... [more]