Royal bank Coutts has found that 72 per cent of entrepreneurs do not believe that venture capital is the best way for a business to realise its growth potential. Despite the finding that 69 per cent of entrepreneurs say venture capital cash will help deliver faster growth to a company, the majority doubt the sustainability of the experience. Only 19 per cent of those questioned say that it is a sustainable system. Further findings show that nearly a quarter of entrepreneurs (25 per cent) admit that VC investment is likely
Read more →It may have taken more than a decade, but one of Britain’s more obscure telecoms companies has finally started to deliver on its promises, reporting its best quarterly performance since the tech boom. Colt Group increased its revenue in the first quarter by more than 5 per cent to €397 million (£324 million). Operating profit also rose by 5 per cent to €81 million. Most surprising was that this was driven by growth in voice revenue, which has been in steady decline for years. Colt has introduced a new platform
Read more →The most relentless lending squeeze on record is stifling companies’ ability to invest and derailing Britain’s fading recovery hopes, businesses warned in the wake of dire Bank of England figures. Lending to companies plunged by £4 billion in February — the sharpest drop for almost two years, according to the Bank’s Trends in Lending report. Lending has been falling since the middle of 2009, in the longest contraction since official data began in the 1960s. Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, the former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, called the figures “horrific”,
Read more →A report compiled by professional services firm Grant Thornton shows that 75 per cent of medium-sized tech companies have no plans to invest in new markets in the next 12 months. This follows on from the finding that 141 UK M&A deals were completed during 2011, a higher volume than in any other market. Wendy Hart, head of technology at Grant Thornton, says investors in the UK’s technology mid-market need to think beyond ‘traditional’ investment regions such as the US, Australia and Germany, to seize opportunities. ‘Over the last five
Read more →The walking wounded from the eurozone debt crisis are trickling into the emergency room. Among them are Europe’s telecommunications companies. The further south the company – mirroring the eurozone crisis – the greater the threat to total shareholder payouts as regulatory demands, market share loss, infrastructure investment and deteriorating economies erode profits. The glory days of Europe’s telecoms providers as cash-rich, utility-like behemoths may be over. Telefónica is a good example. Spain’s incumbent has been a freewheeling payer of dividends. In 2003 it paid €0.25 a share; by 2011 this
Read more →The Cable & Wireless name is set to disappear from the UK telecoms market after almost 80 years following Vodafone’s agreement of a £1bn cash acquisition of the group. The deal will catapult Vodafone to become the UK’s second-largest combined fixed and mobile operator after BT. It will also double its British enterprise business and bulk up its overseas network. For C&WW, it would mark an end to a decade of decline, barely arrested with the acquisitions of Energis and Thus six years ago and a demerger from the overseas consumer business
Read more →According to a recent article in the FT, Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong conglomerate controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, has made a €2bn ($2.6bn) bid for Eircom, the Irish phone company that recently underwent the biggest corporate bankruptcy in Ireland’s history. Eircom received court protection in late March to restructure its €4.1bn of gross debt, in a process known in Ireland as examinership, which protects the group’s assets from creditors for up to 100 days while it tries to restructure. This offer follows hot on the heels of Vodafone’s bargain
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