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Littlewoods is acquiring UK Charity Lotteries for undisclosed terms, in a move which could create a serious competitor to Camelot in the scratch card market. 31-Dec-1996 GEI International has sold its Sanderson Kayser steel finishing operation to Timken of the US for £5m. 28-Dec-1996 Laporte has sold its European adhesives operation to Elf of France for about £100m. 27-Dec-1996 Bunzl is to sell its Italian and German fine papers businesses to KNP BT of the Netherlands for about £62m. 27-Dec-1996 Rank Organisation has acquired the Canadian outlets of Hard Rock Cafes for £36m. 27-Dec-1996 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 AEA Technology is acquiring BR Research from the British Railways Board for £10.8m. 24-Dec-1996 Amec is acquiring a 48.6% stake in Spie Batignolles of France for up to £23m, in a deal which will create one the UK's biggest construction groups. 21-Dec-1996 Pressac Holdings is acquiring Italmec, the Italian automotive components maker, for £21m. 20-Dec-1996 London Electricity has agreed to a £1.3bn takeover bid by Entergy of the US, a deal intended to help Entergy develop into a global energy group. 19-Dec-1996 Conrad, the diversified leisure company, is acquiring Sheffield United Football Club for £10m. 19-Dec-1996 Misys is to acquire Summit Systems, the New York-based financial derivatives trading software company, for £37m. 18-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 Wolseley, the builders merchant, is acquiring Bandt's Brown & Tawse business, for £15.6m. 16-Dec-1996 Kingspan, the building materials group, is to buy Ward Building Systems from Rugby for £26m. 16-Dec-1996 Burnfield is acquiring LDS, the vibration equipment company, for £24m. 14-Dec-1996 RPC, the plastic packaging concern, is acquiring CPE of Germany from Viag, for £62m, a deal which will more than double its sales. 14-Dec-1996 CalEnergy of the US has been given UK government approval to go-ahead with its £782m hostile takeover bid for Northern Electric. 14-Dec-1996 Racal Electronics has sold Racal-Decca Marine, the navigation systems business, to Litton Industries of the US for £29.5m. 13-Dec-1996 Vector Industries has acquired 15 engineering businesses from Caradon for about £200m, leaving Caradon free to focus on building products. 12-Dec-1996 Kingfisher, the retail group, has sold its 50% stake in the Staples office supplies superstores to Staples, its US partner, for £23.5m. 12-Dec-1996 BBA Group is acquiring International Airmotive, the US engine overhaul and aircraft servicing company, for £176m, in a move which will make aviation a core activity for the engineering group. 10-Dec-1996 Yule Catto is acquiring PFW Aroma Chemicals in the Netherlands from Hercules of the US for £21m. 10-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 Logica, the computer services company, is acquiring Axime Ingenierie of France for £18m. 06-Dec-1996 James Fisher, the Barrow-based shipping concern, is acquiring P&O Tankships, the operator of 17 petroleum products tankers, for £39m. 05-Dec-1996 BSG International, the auto components concern, has acquired Premier Hazard, the maker of warning systems, for £6m. 03-Dec-1996 H Young, the automotive distributor, has acquired Madison, the distributor of bicycle parts, for £6.9m. 03-Dec-1996 Blue Circle Industries has bought Venesta Cubicle Systems, the manufacturer of washroom products, for £5.5m. 03-Dec-1996 Whitbread has acquired BrightReasons, the restaurant chain that owns Pizzaland, for £46m, and aims to expand the Bella Pasta chain by converting 35 of the acquired Pizzaland sites. 28-Nov-1996 Pearson has acquired Putnam Berkley, the US publisher of best-selling authors, for £200m. 27-Nov-1996 Babcock International is acquiring the Rosyth Royal Dockyard in Scotland for up to £25m, having secured orders from the Ministry of Defence worth about £1bn. 26-Nov-1996 Carlton Communications has acquired Action Time, the independent television production company, for up to £4.3m. 26-Nov-1996 IMI has acquired ISI Automation, the US fluid power business, for £89m, a move which will help it boost sales of existing products to US automotive manufacturers. 26-Nov-1996 Inn Business Group is acquiring Sycamore Taverns, the chain of 216 tenanted pubs, for about £30m. 26-Nov-1996 Carlton Communications has acquired Westcountry Television for £85m, having outbid United News & Media. 25-Nov-1996 Glaxo Wellcome is acquiring full control of Nippon Glaxo, its joint venture with Shin Nihon Jitsugyo, for £360m. 22-Nov-1996 Allied Colloids has acquired CPS, the US producer of water-soluble polymers, for £230m. 20-Nov-1996 Vodafone has acquired Peoples Phone, the distributor of telephone handsets, for £77m, in order to reduce its dependence on independent retailers. 20-Nov-1996 Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has acquired London's Hyde Park Hotel from Granada Group for £86m. 20-Nov-1996 Azlan, the computer products distributor, has acquired Akam International Holding, the Dutch computer training concern, for £30m, in order to speed up its expansion into Europe. 20-Nov-1996 Hickson International has sold its Hickson Manro business to Broomco, a new company that includes some managers from Manro, for £26.5m, as part of its debt reduction programme. 19-Nov-1996 Tarmac and ARC are merging their Midlands quarrying operations into a joint venture called Midland Quarry Products, a move which will result in the mothballing of ARC's Nuneaton and Whitwick quarries. 19-Nov-1996 Great Universal Stores has acquired Experian, the US credit rating and information agency, in a £1.04bn deal. 15-Nov-1996 Cedardata, the commercial software supplier, has acquired Teleconnect Systems, the supplier of call centre management systems, for £4m. 15-Nov-1996 Dominion Resources has announced a £1.3bn agreed takeover bid for East Midlands Electricity, although it is not clear whether the deal will be referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission. 14-Nov-1996 Morgan Crucible has acquired EM Corporation, the lubricants supplier, from Great Lakes Chemical Corp for £16m. 14-Nov-1996 Misys has acquired Frustum, the US designer of software that enables banks to monitor activities such as foreign exchange trading, for £37m. 13-Nov-1996 Comet, the electrical retailer, is acquiring Norweb's electricity showrooms for £29m, and is expected to withdraw from about 57 high-street shops in order to avoid conflict with its existing stores. 13-Nov-1996 Clubhaus is acquiring Golf Fund, the owner of golf courses at Lichfield and Leek Wootton, for £12.6m. 13-Nov-1996 Southern Newspapers has bought the South Wales Argus from United News & Media for £31m, a deal which includes 15 titles. 12-Nov-1996 Capital Radio has launched an agreed £57m bid for My Kinda Town, the themed restaurants chain, a move seen as an extension to its Radio Cafe idea. 12-Nov-1996 NatWest Ventures is leading a syndicate of venture capitalists that is buying the Pubmaster chain of 1,680 pubs from Brent Walker for £171m. 08-Nov-1996 Mayflower, the UK automotive engineering concern, is acquiring SCSM, the US automotive body-pressings company, for £101m. 08-Nov-1996 Bodycote International has acquired Bruken, the Swedish heat treatment group, for £57m. 08-Nov-1996 British Airways has won approval to acquire a 67% stake in Air Liberte, the independent French carrier, for £53m. 06-Nov-1996 Bullough has sold Reznor, its industrial heating business, to Thomas & Betts of the US for about £9.7m. 05-Nov-1996 Rank Organisation is to sell its Shearings coach holiday business to a management buy-out, for a price expected to be around £80m. 05-Nov-1996 Ellis & Everard has acquired Chemitrade, the Manchester-based distributor of solvents, for £7.4m. 05-Nov-1996 Dixons, the electrical retailer, has bought DN Computer Services, the mail order computer company, for £9.7m. 05-Nov-1996 British Telecom has announced a £12bn merger with MCI, the US long-distance carrier, in which it is acquiring the remaining 80% stake it does not already own, thus creating a new entity called Concert which will be the world's fourth-largest telecoms company. 04-Nov-1996 Bernard Matthews is acquiring Bernhard Bartsch, the German maker of cooked pork and turkey products, for £5m. 04-Nov-1996 Lawter International of the US is acquiring the resin division of Wolstenholme International for £5.5m. 04-Nov-1996 Molins is acquiring a cartoning and case packing machinery group comprising HJ Langen of Canada and Langenpac of the Netherlands, for about £23m. 04-Nov-1996 Ugland International Holdings, the shipping group, is to acquire the Ugland family's 50% stake in Hoegh-Ugland Auto Lines, the vehicle carrier business, for an initial £99m. 02-Nov-1996 Eurotherm is acquiring Viatran, the US maker of electromechanical pressure transducers, for £6.9m. 01-Nov-1996 Stakis has acquired Metropole Hotels from Lonrho for £327m, adding 2,266 rooms to its existing 5,500. 01-Nov-1996 Emap has bought The Box, a cable TV music channel, from Video Jukebox Network and Ticketmaster of the US for £7.8m. 31-Oct-1996 Hewden Stuart, the construction equipment company, is acquiring Agent Plant from Kvaerner Construction for £9.4m. 29-Oct-1996 NatWest Securities Japan is to acquire Citicorp International Securities' Japanese trading operations, for undisclosed terms. 26-Oct-1996 Pet City Holdings of the UK is to undergo a £140m merger with PetsMart of the US, as the first step in the US pet product retailer's European expansion plans. 26-Oct-1996 Smiths Industries has acquired Leland Electronics, the US maker of electrical power generators, for £19m. 24-Oct-1996 Low & Bonar has acquired two Belgian makers of polypropylene yarns and fabrics - UCO Technical Fabrics and UCO Ostend Netting - for £9m. 23-Oct-1996 S Daniels is acquiring Brash Brothers, the tea and coffee processor, for £1.85m. 23-Oct-1996 Hall Engineering is buying Cardiff Wire from ASW Holdings for up to £5.9m. 23-Oct-1996 Conrad, the leisure group, is to acquire Sheffield United Football Club for £10m. 22-Oct-1996 The Birthdays chain of 330 greetings cards shops has been sold to a consortium of investors for £90m. 22-Oct-1996 Burton, the clothing retailer, has acquired Racing Group, the mail-order concern, for £19m. 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 Abbot Group, the oil services company, is acquiring Nabors Europe for £25m in order to expand its development drilling operations. 19-Oct-1996 Cookson is acquiring GRP, the US maker of fused cast refractory materials, for undisclosed terms. 19-Oct-1996 MY Holdings has acquired TWG, the Merseyside packaging concern that makes self-adhesive labels, for £6m. 18-Oct-1996 Smith & Nephew, the healthcare concern, has acquired Yunhab Meditech and ChangMyung, its two South Korean distributors, for £4m. 18-Oct-1996 Inchcape is selling its Bain Hogg insurance broking business to Aon Corp of the US for £160m, having dropped plans to demerge it. 16-Oct-1996 Eliza Tinsley is acquiring Evenwood Engineering and GR Smithson to expand its services to farming and building suppliers, for a combined total of over £5m. 16-Oct-1996 NatWest Markets has acquired Hambro Magan, the merchant banking operation, for undisclosed terms. 11-Oct-1996 Albert Fisher, the fresh foods group, is selling its North American distribution business to a management buy-out for £73m. 11-Oct-1996 Quintiles of the US is to acquire Innovex, the UK pharmaceutical industry consultancy, for £500m. 08-Oct-1996 TI Group is planning to acquire Forsheda, the Swedish maker of pipe sealing systems, for £189m, a move which will double the size of TI's polymer engineering business. 08-Oct-1996 Motherwell Bridge's Portman Travel business travel subsidiary has been bought by management for £21m. 04-Oct-1996 Cox Insurance, the Lloyd's insurance company, is to acquire the Christopherson Heath agency for up to £34m. 04-Oct-1996 Camas is acquiring Model Stone, the Minnesota-based ready-mix concrete business, for £19m. 03-Oct-1996 Bodycote International has acquired Taussig Associates of Chicago, the operator of metallurgical testing laboratories, for up to $6.1m. 01-Oct-1996 Thermal Engineering International has bought Senior Engineering's thermal engineering business for £28m. 01-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 Clyde Blowers has acquired two soot-blowing equipment companies from Deutsche Babcock Group for £17m - Bergemann Germany and Bergemann USA. 27-Sep-1996 Circle Communications, the television rights company, is buying Oxford Scientific Films, the maker of wildlife programmes, for £3.8m. 27-Sep-1996 Middlesex Holdings is acquiring Wolff Steel, the international steel trading concern, for £3.8m. 26-Sep-1996 Grand Metropolitan has sold its Pearle Vision chain of optician shops in North America and Europe to Cole National of the US for £140m. 26-Sep-1996 Rank is acquiring the Tom Cobleigh pub group for £96m, and aims to integrate the brand into its other leisure outlets. 25-Sep-1996 Daily Mail & General Trust is acquiring Broadcast Media, the Australian regional radio operator, for £23m. 25-Sep-1996 Premier Oil is to acquire Discovery Petroleum of Australia for £46m, a move which will increase its presence in south-east Asia as well as marking a first step into Australia. 24-Sep-1996 Boots is acquiring Laboratoires Lutsia, the French skincare concern, for £115m, as part of its strategy to develop its over-the-counter healthcare activities. 21-Sep-1996 Premier Oil has acquired Sumatra Gulf Oil, the Indonesian oil and gas concern, from Chevron for $72m. 21-Sep-1996 Bryant is acquiring Admiral Homes, the south-east based housebuilder, for £62m as part of a strategy to increase output to 4,000 homes a year. 19-Sep-1996 Macfarlane Group has acquired Alport Holdings, the maker of polythene film, for £9m. 17-Sep-1996 Adwest has sold three power systems companies for £8m - Abbott Electronics was sold to XCEL Corp of the US, Air-Log went to EIS, and Ross Courtenay Cirencester went to a management buy-out. 17-Sep-1996 FKI has acquired the Hawker Siddeley electric power group from BTR for £182m, and has said it will stop making locomotives at Hawker Siddley's Brush subsidiary in order to focus on products for power generation. 13-Sep-1996 P&O of the UK and Royal Nedlloyd of the Netherlands are to merge their container activities to create a new company with 8,000 staff and 112 container ships. 10-Sep-1996 BTR has sold its controlling stakes in three Taiwanese plastics joint ventures to a consortium comprising Union Petrochemical and USI Far East Corporation, for £191m. 10-Sep-1996 Zellweger Luwa of Switzerland has acquired Neotronics Technology, the analytical instruments concern, for £23m. 07-Sep-1996 Takare is to merge with Court Cavendish to create the TC Group, which will be the biggest company in the care homes sector with a market value of £254m. 07-Sep-1996 Powell Duffryn has sold its UK and South African storage terminals to Koninklijke Van Ommeren of Rotterdam for £16m. 06-Sep-1996 Thomas Cook has acquired Time Off, the city breaks tour operator, for undisclosed terms. 05-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 Stagecoach Holdings has bought Swebus, the Swedish bus operator, for £116m. 04-Sep-1996 Finelist Group has bought South London Pistons, the engine parts distributor, for £1.9m. 04-Sep-1996 Cirqual is buying Wollaston, the specialist engineer, for up to £11m. 04-Sep-1996 Scottish Radio is to acquire Downtown Radio of Northern Ireland for up to £10m. 03-Sep-1996 Brake Bros is to acquire DRV, the French supplier of chilled and frozen foods, for undisclosed terms. 31-Aug-1996 Unigate has sold its remaining US restaurant businesses to CKE Restaurants for $42m. 29-Aug-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 Swiss Reinsurance has acquired Mercantile & General, the reinsurance division of Prudential, for £1.75bn, making it the largest life reinsurer in the world. 28-Aug-1996 4Front has bought Hammer Distribution, the Basingstoke-based distributor of Micropolis and Sony storage products, for £1.8m. 28-Aug-1996 Regent Inns has acquired Crossgate Holdings, the owner of the Muswells chain of bars in the south and snooker and pool bars in the north, for £6.3m. 28-Aug-1996 Compass, the food services concern, is buying the food operations of Service America for £77m, making it the second largest contract caterer in the US. 27-Aug-1996 Bass is acquiring Allied Domecq's 50% stake in Carlsberg-Tetley for £200m, and Carlsberg is putting its 50% stake, as well as £20m, into Bass Brewers in exchange for a 20% stake in the enlarged subsidiary. 26-Aug-1996 Compass, the catering group, is acquiring Service America's dining and vending food service division for $119m. 26-Aug-1996 GWR Group is acquiring the remaining 83% of Classic FM, the national classical radio station, for £71m. 24-Aug-1996 HSBC Gibbs Holdings has sold its Premium Credit operation to a management buy-out called Vendcrown, for £40m plus equity. 24-Aug-1996 HSBC's Marine Midland subsidiary in New York is acquiring First Federal Savings & Loan for £397m. 23-Aug-1996 Card Clear, the credit card fraud prevention company, is acquiring its rival Cardcast for £15.4m so that they can focus on developing the market together. 23-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 David S Smith has bought John Dickinson, the envelope maker, from Biber Holdings for £18m. 20-Aug-1996 Costain has sold its Land & Marine pipeline operation to Smit International of the Netherlands for £11m. 17-Aug-1996 Fairey Group is acquiring Fusion UV Systems, the US ultraviolet curing systems company, for £81m. 16-Aug-1996 Sanderson Electronics is buying Alpha Microsystems (Great Britain) from its US parent for £1.4m. 14-Aug-1996 Hodgson Chemicals, the BTP subsidiary, has acquired ICI Surfactants' US-based textile operation for $2.3m. 14-Aug-1996 Financial Objects has acquired Ibis, the Italian banking software concern, for £4m. 14-Aug-1996 Abbey National has acquired Elton Holdings, the contract car leasing concern, for £9.9m. 14-Aug-1996 Rathbone Brothers is acquiring Neilson Cobbold, the Liverpool-based stockbroker, for up to £15.9m. 14-Aug-1996 United Friendly and Refuge Group have announced a £1.46bn merger, creating a major home services insurer with combined assets of £6.5bn. 09-Aug-1996 Reed Elsevier is acquiring Tolley, the tax and legal publisher, for £100m, and is now planning a £2bn acquisition drive concentrated in electronic publishing. 09-Aug-1996 Cowie is acquiring Lathom Van Hire, the vehicle rental concern, for £4.5m. 09-Aug-1996 McKechnie has bought Dzus International, the fastener maker, for £15m. 09-Aug-1996 Thomson Travel Group has acquired Budget Travel, the Irish tour operator, from Granada in a deal thought to be worth up to £19m. 08-Aug-1996 First National Building Society of Ireland has bought The Mortgage Corporation, the UK mortgage lending business, from Salomon Brothers for £53m. 08-Aug-1996 Newsquest Media Group is buying Westminster Press, the regional newspaper business, from Pearson for £305m. 06-Aug-1996 TI Group is buying Alcan Aluminio do Brasil, the refrigeration components company, for £15.5m, in a move which will enable it to use Alcan's advanced evaporator systems. 05-Aug-1996 European Colour is to buy Tor, the specialist coatings maker, for £13m. 01-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 Cowie has bought Drymona, the North East Bus holding company, for £24.5m, making it the second biggest bus operator in the UK. 01-Aug-1996 Whitbread is buying Pelican, the chain of Cafe Rouge and Dome restaurants, for £133m. 31-Jul-1996 Midland Independent Newspapers has bought Newsquest (Midlands North), the publisher of free newspapers and magazines, for £12m. 30-Jul-1996 Inspec is acquiring Shell's Fine Chemicals business for £200m, with the help of a £101m rights issue. 27-Jul-1996 Denham Holdings is buying Carter Penguin, the confectionery business, from Armour Trust for about £4.3m. 27-Jul-1996 Jessop Group, the chain of 70 photographic shops, has undergone a management buy-out backed by NatWest Ventures. 26-Jul-1996 Ascot Holdings, the pubs and hotels group, has agreed to buy Suter, the industrial conglomerate, for £276m, and will later to decide which of Suter's businesses to keep. 26-Jul-1996 Scottish Television is buying Caledonian Publishing, the Scottish newspaper group, for £120m. 26-Jul-1996 Relayfast has bought Western Track Renewals, the British Railways infrastructure concern, for undisclosed terms. 25-Jul-1996 TT Group has bought Lewis & Towers, the Kent-based glass bottle maker, for £3.8m. 24-Jul-1996 Carlton Communications has bought Cinema Media, which controls about 80% of UK cinema advertising, for £58m. 23-Jul-1996 Reckitt & Colman has sold its 80% stake in Globo SA Tintas e Pigmentos, the Brazilian paints and coatings concern, to Bayer for £48m. 23-Jul-1996 T&N has sold AE Turbine Components, the aerospace business, to Precision Castings of Oregon for £41m. 23-Jul-1996 Haden MacLellan has sold Duport Harper Foundries to a management team for £10.4m. 23-Jul-1996 Goldman Sachs of the US is to acquire CINMan, the UK coal industry pension fund manager, in a deal thought to be worth up to £50m. 22-Jul-1996 Heywood Williams is acquiring Mila Beslag, the Danish distributor of components to UK makers of windows and doors, for £34m. 20-Jul-1996 TBI, the property group, is acquiring Belfast International airport for £100m. 19-Jul-1996 Sema Group is buying Syntax Processing, Olivetti's facilities management business, for about £64m. 18-Jul-1996 Siebe has acquired Controlli, the Italian maker of valves and controls, for £9.4m. 17-Jul-1996 T&N is acquiring the US piston rings business of Cummins for undisclosed terms. 16-Jul-1996 BTR has acquired Vogt Valves of Kentucky, the maker of low-pressure valves for process industries, for £20m from Henry Vogt Machine Company. 16-Jul-1996 Mercury Communications has sold Mercury Paging to a US management team for £60m, in order to focus on long-distance telephony and specific business sectors. 16-Jul-1996 Continental Foods, the snacks and drinks business, is undergoing a £16m management buy-out. 13-Jul-1996 Laporte has disposed of more non-core businesses for a total £23m, including the process chemicals business Gramos, the cleanroon garments operation Countdown Clean Systems, the US pet litter business Waverly Minerals, and its 50% stake in Laporte (Malaysia). 11-Jul-1996 Standard Motor Products of the US has bought Intermotor, the auto electrical components maker, for over £20m. 11-Jul-1996 Vodafone is to acquire the remaining two-thirds of Talkland, the service provider, from Compagnie Generale des Eaux of France for £30m. 10-Jul-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange has bought Legal & General's commercial general insurance business for £48m, and hopes to achieve cost savings by merging the business with existing operations. 10-Jul-1996 Unigate is buying Kraft Foods International's UK and Italian margarine business for £77m. 09-Jul-1996 Cantors, the furniture retailer, is to undergo a reverse takeover with Harveys Holdings, the textiles and furniture concern, creating a group with sales of £140m and almost 300 stores. 06-Jul-1996 Whessoe is buying AG Marvac, the supplier of vapour control products to the petrochemical industry, for £2.7m. 06-Jul-1996 Lafarge of France is to buy Ennemix, the quarry company, following a £8.8m recommended bid. 05-Jul-1996 CRH of Dublin has bought Allied Building Products, the US roofing and cladding supplier, for $121m. 05-Jul-1996 Flare Group is to buy Gibbons Refractories, the maker of bricks for kilns, for £4.5m. 05-Jul-1996 Reed Elsevier is linking up with Times Mirror, the US media group, to jointly acquire Shephard's, the legal publisher, for $250m. 04-Jul-1996 MY Holdings has bought Clarke Packaging, the maker of thermoformed containers for food, for £2m. 04-Jul-1996 Meconic is buying Phoenix Chemicals, the contract manufacturer, for up to £12m. 03-Jul-1996 Thomas Cook has acquired Sunworld, the tour operator, from GVI of Spain for a sum thought to be around £38m. 03-Jul-1996 Compass is acquiring Professional Food-Service Management, the Florida-based college caterer, for up to $26m. 03-Jul-1996 Cookson Group has bought Camelot Systems, the US electronic components maker, for up to $100m. 03-Jul-1996 Dixon Motors of Hull is acquiring Gordon Plunkett Group, the vehicle parts distributor, for £6m. 03-Jul-1996 ADT, the second hand car and burglar alarm group, is to be acquired by Republic Industries of the US for $5bn. 02-Jul-1996 Brammer has acquired Hamilton Rentals Nederland, the computer hire concern, for up to £6.8m. 02-Jul-1996 Philips Telecom-PMR, the mobile radio business, has been bought from Philips Electronics by management for £60m. 02-Jul-1996 Dalgety Produce, the potato business, has been bought from Dalgety by management for £14.3m. 02-Jul-1996 Ideal Hardware has bought Kinexus, the TV, film, and multimedia production concern, for £300k in shares. 28-Jun-1996 Boxmore International is acquiring the printing and packaging business of Glaxo Wellcome for £6.3m. 26-Jun-1996 Unigate is buying H Hargrave, the Lincolnshire-based pork processor, for £18m. 25-Jun-1996 Priory Hospitals, the acute psychiatric company, has been bought from Community Psychiatric Centers of America by a management buy-out for £88m. 24-Jun-1996 UPF has bought Pioneer, the car exhaust systems maker, for £7.5m. 22-Jun-1996 Formal Group is acquiring Blakes Menswear, which operates mainly in the south east, for up to £4.5m. 22-Jun-1996 Seagate of the US has bought Holistic Systems, the London-based software developer, for £55m. 22-Jun-1996 TransTec is buying BSK, the Midlands-based machinist, for £42m. 21-Jun-1996 ADT of Bermuda is to acquire Automated Security (Holdings), the electronic security concern, for $250m. 20-Jun-1996 McDonnell Information Systems, the computer services concern, is to sell its New Zealand and Australian operations to Continuum Australia for £7m. 20-Jun-1996 International Energy Group of the Channel Islands is to buy Douglas Gas, the Isle of Man-based LPG importer, for £15m. 20-Jun-1996 Cowie Group has acquired British Bus Group, the third largest bus company behind Stagecoach and FirstBus, for at least £282m. 19-Jun-1996 Greene King has acquired the Magic Pub chain of 277 managed pubs for £197m. 19-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 Renold has acquired Holset Engineering, the coupling maker, from Cummins UK for £3.5m. 19-Jun-1996 Williams Holdings' electronics division, SAIA Burgess Electronics, is being sold to a management buy-out for £71m. 18-Jun-1996 Finelist, the auto parts distributor, has bought Teviot Motor Factors (Hawick) for £2.6m. 18-Jun-1996 Marriott International of the US has bought Russell & Brand, the UK contract caterer, for a price thought to be around £15m. 18-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 Vardon has bought Dynamic Leisure, the health club operator that uses the Archer brand name, for £40m. 15-Jun-1996 Moss Bros has bought Blazer, the chain of 28 casual wear shops, from Storehouse for £7.1m. 14-Jun-1996 Wellman is selling its specialist engineering business to a management buy-in, set up by Candover Partners, for £17.4m. 14-Jun-1996 WH Smith has sold Paperchase, the chain of 12 stationery stores, to management for £1m. 14-Jun-1996 Celltech is selling Celltech Biologicals to Alusuisse-Lonza of Switzerland for £50m. 13-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 Partco, the motor parts distributor, is acquiring Serck Marston, which is 70% owned by BTR, for £56m. 12-Jun-1996 Datrontech is buying Connectivity Group, the communications products specialist, for up to £6.4m. 12-Jun-1996 National Westminster Bank is to acquire Greenwich Captital Markets, the US broker based in Connecticut, from Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan for $600m. 11-Jun-1996 Boots is to acquire WH Smith's share in their joint Do It All chain of DIY stores. 10-Jun-1996 Allders, the retailer, has agreed to sell its duty-free business to Swissair for £160m, thus ending the attempt by BAA to buy the business. 08-Jun-1996 Rank Organisation is acquiring full control of the Hard Rock Cafes for $410m, thus gaining a further 13 outlets and 4 franchises. 08-Jun-1996 Medeva is buying some former Fisons businesses from Rhone-Poulenc Rorer for £263m, including Rochester, which is made up of Fison's former US headquarters and ten branded drugs. 07-Jun-1996 Cadbury Schweppes has sold its 51% stake in Coca-Cola & Schweppes Beverages, its soft drinks production joint venture, to Coca-Cola Enterprises for about £700m. 05-Jun-1996 Wyko is acquiring Swan Bearing Factors, the distributor of power transmission components, for up to £4.2m. 04-Jun-1996 Adwest is buying Rearsby, the automotive component maker, for £29m, thus creating a leading player in the manufacture of control cables, clutches and gear parts. 04-Jun-1996 Johnston Press is to buy Emap's regional newspaper business for about £205m, which will give it over 6% of the regional newspaper market. 04-Jun-1996 Unigate is selling its Black-eye Pea restaurant business in the US to DenAmerica for $65m. 04-Jun-1996 Lloyds TSB is to sell Hill Samuel Bank's corporate finance department to Close Brothers for undisclosed terms, with the remainder of the subsidiary being integrated into Lloyds TSB. 01-Jun-1996 W Canning, the speciality chemicals concern, has bought Amco Sari, a company that sells combustion improvement additives in France, for £2.1m. 01-Jun-1996 Clondalkin of Dublin is acquiring Van der Windt, the Dutch packaging concern, from NV Koninklijke for £40m, in order to improve its position in the European flexible packaging market. 01-Jun-1996 Central Transport Rental is to sell its rail wagon leasing operation to management for £27m. 31-May-1996 Kewill Systems has bought Scott-Anglia Holdings and its Meadowhouse Bar-Laser subsidiary, which provides EDI systems to retailers, for £3.3m. 31-May-1996 Kalamazoo Computer Group has conditionally agreed to buy the European automotive dealer systems operations of Datapoint Corp of the US for $33m. 30-May-1996 Ellis & Everard is acquiring Giltrain Plastics, the Yorkshire-based supplier of polymers, for £4.15m. 24-May-1996 Go-Ahead Group is buying London General, the bus operator, for £46m. 24-May-1996 API is buying Learoyd Group, the specialist film and packaging producer, for up to £22m. 24-May-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 Jarvis is buying Northern Infrastructure Maintenance Company from the British Railways Board, for £9m. 23-May-1996 Enterprise Inns is buying John Labatt (UK), the pubs business of Belgium's Interbrew, for £51m - a move which will double its size to over 1,000 pubs. 22-May-1996 Hillsdown Holdings is buying Continental Bakeries, the European biscuit maker, from Allied Domecq for £49m. 22-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 Kingston Communications has bought out Yorkshire Electricity's 50% stake in their Torch Telecom joint venture for £24m. 17-May-1996 Clyde Petroleum is to buy Crusader, the Australian exploration concern, for £91m. 17-May-1996 Williams Holdings has bought the Sicli Group, the French fire protection and rescue vehicle concern, for £175m. 16-May-1996 British Aerospace Australia is to buy the armoured vehicle operation of Shorts for undisclosed terms. 16-May-1996 British Aerospace is forming a joint venture with Lagardere Group of France called Matra BAe Dynamics, which will be the biggest missile maker in Europe. 14-May-1996 Stakis is acquiring LivingWell Health and Leisure, the chain of five health clubs, for £19.8m. 14-May-1996 Beazer Homes has bought Charles Church, the housebuilder, from the Royal Bank of Scotland for £36m. 14-May-1996 Warburtons, the bakery group, is selling its retail and pie manufacturing businesses to Lyndale Foods, a management buy-in, for undisclosed terms. 14-May-1996 Hall Engineering is selling its metal stockholding operation to Hallco 68, a newly-formed company, for £21m. 11-May-1996 FirstBus is acquiring Strathclyde Buses for £110m, making it the UK's largest bus company. 10-May-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange has set up a new company, Spring Inns, to buy about 1,400 pubs from Inntrepreneur Pub Company for £262m. 10-May-1996 Compass Group is buying Roberts Catering and Payne & Gunter, the sports catering businesses, for £6.5m. 10-May-1996 Norcros has bought four adhesives businesses from BTR for £27m - Dunlop Adhesives, and the remaining stakes in Building Adhesives, TAL, and Australian Building Adhesives. 09-May-1996 BASF is buying Zeneca's textile colours operation for up to £150m, which includes sites in Ellesmere Port, Brazil and North Carolina. 09-May-1996 Stanley Leisure is acquiring Gus Carter, the Sunderland-based chain of bookmakers, for £14.7m. 09-May-1996 Midlands Electricity has agreed to a £1.73bn takeover bid from Avon Energy, a company set up by General Public Utilities of New Jersey and Cinergy of Cincinnati. 08-May-1996 Rubicon Group's aluminium alloys operation has been bought by management for £7.4m. 08-May-1996 Dragon Oil of Dublin is planning a reverse takeover of Larmag Energy Assets, funded by a £50m placement. 08-May-1996 CRH has expanded its US building materials business with a number of acquisitions - Ritangela of NY state, Brooks Products, and Foster and Southeastern of Massachusetts. 08-May-1996 Sun Alliance and Royal Insurance are planning a £6bn merger to form Royal & Sun Alliance, a deal which could result in 5,000 job losses. 04-May-1996 Liberty Publishing, the media subsidiary of Harrods, has bought Viva Radio, the radio station for women, for £3m. 04-May-1996 Geest has sold its Necta prepared pineapple operation, which has a factory in Costa Rica, to Pacific Asia Technologies, for up to $6.7m. 04-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 National Home Loans has bought RCR Contract Hire & Leasing, the vehicle contract hire business based in Coventry, for £7.5m. 04-May-1996 Abbey National is acquiring Wagon Finance, the used car financing business, from United News & Media for £121m. 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 Hanson has sold its Seven Seas vitamin supplements business to Merck of Germany for £150m. 03-May-1996 Cornhill Insurance has acquired Pet Plan, the animal health insurer, for £32.5m. 02-May-1996 Bupa has bought back 30 nursing homes from Greenalls, the pub company, for £68m. 02-May-1996 General Accident is buying two German companies for £61m from UAP of France - UAP Allgemeine, a general insurer, and UAP International Leben, a life insurer. 01-May-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange is buying the RAC's insurance broking business for £68m, and the business will become part of Guardian Direct but will continue to use the RAC name. 01-May-1996 PressTech Controls, the maker of control equipment for the printing sector, has been sold to management by Harnischfeger Industries of the US for £9m. 01-May-1996 Walkers Snack Foods has sold Planters Nuts to a management buy-in team, as Walkers wants to concentrate on core brands. 30-Apr-1996 Virgin Group has bought 90% of Euro Belgian Airlines for £38m and will use the acquisition to help it reduce the cost of air travel in Europe. 30-Apr-1996 Marley has sold its 50% stake in Davidson Marley, the Dutch maker of automotive instrument panels, to Davidsons Overseas Investment for £28m. 30-Apr-1996 Siebe is acquiring ERO Electronic, the Milan-based controls maker, for £18.5m. 30-Apr-1996 Ibstock has bought Redland's UK bricks business for £160m, giving it 35% of the market. 26-Apr-1996 BPB Industries, the plasterboard maker, is buying the remaining 80% of Borgardts, the German maker of gypsum plasters, for £21m. 26-Apr-1996 Halifax Building Society is buying 33 estate agency offices from the Alliance & Leicester for undisclosed terms. 26-Apr-1996 Marshalls has sold Marshalls Hard Metals, Halco Drilling, Marshalls Drilling and Halifax Tool Company to a management buy-in for £16m. 25-Apr-1996 ARC, the Hanson subsidiary, has bought Boral Edenhall, the Cumbrian-based concrete blocks company, from Boral of Australia for £24m. 25-Apr-1996 BTR has sold Plascoat International and Plascoat Coatings, its plastics processing operations, to a management buy-out for £30m. 25-Apr-1996 Adare Printing of Ireland has bought Prontaprint, the chain of 250 design and print centre franchises, for £23m. 24-Apr-1996 TIP Europe, the GE Capital Services division, has bought Smith Self Drive, the truck rental company, for £45m. 24-Apr-1996 Metal Bulletin has acquired a 49% stake in Sea.Net, the provider of shipping information on the internet, for £1.2m. 24-Apr-1996 Smiths Industries is acquiring Air Movement, the ventilation equipment concern, for £47m, and Adaptaflex, the conduits maker, for £21m. 23-Apr-1996 Sears has sold Hoogenbosch Beheer, the Dutch shoe retailer with 308 outlets, to a management buy-out for £47m. 23-Apr-1996 Amec has acquired South West Infrastructure Maintenance Company, the ex-British Rail track maintenance company which operates between London, Exeter and Hastings, for £11m. 22-Apr-1996 WH Smith has sold its Niceday stationery supply business to Guilbert of France for £142m. 19-Apr-1996 Securitised Endowment Contracts, the financial services company, is buying two independent financial advisors - IFA Network and IFA Network Services. 19-Apr-1996 Norcros has sold PP Payne, the packaging business, to Bunzl for £43.4m, as part of its plan to sell off its print and packaging operations. 19-Apr-1996 Kwik-Fit has acquired an additional 45 outlets by buying three companies for £12.3m - Autospeed Tyre & Exhaust Centres, Manor Tyre Group, and Ebley Tyre Services. 18-Apr-1996 ED&F Man Group has bought a majority of the assets of Ravioli, the Polish processor of edible nuts and cocoa beans, for £3.7m. 18-Apr-1996 Compass has won shareholder support to acquire a controlling stake in Eurest France, the French contract caterer. 18-Apr-1996 Redland has sold its European roof tiles operation to Braas, its German subsidiary, for £220m cash and at the same time increases its stake in Braas from 50.76% to 56.5%. 17-Apr-1996 British Aerospace has acquired AWA Defence Industries of Australia for £27.6m. 17-Apr-1996 Hardy Oil & Gas has sold Hardy USA to a subsidiary of Enron for £118m in order to cut borrowings, acquire new assets and expand existing interests. 16-Apr-1996 Waterfall Holdings is to buy First Leisure's nine snooker and pool clubs for over £6.5m. 13-Apr-1996 Parkland Foods, the supplier of foods to convenience stores, has bought Dutch Oven, the baker based in Rowley Regis. 13-Apr-1996 Ericsson is buying out Vodafone's share of Orbitel Mobile Communications, their mobile equipment manufacturing joint venture, for undisclosed terms. 12-Apr-1996 Magnet has bought Allerton Glass, the double glazing concern, from Polypipe for £7m. 12-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 Sega of Japan has acquired JPM, the gaming machines supplier, for undisclosed terms, in anticipation of a relaxation of gaming rules this summer. 12-Apr-1996 Devro International, the maker of sausage casings, is selling its Devro America business to Nitta Gelatin of Japan for $26m. 10-Apr-1996 Eurocamp, the tour operator, is buying Tesh Travels GmbH and Tesh Travels AG, its agents in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for £6.3m. 10-Apr-1996 John Cleland, the packaging maker based in Ulster, is undergoing a management buy-out from IWP International for £16m. 08-Apr-1996 Queensborough Holdings is acquiring Pleasureworld, OLP Holdings and Loreca, which run fairground rides and caravan sites, funded by a £10m cash call. 05-Apr-1996 Cadbury Schweppes' Trebor Bassett subsidiary is acquiring Craven Keiller, the boiled sweets and popcorn company, from Portfolio Foods. 05-Apr-1996 Sato Corporation is buying Nor Systems, the maker of hand-held price marking systems, from Norcros for £21.5m. 05-Apr-1996 Siebe is to acquire Unitech, the electronic controls concern, for £520m, thus creating the world's largest company in the sector. 04-Apr-1996 Regal Hotels has bought the White Hart chain from Granada for £122m. 04-Apr-1996 Stakis has bought the International Casino in Gibraltar for £5.5m. 04-Apr-1996 United Industries is buying Helical Spring, the Lancashire spring maker, for £950k. 04-Apr-1996 KPN, the Dutch telecoms concern, has bought Coventry Cable from Caledonian Media Communications for £24m. 03-Apr-1996 Rackwood Mineral Holdings, the coal company, is to buy Cory Coal, the coal distributor, for £2m, and DS Supplies, the opencast mining company, for £1.9m. 03-Apr-1996 Enron Europe has bought ICI's 50% share in their joint venture, Teesside Gas Transportation, for an undisclosed sum. 02-Apr-1996 Unit Press, the underseat mechanisms maker, has been sold by Calderburn to a management buy-out for £7m. 02-Apr-1996 Sea Containers of Bermuda is to acquire Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, the ferry operator, for £47m. 30-Mar-1996 Readymix has bought RMC Catherwood, which operates in Scotland, the north of Ireland and the Isle of Man, for £23m. 30-Mar-1996 S Daniels, the food ingredients concern, is acquiring Johnsons Fresh Products, the orange juice distributor, for £6.6m, and may follow it up with further acquisitions. 29-Mar-1996 International CableTel is acquiring NTL, the IBA transmission operation, for £235m, in a move which should enable it to become a major force in telecommunications. 29-Mar-1996 Datrontech, the computer component distributor, has bought Summit Peripherals, the computer storage distributor, for £1.6m. 28-Mar-1996 Motorhouse, the car retailer, is undergoing a £32m management buy-out, in which NatWest Ventures will get a 25% stake. 27-Mar-1996 HP Bulmer is buying Inch's, the privately-owned third biggest cider maker in the UK, for £23m. 26-Mar-1996 Burmah Castrol has sold its Swedish service station business to Norsk Hydro Olje for £24m. 26-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 Global Group is buying Express Caterers for an initial £850k. 23-Mar-1996 Morgan Grenfell Development Capital has bought CGA, the household and motor insurance telebroker, from Oriel for £12m. 22-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 CRH of Dublin is buying The Jack B Parson Companies, the quarry business with operations in Utah, Nevada and Idaho, for $87m. 21-Mar-1996 Thomas Walter, the printed circuit board company, has been sold to management for £16m. 21-Mar-1996 Symonds Engineering is acquiring Zlin, the printed circuit board company, for £11.5m. 21-Mar-1996 Hillsdown Holdings' HL Foods subsidiary is to buy the UK canning operations of Groupe Danone's HP Foods, including the North Walsham factory but not the HP Sauce brand. 21-Mar-1996 SIG is buying two German insulation product distributors - WKT for £39m, and a 50% stake in Golinski Group for £7.5m with an option to buy the remaining 50%. 20-Mar-1996 Elan of Ireland has announced a $600m merger with Athena Neurosciences, the Californian biotechnology concern. 19-Mar-1996 Skyepharma plans to raise £140m on the market to acquire Jago Holdings, the Swiss drug delivery concern. 19-Mar-1996 Chesterton International has bought back the Chestertons Residential estate agency business in London from Woolwich Building Society for £8m. 16-Mar-1996 British Steel has bought British Rail's Castleton Long Welded Rail and Track Works, meaning that about a third of the railway industry by turnover has been sold off. 16-Mar-1996 Plysu Containers has acquired Blowmocan's industrial division, based in Milton Keynes. 16-Mar-1996 Rexam, the printing and packaging concern, is selling three non-core operations: Opax, the lottery ticket maker, Victor, the colour masterbatch maker, and Rexam Performance Products, the US coated films concern. 15-Mar-1996 Yorkshire Food is to sell Scotia Group, its home baking business, to Hallco 63, part of a venture capital group, leaving it to focus on its Californian produce operations. 15-Mar-1996 Facia is acquiring the chain of 110 Bata shoe shops in Germany, its first move into continental Europe. 14-Mar-1996 Haden MacLellan has bought IFS, the industrial fasteners concern, for £12m, in order to increase its presence in the north of England. 14-Mar-1996 Britton Group has bought Packbourne, the polythene film converter, for £5.6m. 13-Mar-1996 SeaPerfect, the scallop and clam farmer, is expected to be sold to its largest shareholder, Mr Carlos Celle, to avoid liquidation. 12-Mar-1996 British Rail is selling the Central Infrastructure Maintenance Company to GT Railway Maintenance and also it is selling Western Infrastructure Maintenance to Amey Railways. 09-Mar-1996 FirstBus is to buy Greater Manchester Buses North for £47m and Portsmouth Transit for £5.2m. 08-Mar-1996 Simon Engineering has sold SPT, Robertson Research Australia and Robertson Research International, as well as stakes in two Indonesian joint ventures, to Robertson Research Holdings, a company 49.9% owned by Simon Engineering Finance. 08-Mar-1996 Unilever is selling Rimmel-Chicogo, its colour cosmetics business, to Joh A Benckiser of Germany. 07-Mar-1996 Burtonwood Brewery is buying Cafe Inns' interest in their Vantage Inns joint venture, which has 54 pubs. 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 Lynx Holdings is acquiring Tesoft, the Spanish automotive software concern, for £6.4m. 06-Mar-1996 McKechnie has acquired Plexicor Australia, the thermoforming and painting concern, for £14m. 06-Mar-1996 Inspec has acquired a polyimide fibres operation from Lenzing of Austria for £5.7m. 06-Mar-1996 Tesco is buying Kmart's Czech and Slovak outlets for £77m, including seven department stores in Slovakia and six in the Czech Republic. 06-Mar-1996 Marks & Spencer is selling its 85-strong Canadian chain of D'Allaird's stores to Comark, and its Canadian strategy will now be to replicate its successful UK format. 06-Mar-1996 Millets Leisure, the chain of outdoor clothes and camping equipment shops, has been bought from Sears in a management buy-out, for about £17m. 05-Mar-1996 ICI is buying Bunge, the South American paints concern, for $390m, its first major acquisition in South America. 05-Mar-1996 IBM is buying Data Sciences, the computer services spin-off from Thorn EMI, for £95m, which means that the company's planned stock market flotation has been cancelled. 05-Mar-1996 British Polythene Industries has bought Bibby & Baron, the paper and polythene bags concern, for £7.4m. 05-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 VDC is buying ProCare, the dental equipment concern, from Enviromed for about £4m. 02-Mar-1996 GWR of Swindon is buying Prospect, the New Zealand radio business with 12 stations, for £11.6m. 02-Mar-1996 Cowie has bought County Bus Holdings from National Express for £8.6m. 01-Mar-1996 Storehouse is acquiring Children's World, the 56-strong chain, from Boots for £62m and will integrate it with Mothercare. 01-Mar-1996 McDonnell Information Systems has sold International Banking Systems to Management Technology, the US banking software concern, in a deal worth about $3m. 29-Feb-1996 Ascot Holdings is selling 251 pubs to Mayfair Taverns, a management buy-out team, for £29m. 28-Feb-1996 Pilkington's Tiles, the wall tiles and durable floors company, has been bought from BTR by management for £21m, and has plans to expand in the US, Hong Kong, China, the Middle East and the Netherlands. 28-Feb-1996 Quadramatic is paying up to £10.2m to acquire Controls and Automation, the temperature controllers manufacturer. 24-Feb-1996 Bristol & West, the building society, is withdrawing from estate agencies with the sale of its remaining Hamptons branches to a company created by NatWest Ventures and Cluttons Residential Estate Agency, for £3.8m. 23-Feb-1996 Sema Group is acquiring Datashield, the computer disaster recovery concern, from Sogeris. 22-Feb-1996 Torex Hire, the tool hire company, is acquiring Smart Terminals, the developer of computer-based management systems for retailers, for £4.8m. 22-Feb-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 National Westminster Bank is acquiring Gartmore, the fund management concern which was 75% owned by Banque Indosuez, for £472m. 20-Feb-1996 Finelist is acquiring Edmunds of Bridgend, the Welsh automotive parts distributor, for £450k. 19-Feb-1996 Independent Insurance Group is to buy Safom, the French insurance underwriting agency. 17-Feb-1996 Siebe is selling Barber-Colman Motors, its US electrical motors operation, to Jordan Industries for £13m. 16-Feb-1996 Unilever has made an agreed bid of $770m for Helene Curtis, the US personal products company. 15-Feb-1996 Unilever is acquiring Consorcio Agro Industrial de Malloa, the Chilean food manufacturing group that is the leading tomato paste producer, for £66m. 15-Feb-1996 Bausch & Lomb of the US has acquired Award, the Scottish maker of disposable contact lenses, for an undisclosed sum. 15-Feb-1996 Lowndes Lambert is acquiring Blackwall Group, the holding company for Blackwall Green the insurance broker, for up to £10m. 15-Feb-1996 GEI International has bought Turbo Systems, the maker of process machinery for the food industry, from United Industries for £2m. 14-Feb-1996 Associated Newspapers has acquired a majority stake in the PeopleBank on-line recruitment agency, which claims to save employers 90% of the costs associated with finding new staff. 13-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 Britton Group has bought Polylope, the polythene envelopes maker, and Transrap, the converter of film into packaging, from Sidlaw for about £1.5m. 13-Feb-1996 BTR is to buy GenCorp's anti-vibration business in the US for $100m, as a step towards becoming a global company in auto components. 12-Feb-1996 United Breweries is acquiring Marr Holdings, the operator of 134 pubs in the south of England, and the new business will be renamed Inn Business Group. 10-Feb-1996 Pearson is buying Harper Collins' educational publishing activities for $580m. 10-Feb-1996 Telecom Sciences Corporation, a new company, has bought Philips' Scottish telecoms equipment activities. 09-Feb-1996 Wimpey and Tarmac have completed a deal to swap Wimpey's quarrying and contracting operations for Tarmac's housebuilding. 09-Feb-1996 Haden MacLellan, the engineering concern, has bought Brandt Filtration Group of Atlanta, Georgia, for $3m. 09-Feb-1996 Liverpool Victoria is acquiring Frizzell, the insurance concern, from Marsh & McLennan of New York for £188m. 08-Feb-1996 Morgan Crucible has bought a 80% stake in Magna Industrial Company, the Hong Kong-based speciality chemicals concern. 08-Feb-1996 Klinge Pharma has bought Ribosepharm, Medeva's cancer products business in Germany, for £54m. 07-Feb-1996 Inspec has acquired a speciality chemical company in the US with plants in Arizona and Kansas, for $29m from Allied Signal. 07-Feb-1996 Johnson Matthey is buying Cray Research's US printed circuit boards operation for $40m. 07-Feb-1996 Quicks, the Manchester-based motor distributor, is buying Premier Parts of Leeds and Chester for £2.1m. 07-Feb-1996 Kewill Systems has bought Process Computing, the warehouse management systems company, for £3.1m. 03-Feb-1996 Unilever has bought a 75% stake in Lyons Irish Holdings, the tea company, from Allied Domecq for £74m. 02-Feb-1996 Compagnie Financiere SFAC of France is to acquire Trade Indemnity, the credit insurer, for £177m. 02-Feb-1996 Allied Domecq is to sell Chacalli de Decker, the duty-free operation based in Antwerp, to Seabourne World Express. 02-Feb-1996 Roxboro Group has acquired Pressure Systems, the US instrumentation company, for £4.9m. 02-Feb-1996 Harrisons & Crosfield has acquired Daniel Products, the US maker of chemicals for coatings, for $30m. 02-Feb-1996 Ashtead Group, the plant hire concern, is acquiring Leada Acrow, which rents construction equipment in the UK and Ireland, for £16m and McLean of the US for £20m. 01-Feb-1996 Oxford Molecular, the developer of software for the drugs industry, has bought three US companies - Chemical Informatics, MacVector and Health Designs. 01-Feb-1996 Hay Hall Group has bought three engineering businesses from TI - TI Desford Tubes, Hollow Extrusions and TI Matrix Engineering. 01-Feb-1996 Carlton Communications has bought SelecTV, the cable channel, for £5.2m, but will put its holding into a "dead-locked" company to avoid breaching broadcasting rules. 31-Jan-1996 Tomkins has bought Gates Rubber, the US auto components concern, for $1.4bn. 31-Jan-1996 Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale of Germany is acquiring Panmure Gordon, the London stockbroker, for about £30m. 30-Jan-1996 Stagecoach Holdings is buying another bus company - GM Buses South, the Manchester bus operator, for £41m - but now plans to concentrate on rail franchises. 30-Jan-1996 Ascot Holdings is selling its Spanish hotels business to Riu for £42m. 30-Jan-1996 Siemens Nixdorf has bought ICL's medical business for £15m, which should give it 25% of the health care market. 27-Jan-1996 Kerry Group has bought Ciprial, the French maker of fruit-based food ingredients, for £52m. 27-Jan-1996 Hampson Industries is to buy Brookside Metal Company for £5.8m so that it will rely less on the automotive sector. 26-Jan-1996 Unilever has bought Diversey, the Canadian cleaning products concern, for £360m, which doubles Unilever's share of the world market. 24-Jan-1996 Granada has finally gained control of Forte, and is immediately looking to sell Forte's luxury hotels. 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 Inishtech, the Dublin-based packaging and paper concern, has acquired Meridian Printing and Elite Colour Group, both of the US, for $13m. 23-Jan-1996 WS Atkins is acquiring Faithful & Gould, the Cleveland quantity surveyors, for £21m. 23-Jan-1996 Farnell Electronics is buying Premier Industrial Corp, the US electronics distributor, for $2.8bn. 23-Jan-1996 Lookers is buying Charles Hurst, the Northern Ireland motor distributor with franchises for Rover, Renault and Nissan. 23-Jan-1996 Stagecoach has bought Devon General and Bayline, the Devon bus companies with 320 vehicles, for up to £16.1m. 20-Jan-1996 Fenner has acquired Wiechmann Technische Ijzerhandel's power transmission distribution business in the Netherlands. 20-Jan-1996 Break for the Border Group is buying the Gaiety companies, thus gaining the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. 19-Jan-1996 Unichem is poised to acquire Lloyds Chemists for £480m, which would create the leading pharmacy chain and drugs wholesaler in the UK. 18-Jan-1996 Fairey Group is acquiring Particle Measuring Systems, the US contamination equipment concern, for $75m. 18-Jan-1996 Sema Group has bought Goya Services Telematicos, the Spanish internet provider. 18-Jan-1996 BTR Packaging's ACI Rockware unit has bought Labplas (UK). 18-Jan-1996 Bryan Donkin's gas controls activities have been sold by Hopkinsons Group to RMG Regel + Messtechnik of Germany. 18-Jan-1996 Pearson Professional is acquiring Data Management Services and The Magazine Business. 18-Jan-1996 McKechnie has bought Thompson, the US wheel trim maker, for £32m. 17-Jan-1996 Abbott Mead Vickers has bought Fishburn Hedges Boys Williams, the corporate communications concern, for up to £15m. 17-Jan-1996 Matthew Clark has bought Dunn & Moore, the Scottish delivered wholesale concern, for an initial £3.7m. 17-Jan-1996 PolyGram is acquiring the PDO compact disc production plant in Blackburn from Philips. 16-Jan-1996 Hillsdown has bought Nager Holdings, which gives it 91% of Hobson, the food and drink concern. 16-Jan-1996 Charles Baynes has bought Amsco, the US valves maker, for $8m. 16-Jan-1996 Heinz has acquired Britwest, the Telford-based maker of single-serve condiments and drinks. 13-Jan-1996 Stateside Foods has acquired St Christopher Foods pizza business, and will transfer production from Skipton to Bolton. 13-Jan-1996 Wisconsin Central Transportation has acquired the three British Rail Trainload Freight businesses for £225m. 13-Jan-1996 Bull UK & Ireland has bought a majority stake in Cara Group, the Irish computer services concern. 13-Jan-1996 ICI Explosives is acquiring a 51% stake in Ibernobel of Spain. 13-Jan-1996 Global Group is buying Mawbeef Manufacturing, the Birmingham meat products company, and Ravencrown, the frozen food distributor. 13-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 CRH is expanding its US masonry products business and has also bought Grillo Bausysteme, the German rooflight maker, and Vebofoam, the Belgian polystyrene insulation concern. 11-Jan-1996 Vibroplant is selling its American Hi-Lift business to Primeco for $69m. 11-Jan-1996 Biocompatibles International is acquiring Atlantis Catheter Company, the maker of balloon angioplasty products, for up to $21m. 10-Jan-1996 Kleinwort Benson has bought most of SBC Warburg's leasing finance and advisory business. 10-Jan-1996 Allen has bought the Rentall tool-hire company for £1.5m. 10-Jan-1996 Xyratex of Hampshire has sold its flexible circuit division to Adflex Solutions of the US for $56m. 10-Jan-1996 British Polythene Industries has acquired Zedcor, the Oxfordshire-based polythene supplier, for £3.5m. 10-Jan-1996 BTR is buying Metalurgica Carto, the Brazilian motor parts maker. 09-Jan-1996 Ellis & Everard has acquired George Mann, the US distributor of caustic soda, bleach and chlorine, and Surphos Chemicals, the Benelux surfactants and phosphates distributor. 09-Jan-1996 Brent Chemicals has sold its industrial chemicals activities in Asia to Chemetall, as part of its simplification programme. 05-Jan-1996 BOCM Pauls plans to buy Usborne's pig production operation for £7.4m. 04-Jan-1996 Grafton Group of Dublin has bought RJ Johnson & Co, the Oxford builders merchant, and PPS Structural Services, the Scottish mortar business. 04-Jan-1996 Life Assurance Holding is acquiring Lifetime Assurance's UK activities. 04-Jan-1996 ADT has sold off its vehicle auctions activities in the UK and Europe to management for £216m. 04-Jan-1996 Stroud & Swindon Building Society is acquiring City & Metropolitan, with C&M members likely to get bonuses of up to £2,500. 03-Jan-1996 Albert E Sharp is acquiring Brown Shipley, the stockbroking and personal equity plan operation, from Guinness Peat for £7m. 03-Jan-1996 BTR has sold its minority stake in Titan, the Malaysian petrochemical concern, for £89m. 03-Jan-1996 Unigate has acquired the Lovell bacon business from Booker for £20.2m. 03-Jan-1996 Calor Group is acquiring a 49% stake in the Brazilian LPG distributor, Supergasbras Distribuidora de Gas. 03-Jan-1996 Hickson International has sold Hickson Kerley, the US performance chemical operation, to Tessenderlo of Belgium. 03-Jan-1996 The information on this page comes from the UK Activity Report. 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