LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Betfair Group , the
world’s largest betting exchange, said its second quarter had
started strongly, following an expected drop in its
first-quarter revenue when it faced a tough comparative period.

Trading in the second quarter has been encouraging,
including a good start to the football season, the company said
on Tuesday.

LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – British engineer IMI
shrugged off concerns of slowing industrial demand and said
full-year profit should rise above market expectations, when
reporting a rise in first-half earnings, pushing its shares up
6.4 percent.

IMI, which makes power-generation equipment and drink
dispensers, said a slowdown in industrial demand from a number
of southern European markets and Britain had yet to result in
changes in underlying order trends since the end of June.

LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – British group Aggreko ,
the world’s biggest provider of temporary power, said it expects
to report full-year profit ahead of market estimates, after
posting a 17 percent increase in underlying earnings for the
first half.

Aggreko expects full-year trading profit of about 315
million pounds ($516.6 million), up 3 percent, helped by a
strong start to the second half at its International Power
business, which provides temporary power stations mainly to
developing countries.

LONDON (Reuters) – British manufacturing buyout firm Melrose Plc (NYN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it had asked reluctant target Charter International (CHTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for more time to table a firm offer and reported a 32 percent increase in first-half pretax profit.

Toolmaker Charter said on Tuesday it is in talks with an unnamed bidder, putting more pressure on Melrose to further raise a revised offer for the company it made in July, or walk away.

LONDON (Reuters) – Toolmaker Charter International (CHTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is in talks with an unnamed bidder, putting more pressure on spurned suitor Melrose (NYN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to come back with a higher offer or walk away.

The Daily Telegraph reported earlier on Tuesday that talks had taken place over a 1.5 billion pound ($2.5 billion) proposal involving the world’s largest welding firm Lincoln Electric (LECO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), potentially trumping a lower offer from manufacturing buyout firm Melrose.

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Centrica’s British Gas,
the UK’s largest energy supplier is to suspend all doorstep
sales for an initial three-month period, following a request
from Consumer Focus, Britain’s statutory consumer lobby group.

Consumer Focus has been calling for a three-month moratorium
on energy cold-calling and Friday’s announcement comes a month
after Scottish & Southern Energy said it would suspend
all of its doorstep sales.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – The UK’s Takeover Panel has given
manufacturing buyout firm Melrose less than a month to
make a formal bid for Charter International , putting
pressure on the suitor to decide if it will proceed without
seeing Charter’s books.

The panel, which sets the rules on mergers and acquisitions,
said on Thursday it was giving Melrose a September 6 deadline,
following representations from Charter’s advisers.

LONDON (Reuters) – A sharp drop in Charter International’s (CHTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) share price over the past week is adding to pressure for it to accept a bid from Melrose MYN.L at a price close to or even below the manufacturing buyout firm’s sweetened offer.

Shares in the British industrial toolmaker fell nearly 15 percent last week, touching a low of 616.5 pence on Friday — a level the company traded at before the Melrose offer was made public in June — and far below the latest bid of 840 pence.

LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) – A sharp drop in Charter
International’s share price over the past week is
adding to pressure for it to accept a bid from Melrose
at a price close to or even below the manufacturing buyout
firm’s sweetened offer.

Shares in the British industrial toolmaker fell nearly 15
percent last week, touching a low of 616.5 pence on Friday — a
level the company traded at before the Melrose offer was made
public in June — and far below the latest bid of 840 pence.

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing has agreed to buy British utility Northumbrian Water Group (NWG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in the biggest takeover this year of a British-listed company.

Li has been expanding his business empire buying utility assets in developed countries, especially Britain where regulations allow for foreign ownership and price controls ensure a steady and predictable income stream from dividends.