The group was one of several that looked seriously at Scottish Provident and Scottish Life which both announced demutulisation deals this year

The group was one of several that looked seriously at Scottish Provident and Scottish Life, which both announced demutulisation deals this year. Scottish Provident was bought by Abbey National while Scottish Life went to Royal London.. Foreign & Colonial, one of Britain’s oldest fund management groups, is to be sold to Eureko, the umbrella grouping of European insurers, in a £414m deal which ends the uncertainty over F&C’s future. Foreign & Colonial, one of Britain’s oldest fund management groups, is to be sold to Eureko, the umbrella grouping of European insurers, in a £414m deal which ends the uncertainty over F&C’s future.
HypoVereinsbank, Germany’s second-biggest bank, put its 90 per cent stake up for sale in September, after it decided to end its exclusive arrangement with F&C and set up a funds supermarket offering a broad spread of managed funds to its German customer base.The other 10 per cent is owned by F&C, Britain’s largest quoted investment trust, which has been under attack by Sierra Trading Partners, a New Jersey-based group of arbitrageurs.F&C was founded in 1868 to raise money from private investors to invest in far flung parts of the British empire.

Although it still retains a strong emerging markets bias, more than 80 per cent of its assets are now based in the UK, while 20 per cent of its clients are continental European.Eureko, which last month pulled out of the bidding to buy Equitable Life, is paying 1.8 times assets under management and 5.9 times forecast revenues. The price, which is on a par with that paid by Nationwide of the US to acquire Gartmore earlier this year, is much higher than had been expected.Robert Jenkins, F&C’s chief executive said the deal will allow F&C access to a pan-European distribution base while leaving its management structure and investment policy intact. “There is no disruption to staff, no change in investment policy,” he said “Eureko clearly has expansion plans. This is a very good fit.”As part of the deal, Eureko will inject its asset management business into F&C boosting its total funds under management by a third to 120bn euros (£75bn).

Eureko recently announced proposals for an initial public offering as part of a move away from its roots as a loose federation of European mutual insurers and become a force on the European scene. Yesterday’s deal will emphasise the growing distance between Eureko and Friends Provident, its UK shareholder which has its own asset management business Friends Ivory & Sime.. Hilton, the hotels and leisure group, pulled off the long-awaited sale of Ladbroke Casinos yesterday, obtaining £235m for the subsidiary from Gala Group Holdings, the acquisitive bingo firm owned by Credit Suisse First Boston, the US investment bank. Hilton, the hotels and leisure group, pulled off the long-awaited sale of Ladbroke Casinos yesterday, obtaining £235m for the subsidiary from Gala Group Holdings, the acquisitive bingo firm owned by Credit Suisse First Boston, the US investment bank.
The successful conclusion of four months of talks came as Hilton also unveiled the £70m purchase of the Capital Centre in Sydney, a business and retail complex that includes the 585-room Hilton Sydney hotel.Hilton has been the subject of speculation that it plans to demerge Ladbrokes, its betting arm, to focus solely on hotels. However, David Michels, Hilton’s chief executive, said yesterday: “We will continue to focus on our two long-term businesses of hotels and betting.”Gala’s latest acquisition marks its first move into casinos. “Casinos and bingo have shown more resilience than most businesses through economic slowdowns,” said John Kelly, Gala’s chief executive.

Gala said last month that it had entered into exclusive talks over Ladbroke Casinos’ 29 sites, which include six in London, two in Egypt and one on the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. It approached Hilton in September.The all-cash consideration includes debt of £2.7m, and is equivalent to 18 times the unit’s £13.2m profits before tax and interest in 1999.Hilton also said it had sold its Pennsylvania racetrack and betting theatres for $53m to Magna Entertainment Corp, a Nasdaq-listed leisure group. Hilton shares closed up 1.5p at 206.5p, after earlier jumping 10p.. The protracted sale of J Sainsbury’s Homebase was finally sewn up yesterday, in a deal which values the DIY chain at £969m and will see ownership of the business divided between three separate companies.

The protracted sale of J Sainsbury’s Homebase was finally sewn up yesterday, in a deal which values the DIY chain at £969m and will see ownership of the business divided between three separate companies.
Under the terms of the complex disposal agreement, Schroder Ventures, a private equity firm, will pay £491m for the rump of the Homebase assets. Sainsbury’s will then reinvest £31m in Homebase to retain an 18 per cent stake.Kingfisher’s B&Q, the UK’s biggest home improvement company, will separately take control of 28 large non-trading development sites for a further £219m in cash. In addition, some of Homebase’s freehold properties, independently valued at £259m, have been transferred to Sainsbury’s and leased back to Schroder. Sainsbury’s intends to dispose of these freehold properties over a period of time.The deal finally closes the curtain over sale negotiations which have been rumbling on since the summer. Sainsbury’s entered exclusive talks with Schroder seven weeks ago.Sir Peter Davis, Sainsbury’s chief executive, described the outcome of the auction as “the best of both worlds”. He said: “We’ve got the bulk of the money out, while there will be further upside if Schroder decides to float the Homebase business.”Charles Sherwood, a partner at Schroder Ventures, said Homebase was “a very floatable proposition”. But he declined to give a timetable for a possible listing, adding that a future sale of the business to a larger group could also be considered.Sainsbury’s shares closed down 6p at 399p.