Secret bid for Hammerson (HMSO). £5bn approach by French rival threatens to scupper merger with Intu Properties (INTU). Klépierre, which owns more than 100 shopping centres across the Continent, contacted Hammerson a fortnight ago about a proposed takeover but was rebuffed almost immediately.
Melrose Industries (MRO) – Dana tries to sweeten GKN (GKN) driveline deal. Dana, the US automotive group in talks to buy GKN’s driveline division, is to seek a secondary listing in London as it bumps up its efforts to win over shareholders in the engineering group.
East India Club to sue Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) over fraud ‘failure’. The club, a members-only venue in central London founded in 1849 whose former patrons and members include Prince Albert, Lord Mountbatten and Lord Randolph Churchill, is preparing legal action over what it alleges is RBS’s failure to warn it about a series of illegal transactions that were used to fund a former club treasurer’s gambling addiction. RBS said that it “categorically denies any liability for the loss”.
Chief executive of Conviviality (CVR) on the brink after sobering week. Diana Hunter is expected to leave the drinks supplier, which has been forced to admit a series of damaging accounting errors.
Sir Martin Sorrell, the advertising pioneer and chief executive of WPP (WPP), recently declared that 2017 was “not a pretty year” for his company. He could soon be saying the same about his pay packet: it is expected to be slashed from £48 million in 2016 to an estimated £15 million.