Stock of a bestselling high-cholesterol drug capable of treating an estimated quarter of a million patients for a year has been destroyed after AstraZeneca (AZN) rejected the offer to take it for nothing after the collapse of the Avlon site. About 2,000kg of Crestor, enough for an estimated 182 million tablets, was offered free to the FTSE 100 pharmaceutical company at the end of May by David Rubin & Partners, the administrator of the 1,000-acre manufacturing site near Bristol. The site collapsed in February, just over two years after it was sold by Astrazeneca for £1 to Avara, a start-up pharmaceutical manufacturing contractor owned by Leonard Levie, 63, a former Lehman Brothers arbitrageur.
Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, appears to have washed his hands of responsibility for the banning of Stagecoach Group (SGC) and Virgin from the railways amid an escalating row over pensions. The Department for Transport (DfT) is the subject of a judicial review brought by Stagecoach after its bids for future franchises were deemed “non-compliant” with tendering rules. Stagecoach fell into dispute with the department over what it has called unquantifiable, open-ended pension liabilities that bidders were being asked to sign up to at a time when the rail industry pension scheme is £7 billion in deficit, with no plan as yet in place to plug the financial black hole. The DfT’s “non-compliant” ruling effectively bars Stagecoach as well as its partner Virgin Trains, with which it runs the west coast main line from London Euston, from bidding for future franchises, most notably the HS2 line between London and Birmingham.
Ray Kelvin, the founder of Ted Baker (TED), is believed to be considering plans to back a private equity buyout of the company, four months after he quit following allegations of sexual harassment. The former chief executive, who owns about a third of the FTSE 250 company, has indicated that he would support a buyout that would take the company private under the existing management. Mr Kelvin, 63, agreed to resign in March after hundreds of staff signed a petition complaining about alleged “forced hugging”, sexual innuendo and “stroking people’s necks”. Mr Kelvin denied the allegations, but accepted that it would in “the best interests of the company” if he stepped aside.
G4S (GFS) made £14.3 million in profit from running a scandal-hit immigration removal centre where staff were accused of abusing detainees. MPs accused the Home Office of taking a “shockingly cavalier approach” to sensitive contracts after a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the company had made £14.3 million in gross profit from Brook House immigration removal centre in Sussex between 2012 and 2018. In 2017 a BBC Panorama programme broadcast footage of officers at the centre apparently bullying and abusing migrants facing deportation. The investigation exposed drug use and self-harm at the centre. G4S carried out an investigation and sacked several members of staff. Ben Saunders, director of the centre, resigned.
has insisted that it will not drop a lawsuit against Debenhams over the department store chain’s plan to close outlets as part of an insolvency process. Debenhams is planning to close 50 of its 166 British shops after creditors approved a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in May. The arrangement will also secure lower rents on more than 100 shops. The arrangement was agreed after the company entered a pre-pack administration a month earlier. This placed Debenhams in the hands of lenders and wiped out the value of shareholders’ interests. Sports Direct, which held a 30% stake in the business, is estimated to have lost £150 million of shareholders’ money by investing in the chain.
