We have noticed that a number of large European businesses have put some of their assets on the market. These include Italian Oil Giant Eni, which has hired Rothschild to sell most of its North Sea fields for more than $1bn. The fields that are up for sale are producing about 20,000 barrels a day and contain about 120 million barrels of oil reserves. World leading brewing giant Inbev is seeking to offload its central and east European units in order to pay off debt. The eastern European operations employ 6000 people and brew 329m gallons of beer. Inbev owns the top selling beers Stella Artois, Beck’s and Budweiser. The business perhaps had “one too many” when it bought Anheuser-Busch for £32bn. It needed a bridging loan of £4bn to part finance the takeover just before the credit crunch. Drinks seem to be on the menu as Pernod has put Tia Maria up for sale. Same sort of problem as before as Pernod is looking to raise cash after its £5.6bn takeover of Vin & Spirit, the makers of Absolut Vodka. Tia Maria is expected to fetch between £170m and £200m.

As the central and eastern European economies are put under more pressure we expect to see some more distressed asset sales. So watch this space.

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It’s rare to see a large business being advertised for sale on its own website, especially with the price-tag advertised. But there it is at www.nufc.co.uk, the newly-relegated toons are for sale, at a price of £100 million. The ad on the website reads, “The board of Newcastle United can today confirm that the club is for sale at the price of £100million.” It goes on to give the contact details of investment bankers Seymour Pierce, who are handling the sale.

Calling anyone with an ego big enough, pockets to match and keen on a rather large flutter. The problem is that there many not be too many of this breed left in the UK. Perhaps the owner, Mike Ashley, should place an ad in Moscow’s popular daily newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets.

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One of the possibly unintended consequences of the chancellor’s recent Budget 50% tax rate hike is the encouragement of private and family businesses to keep their profits within the business.

Although withdrawing money from a company attracts corporation tax at 25%, if that then goes into a personal account it is taxed at 40% to 50% for higher rate tax payers (the 50% rate effective for those earning over £150k from April 2010).

Keeping the funds in the business is a viable choice for those who don’t need the money right now personally. The business can invest the money, upon which any profits are only going to be taxed at 25%.

If and when the business gets sold, the owners will only have to pay an 18% tax on the capital gain, with only 10% payable on the first million pounds.

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