Beware the dirty diggers | Canada grapples on the border | En France on va tout privatiser | Japan prepares for a takeover splurge | Leveraged funding | The city spins with merger mania | The thriving LBO | To focus is to succeed | U.S. megamergers on the wane
The morning of February 17 was not a run-of-the-mill day in the long and distinguished history of the London stock market. It was the day that debonair Lord Hanson, of Hanson Trust distinction, despatched N. M. Rothschild & Sons with a fresh 2.3 pounds sterling billion offer for the Imperial Group (Imps). He had done so in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt by the Imps management to arrange a tie-up with Sir Hector Laing's United Biscuits and had reason to feel satisfied with this latest turn of events.
His satisfaction was short-lived, however, when United Biscuit announced details of...
