Research and Markets: A Fast Fit in France Company Profile, Covering Market Size, Competitive

Dublin, Jul 31, 2008 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) --

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2282bf/fast_fit_in_france) has announced the addition of the "Fast Fit in France" report to their offering.

Our Fast Fit in France industry profile is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the fast fit industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, leading companies and demographic information.

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Tags: business   commercial   currency   e-mail   environment   europe   executive   forecasts   france   germany   italy   labor   market   marketing   oil   research   retail   security   spain   taxes   web  

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Thomson Financial UK at a glance share guide - weekend - Zibb.com

LONDON, Jun 15, 2008 (XFN via COMTEX) --

MARKETS FTSE 100 5,802.8, up 12.3 FTSE 250 9,652.3, up 98.1 DJIA 12,307.35, up 165.77 Nasdaq Comp 2,454.50, up 50.15 S&P 500 1,360.03, up 20.16 Gold $865.15 ($861.80) Oil - Brent July $134.25 ($136.09)

WEEKEND PRESS * Barclays close to raising 4 billion pounds in a placing with some of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds; the placing, to be completed within a fortnight, will involve issuing new shares to investors at a premium to Friday's closing price of 318 pence; first opportunity is being offered to the China Development Bank and Temasek, a Singaporean government investor - Sunday Times * Lloyds TSB considering launching a takeover bid for one of Germany's largest retail banks, underlying the British lender's relative immunity to the writedowns that have scarred the balance sheets of its international rivals; Lloyds TSB is in early stages of considering a move for Deutsche Postbank, valued by the German stock market at about 10 billion euros (8 billion pounds) - Sunday Telegraph * Brazilian mining giant Vale eyeing a possible takeover of Anglo American - Observer * A group of Britain's biggest institutional investors are working on secret plans to provide direct funding to shore up the beleaguered housebuilding sector; bankers at UBS draw up possible plans for a wide-ranging placing by major shareholders in companies including Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments - Sunday Telegraph * Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt Developments, in talks with his banks to renegotiate bank covenants that could be breached in the next 12 months; the banks are understood to be supportive - Sunday Times * Barratt Developments chief executive Mark Clare will not be in charge of the firm by the end of the year, according to a leading investor - Sunday Express * The number of homes built in Britain this year will plunge to its lowest level since 1945 and plummeting construction activity is expected to lead to the loss of 100,000 jobs; country's most senior housebuilders confirm that completions will be around 100,000, some 70,000 less than last year - Observer * McCarthy & Stone in crisis talks over 800 million pounds debt; retirement homes builder calls in Rothschild to help restructure its borrowings as fall in house prices stops pensioners selling up - Independent on Sunday * John Morgan, chairman of Morgan Sindall, and former Multiplex chief Jayne McGivern join forces with a distressed debt fund to target property developments abandoned by Barratt and other struggling housebuilders - Sunday Telegraph * British Energy could abandon its 11 billion pounds auction and instead parcel the company's nuclear development sites into a series of joint ventures - Sunday Times * EDF will refuse to pay more than 11 billion pounds for British Energy; if its takeover plans collapse, it has drawn up detailed plans to build two huge nuclear power stations on land it bought from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Mail on Sunday * Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of Sainsbury, sounded out by institutional investors about his appetite for replacing Sir Tom McKillop as chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland - Sunday Telegraph * Warren Buffett is this week expected privately to step into the $46 billion hostile bid by Inbev for Anheuser-Busch - Observer * Inflation crisis as target is smashed; consumer price index over 3 percent adds pressure for further interest rate hikes - Sunday Express * Cost of food is rising by 10 percent, says Marks & Spencer boss. 'If grocery prices are rising by 2 percent, I'm a Dutchman' - Mail on Sunday * BP will consider buying out its disgruntled partners in its Russian joint venture if there is a guarantee it can sell on the shares at the same price; move opens the possibility of Gazprom or Rosneft taking stakes in TNK-BP and ending an increasingly bitter row over the joint venture's future - Sunday Telegraph * Saudi Arabia to boost its oil production by up to half-a-million barrels a day as the world's biggest oil producer becomes increasingly nervous at the political and economic consequences of the current sky-high prices - Sunday Telegraph * Canadian oil company, Rock Well Petroleum, planning to float on the London Stock Exchange in a deal that is expected to value the company at 1 billion pounds - Sunday Telegraph * Standard Chartered examining a possible sale of its 1 billion pounds U.K. pension scheme; Legal & General, Paternoster and Eddie Truell's Pension Corporation thought to have been approached about a deal - Sunday Times * Bradford & Bingley eyes pension fund sale to boost finances - Sunday Express * Standard Chartered at centre of Zimbabwe sanctions inquiry - Independent on Sunday * Britain's airline industry could be heading towards a dispute with baggage handlers later this year over proposals to reduce the upper weight limit on hold bags - Sunday Express * Goldman Sachs expected to axe up to 10 percent of its workforce, even though financial results on Tuesday are expected to show it has managed to escape almost unscathed from the credit crunch - Mail on Sunday * ITV asks Boston Consulting to identify cost-savings and improve the operation of its 1.5 billion pound commercial division, headed by board director Rupert Howell - Sunday Telegraph * Trouble on the high street and in the property market begins to hit the entire media sector; in figures to be published before the end of June, Group M, the media buying group owned by WPP, has revised its quarterly forecasts downwards to show that 190 million pounds will be wiped off traditional media advertising budgets this year - Sunday Telegraph * WPP is buying a 30 percent shareholding in Vietnam Advertising Company - Sunday Telegraph * Cirque du Soleil, the world-famous acrobatics touring circus founded by a Canadian street entertainer 24 years ago, approached by one of the investment arms of the Kingdom of Dubai in a potential 1 billion pounds deal - Mail on Sunday * Fate of Enodis, the manufacturer of kitchen equipment, to be settled through a late-night auction - Sunday Telegraph * JJB Sports faces scrutiny from its investors over its ownership of a top-of-the-range helicopter - Mail on Sunday * Baugur calls in advisers to review the future of its loss-making health food retailer Julian Graves -- a move that is likely to raise renewed questions about the financial strength of the Icelandic investor - Sunday Telegraph * Carlyle Group heading for a showdown with debt investors of Imo, the world's biggest car wash company, as the private equity house reveals plans to dispose of the group's property assets to raise more money - Sunday Telegraph * Martin Sullivan, chief executive of insurance giant American International Group, comes under fire over huge losses stemming from sub-prime mortgage investments, which led to write-downs of $20 billion (10 billion pounds) - Sunday Times * Northern Rock chairman Ron Sandler reveals the nationalised mortgage bank may take legal action against its former directors - Sunday Times * Iconic Russian vodka label Stolichnaya to be put up for sale, in an auction that is expected to value the business at more than 1.5 billion pounds - Sunday Times * Qatar Investment Authority trying to find buyers for all or part of Four Seasons as lenders to the heavily indebted company threaten to pull the plug on one of Britain's biggest chains of care homes - Sunday Telegraph * Irish plunge EU into crisis; Lisbon treaty rejected in referendum; fears that No vote will spark two-speed Europe - Saturday FT * Parents pawn Rolexes and Aston Martins to pay private school fees - Saturday FT * Taylor Wimpey offering to lend housebuyers a quarter of the value of a new home interest-free for 10 years, highlighting the desperation of builders to shift stocks of unsold developments - Saturday FT * City watchdog shores up companies' ability to conduct rights issues, clamping down on speculators; Financial Services Authority rules will require disclosure of anyone short-selling a significant amount of stock in a company conducting an issue - Saturday FT * Striking fuel tanker drivers supplying Shell garages threatening a second stoppage next weekend to try to force the oil group to intervene in the pay dispute - Saturday FT * Businesses across the country heading into annual negotiations with their power suppliers, facing the prospect of a 100 percent rise in their annual bills - Sunday Times * Trustees of Trinity Mirror's pension funds ask advisers to test the financial strength of the company in the wake of weak trading across the newspaper industry - Sunday Times * SCS Upholstery appoints advisers at Ernst & Young to restructure the troubled company; however, if these fail, KPMG has been lined up as administrator; move comes as one of its main rivals, Land of Leather, nears a rescue package that should ensure its future - Sunday Times * Fashion trader Asos aiming to double turnover within three years with the launch of an online discount operation in September; the e-tailer, which will sell brand names such as Ted Baker, Ralph Lauren, Religion and Diesel at a 75 percent discount, aims to get a significant slice of the 2.7 billion pounds market currently dominated by TK Maxx - Sunday Times * Francisco "Paco" Roman, head of Vodafone's Spanish business, emerges as a leading contender to succeed Vittorio Colao as chief executive of its key European operation - Sunday Times * Iberdrola, the Spanish energy company, could still bid for British Energy or join in another company's bid, it said yesterday - Saturday FT * HBOS to reveal details of loans to housing sector; stakes held in six housebuilders; mortgage arrears data to be provided - Saturday FT * Chickens' quality of life set to become an unlikely issue at Tesco's annual meeting after a special resolution from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the celebrity chef, was sent to shareholders - Saturday FT * Royal Bank of Scotland and Mizuho agree to swap 175 million pounds of debt for equity in 20:20 Mobile, the struggling mobile phone distributor, in return to its private equity owner Doughty Hanson injecting an extra 15 million pounds - Saturday FT * Royal Bank of Scotland investors give Sir Fred one year to shape up or ship out - Independent on Sunday * Sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East have become wary of investing in banks, so Barclays and others which have yet to recapitalise may find it harder that they think to raise cash - Saturday Mail * Ladbrokes claims a significant moment in betting companies' long battle to open up restrictive European markets after the Dutch Supreme Court refers its appeal against a ban on taking online bets from Dutch citizens to the European Court of Justice - Saturday FT * New chief executive of Entertainment Rights raiding his toy cupboard in an attempt to trim group debts; Nick Phillips considering sale of Big Idea, owner of a string of American children's characters - Sunday Times * HIT Entertainment thought to have been put up for sale by its owner, Apax Partners - Sunday Express * Candover and Cinven believed to have asked UBS to consider a fresh look at publisher Informa after Informa announced merger discussions with United Business Media last week - Sunday Express * Feud may scupper Reliance Communications takeover; Ambani brothers disagree on sale; South Africa's MTN in exclusive talks - Saturday FT * Cadbury to launch the United Kingdom's first ever chocolate-flavoured chewing gum - Saturday Telegraph * One in almost every 500 American mortgage-holders has now either lost their home or is on the verge of losing it, as the credit crisis claims victims throughout the United States - Saturday Telegraph * Embattled property sector faces further gloom with a retail report from Colliers CRE predicting rents will fall by up to 20 percent over the next three years - Saturday Telegraph

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Tags: acquisition   advertising   airline   asia   bank   bond   britain   broker   business   canada   central african republic   commercial   communications   construction   consumer price index   debt   distributor   dividend   dubai   earnings   energy   entertainment   equity   europe   executive   exploration   family   fashion   financial results   financial services   fire   food   forecasts   FTSE 100   gasoline   germany   gold   government   grocery   health   housing   inflation   insurance   internet   investment   joint venture   legal   london   market   media   merger   mining   money   mortgage   nasdaq   nuclear   nuclear power   ohio   oil   online   petroleum   plant   policy   pound   power plant   prices   Private Equity   property   publisher   qatar   rates   religion   retail   retirement   russia   S&P   sales   sanctions   saudi arabia   scotland   ship   south africa   supreme court   takeover   trade   treaty   utilities   vietnam   yield   zimbabwe   zinc  

Companies: American International Group, Inc. (AIG), Anglo American plc (AAUKD), Bank of Scotland (BSLDF), Bradford & Bingley Plc. (BDBYF), Colliers CRE PLC (COIJF), JJB Sports plc (JJBSF), McCarthy & Stone PLC (MSTOF), Morgan Sindall Plc (MGSDF), Northern Rock Plc (NHRKF), ScS Upholstery Plc (SCUYF), Trinity Mirror plc (TNMRY), United Business Media Plc (UBMPF), Vodafone Group Plc (VOD)

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Thomson Financial UK at a glance share guide - weekend - Zibb.com

LONDON, Jun 16, 2008 (XFN via COMTEX) --

MARKETS FTSE 100 5,802.8, up 12.3 FTSE 250 9,652.3, up 98.1 DJIA 12,307.35, up 165.77 Nasdaq Comp 2,454.50, up 50.15 S&P 500 1,360.03, up 20.16 Gold $865.15 ($861.80) Oil - Brent July $134.25 ($136.09)

WEEKEND PRESS * Barclays close to raising 4 billion pounds in a placing with some of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds; the placing, to be completed within a fortnight, will involve issuing new shares to investors at a premium to Friday's closing price of 318 pence; first opportunity is being offered to the China Development Bank and Temasek, a Singaporean government investor - Sunday Times * Lloyds TSB considering launching a takeover bid for one of Germany's largest retail banks, underlying the British lender's relative immunity to the writedowns that have scarred the balance sheets of its international rivals; Lloyds TSB is in early stages of considering a move for Deutsche Postbank, valued by the German stock market at about 10 billion euros (8 billion pounds) - Sunday Telegraph * Brazilian mining giant Vale eyeing a possible takeover of Anglo American - Observer * A group of Britain's biggest institutional investors are working on secret plans to provide direct funding to shore up the beleaguered housebuilding sector; bankers at UBS draw up possible plans for a wide-ranging placing by major shareholders in companies including Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments - Sunday Telegraph * Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt Developments, in talks with his banks to renegotiate bank covenants that could be breached in the next 12 months; the banks are understood to be supportive - Sunday Times * Barratt Developments chief executive Mark Clare will not be in charge of the firm by the end of the year, according to a leading investor - Sunday Express * The number of homes built in Britain this year will plunge to its lowest level since 1945 and plummeting construction activity is expected to lead to the loss of 100,000 jobs; country's most senior housebuilders confirm that completions will be around 100,000, some 70,000 less than last year - Observer * McCarthy & Stone in crisis talks over 800 million pounds debt; retirement homes builder calls in Rothschild to help restructure its borrowings as fall in house prices stops pensioners selling up - Independent on Sunday * John Morgan, chairman of Morgan Sindall, and former Multiplex chief Jayne McGivern join forces with a distressed debt fund to target property developments abandoned by Barratt and other struggling housebuilders - Sunday Telegraph * British Energy could abandon its 11 billion pounds auction and instead parcel the company's nuclear development sites into a series of joint ventures - Sunday Times * EDF will refuse to pay more than 11 billion pounds for British Energy; if its takeover plans collapse, it has drawn up detailed plans to build two huge nuclear power stations on land it bought from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Mail on Sunday * Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of Sainsbury, sounded out by institutional investors about his appetite for replacing Sir Tom McKillop as chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland - Sunday Telegraph * Warren Buffett is this week expected privately to step into the $46 billion hostile bid by Inbev for Anheuser-Busch - Observer * Inflation crisis as target is smashed; consumer price index over 3 percent adds pressure for further interest rate hikes - Sunday Express * Cost of food is rising by 10 percent, says Marks & Spencer boss. 'If grocery prices are rising by 2 percent, I'm a Dutchman' - Mail on Sunday * BP will consider buying out its disgruntled partners in its Russian joint venture if there is a guarantee it can sell on the shares at the same price; move opens the possibility of Gazprom or Rosneft taking stakes in TNK-BP and ending an increasingly bitter row over the joint venture's future - Sunday Telegraph * Saudi Arabia to boost its oil production by up to half-a-million barrels a day as the world's biggest oil producer becomes increasingly nervous at the political and economic consequences of the current sky-high prices - Sunday Telegraph * Canadian oil company, Rock Well Petroleum, planning to float on the London Stock Exchange in a deal that is expected to value the company at 1 billion pounds - Sunday Telegraph * Standard Chartered examining a possible sale of its 1 billion pounds U.K. pension scheme; Legal & General, Paternoster and Eddie Truell's Pension Corporation thought to have been approached about a deal - Sunday Times * Bradford & Bingley eyes pension fund sale to boost finances - Sunday Express * Standard Chartered at centre of Zimbabwe sanctions inquiry - Independent on Sunday * Britain's airline industry could be heading towards a dispute with baggage handlers later this year over proposals to reduce the upper weight limit on hold bags - Sunday Express * Goldman Sachs expected to axe up to 10 percent of its workforce, even though financial results on Tuesday are expected to show it has managed to escape almost unscathed from the credit crunch - Mail on Sunday * ITV asks Boston Consulting to identify cost-savings and improve the operation of its 1.5 billion pound commercial division, headed by board director Rupert Howell - Sunday Telegraph * Trouble on the high street and in the property market begins to hit the entire media sector; in figures to be published before the end of June, Group M, the media buying group owned by WPP, has revised its quarterly forecasts downwards to show that 190 million pounds will be wiped off traditional media advertising budgets this year - Sunday Telegraph * WPP is buying a 30 percent shareholding in Vietnam Advertising Company - Sunday Telegraph * Cirque du Soleil, the world-famous acrobatics touring circus founded by a Canadian street entertainer 24 years ago, approached by one of the investment arms of the Kingdom of Dubai in a potential 1 billion pounds deal - Mail on Sunday * Fate of Enodis, the manufacturer of kitchen equipment, to be settled through a late-night auction - Sunday Telegraph * JJB Sports faces scrutiny from its investors over its ownership of a top-of-the-range helicopter - Mail on Sunday * Baugur calls in advisers to review the future of its loss-making health food retailer Julian Graves -- a move that is likely to raise renewed questions about the financial strength of the Icelandic investor - Sunday Telegraph * Carlyle Group heading for a showdown with debt investors of Imo, the world's biggest car wash company, as the private equity house reveals plans to dispose of the group's property assets to raise more money - Sunday Telegraph * Martin Sullivan, chief executive of insurance giant American International Group, comes under fire over huge losses stemming from sub-prime mortgage investments, which led to write-downs of $20 billion (10 billion pounds) - Sunday Times * Northern Rock chairman Ron Sandler reveals the nationalised mortgage bank may take legal action against its former directors - Sunday Times * Iconic Russian vodka label Stolichnaya to be put up for sale, in an auction that is expected to value the business at more than 1.5 billion pounds - Sunday Times * Qatar Investment Authority trying to find buyers for all or part of Four Seasons as lenders to the heavily indebted company threaten to pull the plug on one of Britain's biggest chains of care homes - Sunday Telegraph * Irish plunge EU into crisis; Lisbon treaty rejected in referendum; fears that No vote will spark two-speed Europe - Saturday FT * Parents pawn Rolexes and Aston Martins to pay private school fees - Saturday FT * Taylor Wimpey offering to lend housebuyers a quarter of the value of a new home interest-free for 10 years, highlighting the desperation of builders to shift stocks of unsold developments - Saturday FT * City watchdog shores up companies' ability to conduct rights issues, clamping down on speculators; Financial Services Authority rules will require disclosure of anyone short-selling a significant amount of stock in a company conducting an issue - Saturday FT * Striking fuel tanker drivers supplying Shell garages threatening a second stoppage next weekend to try to force the oil group to intervene in the pay dispute - Saturday FT * Businesses across the country heading into annual negotiations with their power suppliers, facing the prospect of a 100 percent rise in their annual bills - Sunday Times * Trustees of Trinity Mirror's pension funds ask advisers to test the financial strength of the company in the wake of weak trading across the newspaper industry - Sunday Times * SCS Upholstery appoints advisers at Ernst & Young to restructure the troubled company; however, if these fail, KPMG has been lined up as administrator; move comes as one of its main rivals, Land of Leather, nears a rescue package that should ensure its future - Sunday Times * Fashion trader Asos aiming to double turnover within three years with the launch of an online discount operation in September; the e-tailer, which will sell brand names such as Ted Baker, Ralph Lauren, Religion and Diesel at a 75 percent discount, aims to get a significant slice of the 2.7 billion pounds market currently dominated by TK Maxx - Sunday Times * Francisco "Paco" Roman, head of Vodafone's Spanish business, emerges as a leading contender to succeed Vittorio Colao as chief executive of its key European operation - Sunday Times * Iberdrola, the Spanish energy company, could still bid for British Energy or join in another company's bid, it said yesterday - Saturday FT * HBOS to reveal details of loans to housing sector; stakes held in six housebuilders; mortgage arrears data to be provided - Saturday FT * Chickens' quality of life set to become an unlikely issue at Tesco's annual meeting after a special resolution from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the celebrity chef, was sent to shareholders - Saturday FT * Royal Bank of Scotland and Mizuho agree to swap 175 million pounds of debt for equity in 20:20 Mobile, the struggling mobile phone distributor, in return to its private equity owner Doughty Hanson injecting an extra 15 million pounds - Saturday FT * Royal Bank of Scotland investors give Sir Fred one year to shape up or ship out - Independent on Sunday * Sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East have become wary of investing in banks, so Barclays and others which have yet to recapitalise may find it harder that they think to raise cash - Saturday Mail * Ladbrokes claims a significant moment in betting companies' long battle to open up restrictive European markets after the Dutch Supreme Court refers its appeal against a ban on taking online bets from Dutch citizens to the European Court of Justice - Saturday FT * New chief executive of Entertainment Rights raiding his toy cupboard in an attempt to trim group debts; Nick Phillips considering sale of Big Idea, owner of a string of American children's characters - Sunday Times * HIT Entertainment thought to have been put up for sale by its owner, Apax Partners - Sunday Express * Candover and Cinven believed to have asked UBS to consider a fresh look at publisher Informa after Informa announced merger discussions with United Business Media last week - Sunday Express * Feud may scupper Reliance Communications takeover; Ambani brothers disagree on sale; South Africa's MTN in exclusive talks - Saturday FT * Cadbury to launch the United Kingdom's first ever chocolate-flavoured chewing gum - Saturday Telegraph * One in almost every 500 American mortgage-holders has now either lost their home or is on the verge of losing it, as the credit crisis claims victims throughout the United States - Saturday Telegraph * Embattled property sector faces further gloom with a retail report from Colliers CRE predicting rents will fall by up to 20 percent over the next three years - Saturday Telegraph

Read more...

Tags: acquisition   advertising   airline   asia   bank   bond   britain   broker   business   canada   central african republic   commercial   communications   construction   consumer price index   debt   distributor   dividend   dubai   earnings   energy   entertainment   equity   europe   executive   exploration   family   fashion   financial results   financial services   fire   food   forecasts   FTSE 100   gasoline   germany   gold   government   grocery   health   housing   inflation   insurance   internet   investment   joint venture   legal   london   market   media   merger   mining   money   mortgage   nasdaq   nuclear   nuclear power   ohio   oil   online   petroleum   plant   policy   pound   power plant   prices   Private Equity   property   publisher   qatar   rates   religion   retail   retirement   russia   S&P   sales   sanctions   saudi arabia   scotland   ship   south africa   supreme court   takeover   trade   treaty   utilities   vietnam   yield   zimbabwe   zinc  

Companies: American International Group, Inc. (AIG), Anglo American plc (AAUKD), Bank of Scotland (BSLDF), Bradford & Bingley Plc. (BDBYF), Colliers CRE PLC (COIJF), JJB Sports plc (JJBSF), McCarthy & Stone PLC (MSTOF), Morgan Sindall Plc (MGSDF), Northern Rock Plc (NHRKF), ScS Upholstery Plc (SCUYF), Trinity Mirror plc (TNMRY), United Business Media Plc (UBMPF), Vodafone Group Plc (VOD)

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Bell Lager Offers Shs367 Million Tonic - Zibb.com

Aug 01, 2008 (The Monitor/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) announced Bell Lager's takeover of Uganda Rugby Union (URU)'s activities from Guinness with a new two-year lucrative sponsorship deal at Kampala RFC yesterday.

Bell Lager Brand Manager Moses Kebba disclosed that a total of Shs367m (Shs304m in cash and Shs63m in publicity) had already been tabled for the first year with the package likely to increase next year.

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Tags: africa   conference   inflation   insurance   rates   south africa   takeover   telecom   training   uganda   unions  

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