tycoon Mike Ashley eyes rescue of HMV. Retail tycoon Mike Ashley is hoping to further his grip on the UK’s battered high street by weighing up a rescue of Britain’s 97-year-old music chain HMV. The Sports Direct founder, who has recently snapped up House of Fraser as well as the remnants of Evans Cycles, has held “serious” talks with key executives about buying the business out of administration, Sky News reported. The discussions have taken place over the last fortnight. HMV was last month forced to call in administrators for the second time in six years, putting around 2,200 jobs at risk.
Patisserie Valerie crisis talks go on. Investors in Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) have been treated to radio silence as last-ditch talks to secure a funding lifeline continued over the weekend. A deadline from lenders HSBC and Barclays expired on Friday to extend support for the cake and coffee chain. Accountancy firm KPMG was last week appointed to review all options, including planning for the failure of parent Patisserie Holdings, after it emerged “potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities” were “significantly worse than thought”. Patisserie Valerie, whose largest shareholder and executive chairman is Luke Johnson, was plunged into crisis last October after a £40m accounting black hole opened up.
National Grid’s $250m bet on US start-ups pays off. National Grid (NG.), the British utility firm, is powering new tech start-ups in the United States through a $250m (£193.9m) venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley. National Grid Partners has invested in six US energy start-ups in two months since the FTSE 100 network giant launched a development fund in California towards the end of last year. It is expected to build on the company’s move into the US energy market by spending a quarter of a billion dollars over the next two to three years on fresh energy technology start-ups. Lisa Lambert, the fund boss and former vice president at Intel Capital, expects to make 10 to 15 investments each year in “disruptive technologies”.
– House of Fraser dealt blow as sales crash in the run-up to Christmas. Mike Ashley’s hopes of turning House of Fraser into the “Harrods of the high street” have been dealt an early blow as sales at the struggling department store crashed in the run-up to Christmas. Sales at the department store have tumbled by 60% over the 12 weeks to 18 December, according to figures by Kantar Worldpanel, seen by The Telegraph. Last month Mr Ashley said that November had been “unbelievably bad” with retailers being “smashed to pieces”. The retail tycoon bought the department store for £90m out of administration last August and has since been battling with landlords for rent-free agreements in order to keep the shops open.
Flybe’s largest shareholder threatens to block Virgin deal. Flybe Group (FLYB) largest shareholder is threatening legal action to block a Virgin Atlantic-led takeover of the airline after reportedly accusing its bosses of neglecting their duty as directors. Hosking Partners, a London-based asset manager that owns almost a fifth of Flybe’s shares, has written to its board and City watchdogs to complain about the cut price £2.2m deal announced earlier this month. The offer from Connect Airways, a consortium including Virgin Atlantic, Southend Airport-owner Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) and investment firm Cyrus Capital Partners, came at a major discount to the 16p the shares closed at the previous day.
Questor: after a 45% fall last year, shares in this silver and gold miner could start to shine. Volatile stock markets, improved output and ‘scarcity value’ as a rival delists could all help Fresnillo (FRES)
