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Mergers & Acquisitions 1996
2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996

The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Eurovein is selling its Surface Treatment Division to US Filter for about £13m, and is changing its name from Eurovein to Tyzack Precision. 24-Dec-1996 Higgs & Hill is selling its construction division to Hollandsche Beton Groep, the Dutch construction company, for £28.5m, and changing its name to Swan Hill. 18-Dec-1996 Lloyd Thompson and JIB Group have announced a £300m merger, to create an insurance broking group able to better compete in both the London and Asian markets. 17-Dec-1996 Pride Automotive Group, the US-registered car leasing company, is acquiring AC Cars, the sports car maker, from the reveivers for £5.5m. 09-Dec-1996 Lawter International of the US is acquiring the resin division of Wolstenholme International for £5.5m. 04-Nov-1996 The Birthdays chain of 330 greetings cards shops has been sold to a consortium of investors for £90m. 22-Oct-1996 The Private Bank & Trust Company of London is acquiring Reads Trust Company, the Jersey-based trust business, for undisclosed terms. 22-Oct-1996 Corporate Services has acquired GWL Holdings, the medical staff agency which trades under the names Medacs and The Recruitment Group, for £12m. 22-Oct-1996 National Publishing, a consortium supported by the Electra Fleming venture capital group, has acquired Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) for £54m, and will rename it Stationery Office. 01-Oct-1996 Zellweger Luwa of Switzerland has acquired Neotronics Technology, the analytical instruments concern, for £23m. 07-Sep-1996 Royal Bank Development Capital has bought P&O Oilfield Services, the supplier of drilling equipment in the North Sea, from Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation for £37m. 04-Sep-1996 Cruden Bay is acquiring Kenton Utilities & Developments for £21m, and will follow it up with further acquisitions as it converts from an investment trust into an engineering services company. 29-Aug-1996 4Front has bought Hammer Distribution, the Basingstoke-based distributor of Micropolis and Sony storage products, for £1.8m. 28-Aug-1996 Hearst Corporation of the US has acquired Multilex, the supplier of medical information to the UK healthcare sector, for undisclosed terms. 20-Aug-1996 Sanderson Electronics is buying Alpha Microsystems (Great Britain) from its US parent for £1.4m. 14-Aug-1996 NM Rothschild & Sons has bought Causeway Invoice Discounting for about £5m, in order to improve its banking services. 01-Aug-1996 Brunswick Developments Group has bought the Brighton Marina company from Brent Walker for £9m. 01-Aug-1996 Denham Holdings is buying Carter Penguin, the confectionery business, from Armour Trust for about £4.3m. 27-Jul-1996 Relayfast has bought Western Track Renewals, the British Railways infrastructure concern, for undisclosed terms. 25-Jul-1996 Ideal Hardware has bought Kinexus, the TV, film, and multimedia production concern, for £300k in shares. 28-Jun-1996 ADT of Bermuda is to acquire Automated Security (Holdings), the electronic security concern, for $250m. 20-Jun-1996 Intek Diversified Corp of the US is acquiring Securicor's Radiocoms division, which includes narrowband wireless technology and manufacturing operations, in return for 25m Intek shares. 19-Jun-1996 Harmony Healthcare has acquired the Serene Care Group for £9.5m, thus increasing Harmony's nursing homes from 5 to 12. 17-Jun-1996 Standard Platforms Holdings, the computer supplier, is planning a reverse takeover of DSI Data Systems International, which trades as Action Computer Supplies. 13-Jun-1996 Carnell has acquired Columbus, the travel publisher, for £14m and also plans to buy Bleeding Edge Publications, the video magazine publisher. 24-May-1996 Western Star Trucks Holdings of Canada is to acquire ERF Holdings, the last UK-owned heavy trucks maker, for £27.4m. 21-May-1996 Beazer Homes has bought Charles Church, the housebuilder, from the Royal Bank of Scotland for £36m. 14-May-1996 Omnipack has acquired four companies from Wassall for £11.5m - MCG Rosslite, MCG Graphics, MCG Containers & Closures and Gilchrist Brothers. 04-May-1996 CL Marsden Wafers of Wigan has been bought by a management buy-in team and will be renamed Rivington Foods. 04-May-1996 TIP Europe, the GE Capital Services division, has bought Smith Self Drive, the truck rental company, for £45m. 24-Apr-1996 Securitised Endowment Contracts, the financial services company, is buying two independent financial advisors - IFA Network and IFA Network Services. 19-Apr-1996 Parkland Foods, the supplier of foods to convenience stores, has bought Dutch Oven, the baker based in Rowley Regis. 13-Apr-1996 Infogrames Entertainment of France is buying Ocean International, the UK-based computer games concern, in a deal worth about $100m which will result in one of the five biggest such companies in the world. 12-Apr-1996 John Cleland, the packaging maker based in Ulster, is undergoing a management buy-out from IWP International for £16m. 08-Apr-1996 Sato Corporation is buying Nor Systems, the maker of hand-held price marking systems, from Norcros for £21.5m. 05-Apr-1996 Unit Press, the underseat mechanisms maker, has been sold by Calderburn to a management buy-out for £7m. 02-Apr-1996 Motorhouse, the car retailer, is undergoing a £32m management buy-out, in which NatWest Ventures will get a 25% stake. 27-Mar-1996 Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer has bought Lee Plastona from John Waddington for about £4.5m cash plus £3m inventory. 26-Mar-1996 Magna International of Canada is acquiring most of Marley's automotive components operations for £53m, including Marley Automotive Components in the UK, Karl Fels of Germany and its stake in a joint venture with Kansei of Japan. 21-Mar-1996 Thomas Walter, the printed circuit board company, has been sold to management for £16m. 21-Mar-1996 Unilever is selling Rimmel-Chicogo, its colour cosmetics business, to Joh A Benckiser of Germany. 07-Mar-1996 Fishers Intl, the financial services concern, is buying Robert Bishop (Southern), the claims management company, and Miller Knight, the loss adjuster, for a maximum £3m. 07-Mar-1996 Trafalgar House has agreed to a £904m takeover by Kvaerner of Norway. 05-Mar-1996 Johnson & Higgins, the US insurance broker, has bought Corporate Risk, the Scottish broker, as it attempts to become the leader in large accounts for UK plcs. 04-Mar-1996 Weyrad Electronics has been bought from Racal Electronics by a management buy-in team for £3m. 22-Feb-1996 Time and Data Systems International, the card-based payment systems company, has been bought by management for £3.5m. 21-Feb-1996 P&P is selling Principal Distribution, the computer peripherals and software distributor, to a "buy-in management buy-out", for an undisclosed sum. 13-Feb-1996 Telecom Sciences Corporation, a new company, has bought Philips' Scottish telecoms equipment activities. 09-Feb-1996 Liverpool Victoria is acquiring Frizzell, the insurance concern, from Marsh & McLennan of New York for £188m. 08-Feb-1996 Klinge Pharma has bought Ribosepharm, Medeva's cancer products business in Germany, for £54m. 07-Feb-1996 Compagnie Financiere SFAC of France is to acquire Trade Indemnity, the credit insurer, for £177m. 02-Feb-1996 Hay Hall Group has bought three engineering businesses from TI - TI Desford Tubes, Hollow Extrusions and TI Matrix Engineering. 01-Feb-1996 Unilever has bought Diversey, the Canadian cleaning products concern, for £360m, which doubles Unilever's share of the world market. 24-Jan-1996 Tractebel of Belgium is looking at possible acquisitions in the UK, prompting rumours that it may be looking at Midlands Electricity. 23-Jan-1996 Farnell Electronics is buying Premier Industrial Corp, the US electronics distributor, for $2.8bn. 23-Jan-1996 John Fyfe, Bardon Group's Scottish concrete products maker, has acquired about £1m of assets from Robert Paterson Precast of Airdrie. 11-Jan-1996 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. 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