Mergers & Acquisitions 1998

Bond Helicopters has sold its Rotortech maintenance division to IAP Group for undisclosed terms. [31-Dec-1998]

Hays has acquired Axis Resources, the IT outsourcing company that was recently spun off from Tomkins, for up to £40m. [31-Dec-1998]

WPP, the marketing services company, has bought Tyrell, the provider of computer-based production equipment, for undisclosed terms. [31-Dec-1998]

Genosys, the Cambridge-based gene discovery company, has been sold to Sigma-Aldrich for £24m. [30-Dec-1998]

ITE, the organiser of international trade shows, has acquired IEG-Solingen of Germany for £1.4m. [30-Dec-1998]

Daily Mail & General Trust is acquiring Why Publications, the Midlands-based publisher of a free advertisement weekly, for £14m. [30-Dec-1998]

Laird has acquired Bavaria Elektronic, the German manufacturer of electromagnetic interference shielding products, for £6m. [30-Dec-1998]

Denmans Electrical Wholesale is acquiring Simpson & Paul, the operator of lighting and electrical supplies depots in Watford and High Wycombe. [29-Dec-1998]

Markbeech Products has bought Cadec, the supplier of edible nuts and ingredients to the bakery and confectionery industries, from the Harrington Food Group. [29-Dec-1998]

Dalkeith Inns, the cash shell, is to reverse into Expertise Group, the operator of IT training centres, in a £4.2m deal. [28-Dec-1998]

Vosper Thornycroft has acquired TSS, the Oxfordshire-based maker of electronic instruments for the marine survey market, for £11m. [26-Dec-1998]

Royal & Sun Alliance is acquiring Financial Structures of Bermuda from Pitney Bowes Credit for £16m. [26-Dec-1998]

GEC has agreed a £1.8bn deal to merge its space satellite operations with those of Lagardere of France, Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace of Germany, Alenia Spazio of Italy and British Aerospace. [24-Dec-1998]

Asprey & Garrard has sold the Mappin & Webb and Watches of Switzerland chains to a management team for undisclosed terms, as part of a strategy to dispose of non-core businesses. [24-Dec-1998]

Pendragon is to acquire Evans Halshaw for £84m and claims that the deal will create the UK's largest car retailer by turnover. [24-Dec-1998]

Body Shop International is acquiring its German franchise operator Cosmo Trading for £7m, and plans to double the size of the operation over the next few years. [24-Dec-1998]

Vardon is selling its tourist attractions division, which includes 23 Sea Life centres and the London and York Dungeons, to a management team for £47m. [24-Dec-1998]

Powell Duffryn has acquired Kvaerner Ships Equipment, the manufacturer of cargo-handling equipment, for £24m, and will merge it with its Hamworthy Marine division. [24-Dec-1998]

Laporte is to sell its hygiene chemicals division to management for £31m, which means its disposals programme is nearly complete. [24-Dec-1998]

BCH, the vehicle management company, is being acquired by ALD of Germany in a £40m deal. [24-Dec-1998]

Banner Homes, the housebuilder, is being sold to a management buyout for £23m. [24-Dec-1998]

City Gourmets is acquiring Newultra, the owner of six coffee shops operating under the Rendezvous name, for £1.2m. [24-Dec-1998]

Aggregate Industries is acquiring Bill Smith Sand & Gravel, the Michigan-based building materials company, for £32m. [23-Dec-1998]

Vision, the manufacturer of imaging semiconductors, is being acquired by ST Microelectronics of Paris for £23m. [23-Dec-1998]

Morgan Grenfell Private Equity has acquired the Coral chain of betting shops from Ladbroke for £390m, but Ladbroke will retain 50 shops in Ireland, eight in Jersey and Coral's 5% stake in Satellite Information Services. [23-Dec-1998]

NTL is acquiring the telecommunications business of Eastern Group for £91m, which will give it a fibre optic network covering the south and east of England as well as 121 mobile phone radio masts in East Anglia. [23-Dec-1998]

Schroder Ventures has bought LK Group, the measuring equipment manufacturer, and sister company Lock from TransTec, in a £32m deal. [22-Dec-1998]

SBF Agrico has been set up to create one of Scotland's biggest farm machinery manufacturers and dealers by acquiring Oldmeldrum-based George Sellar & Son, Rothienorman-based Fraser Agricultural and Markinch-based A&J Bowen, in a £5m deal. [22-Dec-1998]

Rugby Group is selling Pioneer Plastics, its US laminates business, to Panolam Industries for £105m. [22-Dec-1998]

Swiss Re is to acquire Fox-Pitt Kelton Group, the London-based investment banking boutique, for undisclosed terms. [22-Dec-1998]

Guardian iT is acquiring the mainframe disaster recovery business of Debis Systemhaus of Germany for £5m. [22-Dec-1998]

Eastern Group is acquiring holdings in Citigen (London), BG Cogen, and Sheffield Heat & Power from BG for £16m. [22-Dec-1998]

CRH of Ireland has acquired a 50.7% stake in Ibstock, in a deal that values the UK brick maker at £326m. [22-Dec-1998]

Rexam is selling its corrugated board business to SCA of Sweden for £195m, and will now look to sell the remaining operations in its industrial packaging division. [22-Dec-1998]

Firth Rixson has acquired the Sheffield steel group TW Pearson for £4.6m. [21-Dec-1998]

AMP of Australia has confirmed that it will acquire NPI, the UK life mutual, in a £2.7bn deal. [21-Dec-1998]

Bearing Power, the power transmissions company, is being acquired by Mining & Allied Investments for £6.3m. [21-Dec-1998]

Environmental Property Services is to acquire RLH, the supplier of building maintenance services to local authorities in London, for £1.1m. [21-Dec-1998]

Charriol has announced a reverse takeover of Virtual Internet, the supplier of internet hosting services, in a £15m deal. [21-Dec-1998]

Crowe Insurance Group, the Lloyd's independent managing agency, is to be acquired by Stockton Reinsurance of Bermuda for undisclosed terms. [19-Dec-1998]

Granada has sold its Air Travel Group tour operator business to Thomson Travel Group for £20m. [19-Dec-1998]

Logica has expanded its telecommunications business with the acquisition of two companies - Aethos Communication Systems for £47m and DDV Group for £16m. [19-Dec-1998]

DCS is acquiring Logistics Application Software, the Dutch software company, for about £7m. [19-Dec-1998]

Ben Shaws, the Huddersfield-based soft drinks company, has been acquired by Chaudfontaine Distribution of Belgium in a £22m deal, and has also announced plans for a new £2m bottling plant. [17-Dec-1998]

WT Foods has announced a reverse takeover of Noon, the supplier of Indian foods, in a £50m deal. [17-Dec-1998]

Rathbone Brothers is acquiring Curzon Secretaries & Trustees, the Jersey-based trust and company management concern, for an initial £5m. [17-Dec-1998]

Zergo, the computer security company, is acquiring Baltimore Technologies of Dublin, in a £35m deal. [17-Dec-1998]

AEA Technology is selling its Dorset-based specialist instrumentation business to Packard BioScience Company of the US for £6.9m. [16-Dec-1998]

Woodvale Estates is acquiring City Site Estates, the Glasgow property group, for £4.4m. [16-Dec-1998]

Rexam has had its £379m takeover bid for PLM accepted by the Swedish packaging group. [16-Dec-1998]

Emap has launched a £720m takeover bid for Petersen Companies, which will enable it to achieve its ambition of entering the US magazine market. [16-Dec-1998]

BBA is acquiring AMR Combs, the US business aircraft service concern, from AMR Corporation for £101m. [16-Dec-1998]

Misys is to acquire C-ATS Software, the US supplier of risk management software, for $60m. [15-Dec-1998]

National Grid is to acquire New England Electric System, the US electricity group, for $3.2bn, as part of a strategy to generate more than 20% of its sales from outside the domestic power transmission sector. [14-Dec-1998]

European Metal Recycling has acquired Lloyds Metal Processors, the Salford-based scrap metal company, for undisclosed terms. [14-Dec-1998]

Peterhouse Group is to acquire Jackson Group, the civil engineering company, for £18m. [12-Dec-1998]

CVC Capital Partners is planning to acquire 50% of Wavin, the Dutch plastic pipes company, from Shell Petroleum for about £225m. [12-Dec-1998]

Cadbury Schweppes has agreed to sell its non-US soft drinks businesses to Coca-Cola for £1.12bn, and the proceeds will be used to expand its confectionery operations around the world. [12-Dec-1998]

Terinex has acquired Le Gem, the Leicester-based supplier of paper products, cling film and aluminium foil, for undisclosed terms. [11-Dec-1998]

Granada is acquiring Artist Services, the Australian programme maker, in order to obtain a base to expand into the southern hemisphere. [11-Dec-1998]

Renold is to acquire Jones & Shipman, the abrasive machine tools company, for £5m. [11-Dec-1998]

Avis Europe is acquiring 3 Arrows, the provider of replacement cars for people involved in non-fault car accidents, for £40m. [11-Dec-1998]

Bupa is acquiring Barbican Healthcare, the operator of dental practices, for £23m. [11-Dec-1998]

Tricom Supplies, the heating and plumbing products company, has been bought by management from parent group Mannesmann. [10-Dec-1998]

Waterloo Air Management has bought Advanced Climate Technology, the Littlehampton-based ventilation firm that was on the brink of closure, for undisclosed terms. [10-Dec-1998]

Begbies Traynor, the Manchester-based corporate recovery concern, is merging with Leonard Curtis & Associates of Brighton. [10-Dec-1998]

Irish Life and Irish Permanent have announced terms for a £2.5bn merger, which will enable them to provide a one-stop shop for a wide range of financial services. [10-Dec-1998]

Ockham Holdings, the Lloyd's insurance company, is to merge with New London Capital, in a deal that values New London at £51m. [10-Dec-1998]

ICI's Quest International subsidiary is selling its Natural Colours operation in Ireland to Christian Hansen of Denmark for £33m. [10-Dec-1998]

Greenalls has announced the sale of 1,241 franchised and tenanted pubs to Nomura International for £370m, and will invest some of the proceeds in its hotel and health club businesses. [10-Dec-1998]

Zeneca is to merge with Astra of Sweden in a £21bn deal, and the new group will have a London headquarters with the main R&D centre being in Sweden. [10-Dec-1998]

Guiton Group of Jersey and the Guernsey Press Company are to merge to create a combined newspaper group for the Channel Islands. [10-Dec-1998]

Peter's Food Services, the South Wales company recently bought out from Grand Metropolitan, has bought the food distribution company Early Bird and ham-maker JV Rowe of Tenby. [09-Dec-1998]

MPI, the Derby-based mortgage broker that is part of Bishopscourt Financial Holdings, has acquired Profile Financial Services for undisclosed terms. [09-Dec-1998]

Ascot is acquiring Haltermann, the German provider of chemical processing services, for £90m. [09-Dec-1998]

Global TeleSystems, the US-based operator of European telecoms services, has acquired Esprit Telecom for £456m. [09-Dec-1998]

Simon has acquired Seawheel Holdings, the provider of cargo transportation services, for up to £14m. [09-Dec-1998]

Plasmon, the data storage company, is acquiring Philips LMS from Royal Philips Electronics for up to £16m. [09-Dec-1998]

Carclo Engineering has bought the Combined Optical Industries division of Quadramatic for £11m, in order to expand its coin handling business. [08-Dec-1998]

Aggreko is acquiring the rental business of the US cooling tower manufacturer Tower Tech for £8m. [08-Dec-1998]

Bullough has sold three refrigeration businesses to Hubbard Taylor for £17m, in order to focus on the expansion of its specialist engineering business. [08-Dec-1998]

Scottish Power is to merge with PacifiCorp, the US electricity utility, in a £4.2bn deal, and the combined business will be named Scottish Power and based in Glasgow. [08-Dec-1998]

GKN has acquired Interlake, the US manufacturer of powdered metals and aerospace components, for £335m. [08-Dec-1998]

Hillsdown is selling its Ross Breeders poultry business to the venture capitalist BC Partners for £100m, but is no longer actively looking to sell its potato packing business. [08-Dec-1998]

Planit Holdings is acquiring Cabinet Vision, the US software company, for £6m. [07-Dec-1998]

John Wood Group of Aberdeen has sold its fire and safety division to Wormald Ansul for undisclosed terms. [07-Dec-1998]

Taylor Woodrow has sold its windfarm business First Windfarm to Westbury Windfarms, the joint venture between Foras Energy and International Wind Projects, for £5m. [04-Dec-1998]

Dollond & Aitchison, the chain of opticians, is being acquired by De Rigo of Italy for undisclosed terms. [04-Dec-1998]

Cavity Trays of Yeovil has acquired Abutment Flashings and Dampcourses for undisclosed terms. [04-Dec-1998]

Wren, the Lloyd's insurance company, is planning to merge with Masthead Insurance Underwriting to create a combined group trading under the Wren name with a market value of £100m. [04-Dec-1998]

Flemings, the investment bank, is to acquire Jardine Matheson's stake in their Jardine Fleming joint venture in Asia. [04-Dec-1998]

Amtrak, the express parcels company, is being acquired in a £86m management buy-in with the support of 3i. [04-Dec-1998]

Utopia Systems, the Royston-based software distributor, has been acquired by Lilly Software Associates, as part of the US company's plans to expand in Europe. [04-Dec-1998]

Vosper Thornycroft is acquiring Brisco Engineering, the Great Yarmouth-based manufacturer of marine electronics. [04-Dec-1998]

Marley, the building materials company, has accepted a £365m takeover offer from Etex of Belgium, having turned down an approach from the John Mansfield timber company. [03-Dec-1998]

Hanson has acquired Nelson & Sloan, the Californian cement and aggregates company, for £23m, as part of an ongoing acquisitions programme in the US. [03-Dec-1998]

Babcock International has sold its water engineering operations to Earth Tech of the US for £13m, which completes a three-year restructuring programme to focus on facilities management and materials handling. [03-Dec-1998]

Geest is selling its two Dutch produce trading operations to De Weide Blik of Belgium for £10m. [03-Dec-1998]

4Front Technologies is acquiring I-NEA, the French on-site computer services business, from Siemens Nixdorf for £2.5m. [03-Dec-1998]

Mentmore Abbey is selling a 50.1% stake in British Data Management, the corporate archiving business, to Iron Mountain of the US for £27m, and the new joint venture will look to expand into continental Europe. [03-Dec-1998]

Crest Packaging has accepted a £16m offer from Angley, a vehicle controlled by Crest's executive deputy chairman. [03-Dec-1998]

Volex has acquired a 60% stake in Telepart Industria, the Brazilian cable assembly company, for about £8m, as part of a strategy to improve service to multinational customers. [03-Dec-1998]

Eastgate has acquired Hambro Assistance, the supplier of legal expenses insurance, for £51m, and the new group will be called Eastgate Assistance. [02-Dec-1998]

Hays has acquired Colirail, the French provider of courier services, for £14m. [02-Dec-1998]

Elementis is selling BOCM Pauls, the animal feed and pig business, to Accruechart, which is jointly owned by BOCM management and Electra Fleming, for about £60m. [01-Dec-1998]

Electricite de France is set to acquire London Electricity, as its £1.9bn offer has been accepted by Entergy of the US. [01-Dec-1998]

Vickers is to acquire Ulstein, the Norwegian marine engineering group, for £344m, which will create the largest marine propulsion company in the world. [01-Dec-1998]

TM Group has acquired Martin Retail for £75m, creating the largest newsagency chain in the UK with 1,420 outlets, and it will convert many of the stores into a convenience format. [30-Nov-1998]

United Norwest Co-op has acquired the Nevins chain of 20 convenience stores for undisclosed terms. [28-Nov-1998]

BOC has agreed the sale of its German and Benelux gases operations to Air Liquide of France for £112m. [27-Nov-1998]

Delta has sold four materials operations to Marmon of the US for £20m in order to focus on its core electrical and engineering services business. [27-Nov-1998]

British Airways is to acquire CityFlyer Express, one of its UK regional franchises, for £75m. [27-Nov-1998]

ICI is selling its Teesside utilities business, which provides support services to companies operating at Wilton, to Enron of the US for £300m. [27-Nov-1998]

Sainsbury has acquired Star Markets, the US supermarket chain, for £294m and the 53 stores are expected to be converted to its existing Shaw's format. [27-Nov-1998]

Arriva has confirmed the £47m acquisitions of the Dutch state-owned Veonn and Hanze bus groups. [27-Nov-1998]

Aon has acquired Irisc Claims Management, the Sheffield-based insurance company with 125 staff. [27-Nov-1998]

Akzo Nobel has sold the recently-acquired Courtaulds plastics packaging and laminate and aluminium tubes businesses to management in a £103m deal. [27-Nov-1998]

Fenmarc, the Cambridgeshire-based vegetable-processing company, has undergone a £11m management buyout. [26-Nov-1998]

Brenntag has acquired Midlands-based chemical distributor Farleyway, as part of a plan to build up a £100m chemical distribution business in the UK. [26-Nov-1998]

Mott MacDonald has acquired Bingham Cotterell, the structural and civil engineering consultant with 100 staff. [26-Nov-1998]

British Telecom has acquired a 50% stake in Excite's UK internet business for £6m, and intends to launch Excite as an internet service provider. [26-Nov-1998]

National Power is planning to sell the Drax power station in Yorkshire in order to win clearance to buy the supply business of Midlands Electricity for £180m. [26-Nov-1998]

Astec, the power converters company, has accepted a new approach from Emerson Electric of the US for the 49% stake it does not already own, in a deal that values Astec at £265m. [26-Nov-1998]

CGU is acquiring three Greek insurance companies from Royal & Sun Alliance for £3.6m. [26-Nov-1998]

Cranswick has acquired Mr Lazenby's, the Teesside-based sausage maker, for £3.5m. [26-Nov-1998]

Highchase of London has acquired Impala Designs, the Ipswich-based display and advertising sign company. [25-Nov-1998]

ASCo of Aberdeen is acquiring L&L Oil, the US supplier of fuels and environmental services to oil operators in the Gulf of Mexico, for undisclosed terms. [25-Nov-1998]

Thurston Building Systems, the Horbury-based manufacturer of portable buildings, is undergoing a management buyout which will help to safeguard the 120 jobs. [24-Nov-1998]

LucasVarity has sold its heavy vehicle braking systems division to Meritor Automotive of the US for £235m, and the proceeds will be used on further acquisitions. [24-Nov-1998]

Quadramatic is selling the bulk of its instruments division to 3i for £27m, and buying two US vending machine component companies - Ardac and Mid-South Enterprises - for a total $13m. [24-Nov-1998]

Siebe and BTR are merging to create a £9bn control systems and automation group, and about 1,000 UK jobs could be lost as a result. [24-Nov-1998]

Daily Mail & General Trust is acquiring Radio Mercury, which broadcasts in Reigate and Crawley, from Independent Radio for £3.7m. [21-Nov-1998]

City of London PR Group is to acquire Boswell City Financial PR for undisclosed terms. [21-Nov-1998]

Skillsgroup has bought ISL, the supplier of business intelligence solutions, for a maximum £2.9m. [21-Nov-1998]

Direct Network Publishing is acquiring Symphony Telecommunications, the supplier of premium-rate information services, for £10m. [21-Nov-1998]

HT Webb, the chilled food importer with annual sales of £52m, is undergoing a management buyout. [21-Nov-1998]

Dialog is acquiring Write Works, the Oxford-based developer of online purchasing systems, for up to £6.3m. [20-Nov-1998]

IBC is to merge with LLP Group, the publisher of Lloyd's List, to create a £315m business publishing group called Informa. [20-Nov-1998]

Cable & Wireless Communications is acquiring the Irish business of Cable & Wireless, its majority shareholder, as part of a £30m infrastructure programme that will help it benefit from the liberalisation of the Irish market. [20-Nov-1998]

Roxboro is acquiring Norwich Aero Products, the US temperature sensors company, for £4.7m. [20-Nov-1998]

West Port Corporation has acquired North East Joinery of Blaydon which will enable it to expand the manufacture of PVC-u windows and doors. [19-Nov-1998]

Abbey National is paying £347m to acquire three businesses from National Westminster - Lombard Motor Finance, Lombard Tricity Finance and Lombard Business Equipment Leasing. [19-Nov-1998]

Helphire has acquired Countrywide Assistance from Misys for £2.2m, in order to expand its legal expense insurance business. [19-Nov-1998]

WPP Group has bought Performers Group, the Belgian healthcare specialist with annual sales of $4m. [19-Nov-1998]

NFC is to acquire Vanguard Engineering, the industrial plant relocation business, and will merge it with Pickfords Industrial. [19-Nov-1998]

MY Holdings, the paperboard and plastic packaging concern, is buying S&D Cartons of Somerset for £1.2m. [19-Nov-1998]

Whitecroft is selling its Chalmit industrial lighting operation to Hubbell of the US for £17m, and is also looking to sell its furniture trimmings and coatings business. [19-Nov-1998]

Clyde Blowers has received a £24m takeover offer from Redwood, a new company partly owned by Clyde's management. [19-Nov-1998]

Eclipse Blinds has acquired Scientific Plastics, the US blind component maker, for £4.5m. [19-Nov-1998]

Media Business, the advertising sales company, is to be acquired by MediaCom, a division of Grey Advertising of the US, for £28m. [18-Nov-1998]

Royal & Sun Alliance has bought Guardian Royal Exchange's New Zealand life business for £58m. [18-Nov-1998]

Scotia Holdings has sold its Efamol nutrition business to Nutricia for £16m, and has also announced plans to restructure its Canadian research facilities in order to save about £1m a year. [17-Nov-1998]

BG Foods, the chilled and frozen desserts company, has been acquired by management for £36m, and the new owners are planning to build a £6m dairy desserts factory in Newton Abbot. [14-Nov-1998]

Roberts Yorkshire Kitchens has merged with Nordale Foods to create a new £23m company called Roberts Group that will be the country's second largest manufacturer of Yorkshire puddings. [14-Nov-1998]

Iceland's Woodford Foodservice subsidiary has acquired Caterfish, the Midlands-based supplier of frozen foods and fresh fish. [14-Nov-1998]

Slough Estates, the property company, has succeeded with its £276m hostile takeover bid for Bilton. [14-Nov-1998]

Masco, the US furniture company, has launched a £40m takeover offer for Heritage Bathrooms, the UK bathroom manufacturer. [13-Nov-1998]

Gael Force Marine of Inverness has acquired Seaboard Anchors, the Portmahomack-based anchor manufacturer. [13-Nov-1998]

Prism Leisure, the home entertainment wholesaler, is to be acquired by Linkwill, a newly-formed unquoted company, in a £6.5m deal. [12-Nov-1998]

LTG Technologies has launched a £10m takeover offer for Crabtree, the can-making engineering group. [12-Nov-1998]

Peptide Therapeutics is planning to acquire OraVax, the US developer of vaccines, for £9m. [12-Nov-1998]

CMG has bought CMS Data Consult, the German computer services concern, for £3.3m. [12-Nov-1998]

Columbus Group is buying EFM Publishing, the publisher of the European Fund Manager magazine, for up to £2m. [12-Nov-1998]

Grafton has acquired Deben Builders Merchant of London for £6m. [12-Nov-1998]

IAWS has bought a 34% stake in Welcon Pelagic, the Norwegian fishmeal and seafood processing company, for £5m, as well as Viper Seafoods of Scotland for £1.1m. [12-Nov-1998]

Sema Group UK has bought Meridian Information Systems, the Stockport-based supplier of systems to the bus industry, for £2.8m. [12-Nov-1998]

Atrium Cockell, the underwriting agency, is planning to merge with the investment trust Lomond Underwriting to create a new group called Atrium Underwriting. [11-Nov-1998]

Woolwich is selling its 167 estate agency branches to Spicer McColl for £23m, in a deal that Winterthur Life is financing in order to boost its sales of house-related financial services. [11-Nov-1998]

Senior Engineering is acquiring Jet Products Corporation, the US manufacturer of components for gas turbine engines, for £34m. [11-Nov-1998]

Enterprise Rent-A-Car of the US has acquired Mitchell's Self Drive, the Aberdeen-based self-drive vehicle business, for £10m. [10-Nov-1998]

Ciba and Clariant, the Swiss speciality chemical companies, are planning to merge, which could result in job losses among the 5,200 staff the two companies employ in the UK. [10-Nov-1998]

Bunzl has acquired Xpedx, the US distributor of disposable products, from International Paper for undisclosed terms. [10-Nov-1998]

Wyevale Garden Centres is acquiring Kennedys, the chain of 13 garden centres, for up to £13m, taking its total number of outlets to 78. [10-Nov-1998]

Workplace Technologies has acquired LanBase Holdings, the network integrator, for £20m. [07-Nov-1998]

Tomkins has sold the FH Tomkins Buckle Company to a private investor for undisclosed terms, and is considering plans to sell its garden and leisure products division. [06-Nov-1998]

Dixon Motors has sold its parts distribution operation to Speedpart for an initial £9.5m. [06-Nov-1998]

Shepherd Homes is acquiring George Longden, the builder of houses in the North West and West Midlands, for undisclosed terms. [05-Nov-1998]

Aukett Associates, the architects practice, is acquiring Collingwood of Prague for £0.3m. [05-Nov-1998]

Bickerton has sold its joinery business to a new firm called Valley Joinery in St Albans. [05-Nov-1998]

Aerospace Systems & Technology, the Durham-based maker of a ice protection systems for aircraft, is being sold to management in a £20m deal. [05-Nov-1998]

Metsae-Serla of Finland has bought UK Paper, the fine paper maker, from Fletcher Challenge Paper of New Zealand for £92m. [05-Nov-1998]

Taylor & Francis is acquiring Routledge Publishing, the academic publisher, for £90m. [05-Nov-1998]

Abbey National has bought the retirement planning division of Rea Brothers for an initial £0.5m. [05-Nov-1998]

Tarmac Quarry Products has acquired Johnston Surfacing, the road surfacing contractor, from Johnston Group for £0.6m. [05-Nov-1998]

Inn Business has bought 14 pubs from Allied Domecq for £2.2m, giving it a total of 488. [05-Nov-1998]

Trinity, the regional newspaper company, has sold its US operation to a management team for £34m. [05-Nov-1998]

James Latham, the timber importer, has bought partitioning and suspended ceilings group Soarsett for £0.7m. [04-Nov-1998]

Skymark Packaging International has acquired Huntsman Packaging, the Scunthorpe-based supplier of plain and printed films for the hygiene, food and medical industries. [04-Nov-1998]

Matthew Clark, the cider maker, has been acquired by Canandaigua Brands of the US for £215m, and the two businesses will be able to sell their products through each other's distribution channels. [04-Nov-1998]

Smiths Industries is acquiring Stewart Hughes, the supplier of aerospace diagnostic systems, for £8m. [04-Nov-1998]

Delta has sold its industrial fasteners distribution business in Australia to Coventry Group for £9m. [04-Nov-1998]

General Re of the US is acquiring DP Mann, the Lloyd's agency, in a deal thought to be worth about £100m. [04-Nov-1998]

Care UK has acquired Caring People's Services, the Derby-based provider of home care for the elderly, for undisclosed terms. [03-Nov-1998]

Innovated Plastics of Leicester has bought Prestige Coatings, the Enderby-based product finishing company, for an undisclosed sum. [03-Nov-1998]

Deutsche Post is acquiring a 50% stake in Securicor for £223m, as part of a strategy to create a pan-European parcels distribution business in preparation for the liberalisation of EU postal services. [03-Nov-1998]

Close Brothers has acquired a majority stake in Freyberg Hambros, the German corporate finance house, in order to set itself up as a leading adviser to medium-sized companies in Germany and Austria. [03-Nov-1998]

Albemarle of the US has acquired BTP's oilfield chemicals business and the manufacturing site at Teesport for £8.4m. [03-Nov-1998]

Ultra Electronics is acquiring Raytheon's sonobuoy business in the US for £13m, and will integrate it with its Hermes operation in Canada. [03-Nov-1998]

Mid Kent Laboratories is acquiring Dr Augustus Voelcker, the laboratory services company, for about £0.5m. [03-Nov-1998]

SPS Technologies has acquired Chevron Aerospace, the Nottingham-based manufacturer of aircraft structural assemblies, in a £32m deal. [02-Nov-1998]

JWE Telecom is acquiring Midland Phones, the mobile phone distributor, for up to £9m. [02-Nov-1998]

Quantica of Halifax is acquiring SWP, the specialist in the recruitment of technical staff, for an initial £6.7m. [02-Nov-1998]

Prepco Foods, the Skelmersdale-based vegetables supplier, has undergone a £2.5m management buy-out. [31-Oct-1998]

Hays has acquired Sitinfo, the French computer staff recruitment concern, for up to £13m. [30-Oct-1998]

Kingfisher has acquired Electrical City, the Singapore electrical retail chain, for undisclosed terms, and will use it as a base to expand further into south-east Asia. [30-Oct-1998]

Kewill Systems has acquired Tracer Research, the US supplier of electronic commerce software, for $20m. [30-Oct-1998]

Eurocamp has sold the restaurant and nightclubs operation of its recently-acquired Baldwin business to a Malaysian businessman for £7m. [30-Oct-1998]

Laporte has sold its US mining chemicals business to Henkel of Germany for £10m, and more disposals are expected to follow as it aims to focus on life science and niche industrial products. [30-Oct-1998]

NTL Telecommunications has acquired CymruNet, the Welsh internet service provider. [29-Oct-1998]

ARC has acquired G Sweeney, the Stockton-based ready-mixed concrete company. [29-Oct-1998]

GKN is acquiring Dow-UT Composite Products, the US manufacturer of aircraft components, for £37m, and will merge the business with its GKN Westland Aerospace division. [29-Oct-1998]

Ecclesiastical Insurance, the Gloucester-based insurer of churches, is acquiring the Ansvar group of insurance companies operating in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, for £11m. [29-Oct-1998]

Ato Findley UK has bought Cementone, the building chemicals division of the Philip Johnstone Group, for an undisclosed sum and the business will be merged with Stafford-based Evode. [28-Oct-1998]

Norwich Union is to acquire London & Edinburgh Insurance Group from Hartford International Financial Services for £315m, which will result in about 600 jobs losses including 230 at L&E's office in Worthing. [28-Oct-1998]

Blue Circle is to acquire Kedah Cement, the Malaysian cement company, for up to £356m. [28-Oct-1998]

Concept Systems, the Edinburgh-based seismic software firm, is to undergo a £36m management buy-out. [27-Oct-1998]

W Canning, the Birmingham-based chemicals company, is being acquired by MacDermid of the US for £89m. [27-Oct-1998]

Booker has sold its fish processing business to a vehicle set up by Legal & General Ventures for £44m, and it will be renamed Bluecrest Seafood. [27-Oct-1998]

Enterprise Inns has acquired Mayfair Taverns, the chain of 276 tenanted pubs, for £37m, and aims to have a total 2,500 pubs within three years. [27-Oct-1998]

Yorkshire Water has acquired Biochem Group, the Dutch environmental testing concern, for £15m. [27-Oct-1998]

Charles Baynes is acquiring Beacon, the Australian valve distributor, for £2.5m. [27-Oct-1998]

Lilleshall has sold its Ideal Williams doors and windows business to Templebray. [27-Oct-1998]

Reuters has acquired Agence de Presse Medicale, the French medical news service, for undisclosed terms. [27-Oct-1998]

Ethical Holdings of Ely has been rescued in a £10m deal that will give Elan Corporation control of the company. [26-Oct-1998]

Associated British Foods is acquiring SPI Holding Company, the US supplier of sweetening agents. [26-Oct-1998]

Mondas is acquiring Reality Communications Scandinavia, the Norwegian intranet software company, for £1.8m. [26-Oct-1998]

Bodycote International has acquired Alpha Heat Treating, the US heat treatment company, for £6.3m. [24-Oct-1998]

Dowding & Mills has acquired Scotlec, the electronic drives specialist with branches in Manchester and Sunderland, in order to offer a more complete service to customers. [23-Oct-1998]

Torex, the Oxfordshire-based medical computer company, has acquired Hollowbrook Computer Services for £2.4m. [23-Oct-1998]

Grampian Holdings is selling its sportswear business to Finest Brands International, in order to focus on the expansion of its chain of Edinburgh Woollen Mill outlets. [23-Oct-1998]

W Canning has sold Levenit Chemical, its Italian lubricants business, to Houghton Europe of the US for £5.7m. [23-Oct-1998]

Hewden Stuart has sold its contracting division to a management team for £1.3m, and has also acquired the tower crane division of Elmore Plant. [22-Oct-1998]

BTR is selling its Australian polymer products business to Austrim for £23m, as part of a strategy to transform itself from a conglomerate into a focused engineering company. [22-Oct-1998]

BTP is selling its safety equipment division to Electra Fleming, the venture capital group, for £100m, in order to focus on the chemicals industry. [22-Oct-1998]

McBride is acquiring Globol, the manufacturer of home fragrancing products, for £7.3m. [22-Oct-1998]

Rexel of France is acquiring Gardiner, the distributor of electronic security products, for £31m. [21-Oct-1998]

Globecrown International, the Maldon-based product-testing company, has been acquired by Hill Top Research of the US in a £4.5m deal. [21-Oct-1998]

Hanson is acquiring Condux, the US concrete products maker, for $77m. [20-Oct-1998]

Go-Ahead Group has acquired GHI, the provider of passenger and cargo handling services at a number of UK airports, from the US airlines Northwest and Delta for £37m. [20-Oct-1998]

Marley has sold its Improdex business in Australia to Australian Vinyl Corporation for £3.6m. [20-Oct-1998]

Smiths Industries has acquired Transtector Systems, the US power equipment company, for £21m. [20-Oct-1998]

Alchemy Partners, the venture capital company, is acquiring Envirotest Systems in a £450m deal that will combine the US vehicle emissions testing company with Wellman's US division. [17-Oct-1998]

Alldays has acquired Walter Wilson, the Gateshead-based chain of 48 supermarkets, for £6.9m. [17-Oct-1998]

AM Paper, the Skelmersdale-based tissue paper manufacturer, has acquired Pennington Paper Products of Wigan. [17-Oct-1998]

Smiths Industries is acquiring Biochem International, the US monitoring equipment company, for £49m in order to expand its critical and respiratory care activities. [15-Oct-1998]

McKechnie is acquiring PTM International, the US jet engine parts company, for up to £12m. [15-Oct-1998]

IPC has acquired Link House Media, the magazine publisher, for undisclosed terms. [14-Oct-1998]

Jarvis Porter has acquired Wace Corporate Packaging, the manufacturer of board cartons and vision packaging, from Wace Group for £5.5m. [14-Oct-1998]

Capita Group has acquired Sector Holdings, the treasury and financial management advisory service, for £11m, in order to expand the range of services offered to local authorities. [14-Oct-1998]

British Fittings Group of West Bromwich is selling its high pressure water jetting business to a management team for £4m. [14-Oct-1998]

Brent International is selling its imaging business to Weir Holdings for £17m, in order to focus on surface coatings. [13-Oct-1998]

Stadium Group has sold the recently-acquired refrigeration division of Beales Hunter to Sabroe Refrigeration of Denmark for £7m. [13-Oct-1998]

De La Rue has sold its US bank vault manufacturing division to Mosler of the US for £20m, which completes its withdrawal from the physical security market. [13-Oct-1998]

BPB is to acquire the remaining 75% of Gyproc, the Scandinavian plasterboard company, from its joint venture partner Scancem for £95m. [13-Oct-1998]

Albion Automotive, the Glasgow-based auto components supplier, has been acquired by American Axle & Manufacturing of the US for a sum thought to be around £20m. [13-Oct-1998]

Yorkline, the Leeds-based shopfitter and building contractor, has undergone a management buyout, thereby securing 32 jobs. [13-Oct-1998]

Dean Corporation of Huntingdon has bought Bernard Ward and Sons, the Peterborough housebuilders and renovators. [12-Oct-1998]

FEGS, the Cambridgeshire-based engineering software company, has been acquired by Ohio-based International TechneGroup Incorporated for undisclosed terms. [12-Oct-1998]

Harmsworth Publishing of Cambridge has acquired Landmark Information Group, the Exeter-based provider of site-specific land and property information. [12-Oct-1998]

British Aerospace and Daimler-Benz Aerospace are planning to set up a joint holding company early next year, and other companies will be able to join when they are ready in order to create a giant pan-European defence contractor. [12-Oct-1998]

Prebon Yamane is planning to merge with MW Marshall, the London spot foreign exchange broker, although details have yet to be finalised. [12-Oct-1998]

GE Capital has acquired Eagle Star Re, the reinsurance division, from Zurich Financial Services for undisclosed terms, but ZFS is to retain the remainder of its UK reinsurance business following the collapse of a proposed management buyout. [10-Oct-1998]

British Aerospace has sold Arlington Securities, the developer of business parks, to Prudential Insurance Company of America for £270m. [10-Oct-1998]

Booker has sold Daehnfeldt, the Danish seeds business, to Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst, for £29m, and it is now looking to sell its fish processing subsidiary and its US turkey breeding operation. [09-Oct-1998]

Ennstone is forming a joint venture with J&A Gardner to acquire Gardner's quarry operations in the west of Scotland. [09-Oct-1998]

Clubhaus is acquiring El Bosque Golf and Country Club in Spain for £3.6m, as part of a strategy to buy more foreign golf courses due to the high prices being asked in the UK. [09-Oct-1998]

Xyratex of Havant is acquiring Matrix Components, the US computer repair company, for undisclosed terms. [09-Oct-1998]

Ocean Group has acquired AW Fenton, the US provider of customs clearance for air and sea freight, for £10m. [08-Oct-1998]

Alfred McAlpine is selling its US aggregates and civil engineering operations to Hanson for £73m, in order to focus on UK construction and housebuilding. [08-Oct-1998]

Thomas Cook is to merge its UK holiday interests with those of Carlson of the US, to create an enlarged group with over 1,400 travel agents. [07-Oct-1998]

Glynwed has acquired Friatac, the German plastic pipes company, for £174m, which will give it a leading position in the world market as well as access to eastern Europe, Brazil and the US. [07-Oct-1998]

Morgan Bruce is to merge with Cole & Cole to create an enlarged law firm called Morgan Cole with nearly 100 partners and 600 staff across seven offices. [07-Oct-1998]

Mears Group is acquiring United Fleet Distribution, the vehicle distributor, for £2m. [06-Oct-1998]

Brunel Holdings has acquired the tobacco equipment operations of GBE International for £4.5m. [06-Oct-1998]

Weeks Green and BKL are planning to merge to create what they claim will be the largest accountancy practice in the south, and the group will be based at a new £4m headquarters in Eastleigh. [06-Oct-1998]

Brake Bros has acquired Watson & Philip Foodservice from Watson & Philip for £43.6m, and W&P will change its name to Alldays. [05-Oct-1998]

Milk Marque has acquired North Bradon Farm, the Somerset-based cheddar cheese producer, for undisclosed terms. [03-Oct-1998]

Ushers of Trowbridge, the brewer and pub chain, has announced plans for a £116m management buy-out, with the backing of Alchemy Partners. [03-Oct-1998]

British Vita is acquiring Caleppio, the Italian manufacturer of thermoplastic sheets, for £10m. [03-Oct-1998]

Quadrant Healthcare has acquired Andaris Group, the private drug delivery company, in a £13m deal. [03-Oct-1998]

Family Assurance is to acquire Gan Pep Managers from Gan Life, which will add a further 30,000 Pep customers to its existing 20,000. [03-Oct-1998]

Laird Group has bought the JW Window Components window balance business in the US from Walter Industries for £6m. [02-Oct-1998]

Logica is acquiring Carnegie Group, the US producer of customer management and decision support software, for £21m. [02-Oct-1998]

Solitaire Group has acquired Pembertons Residential, the manager of 1,300 luxury homes in London. [02-Oct-1998]

Castle Mill International is to acquire British World Aviation in a £10m deal, in order to transform itself from a clothing wholesaler into an aircraft services company. [01-Oct-1998]

South Staffordshire Water has acquired Britannia Envelope Manufacturing, the Stoke-based envelope manufacturer, for £3.4m. [01-Oct-1998]

Reuters has bought the Liberty order-routing system from Cedel of Luxembourg, in order to become a leading supplier of order-handling capabilities for the securities markets. [01-Oct-1998]

Arriva is set to acquire VSN-North, the Dutch bus operator, for £47m, and hopes to benefit from the Dutch government's moves to introduce competition into regional bus and rail markets. [01-Oct-1998]

Airtours is acquiring Panorama Holiday Group, the Brighton-based tour operator, for £10m, as well as Vacation Express, the US tour operator, for £14m. [01-Oct-1998]

Intercapital Group is planning to acquire Exco, the loss-making money broker, in a reverse takeover, in order to create a group large enough to compete effectively in wholesale broking. [01-Oct-1998]

Ulster Bank is acquiring Cunningham Coates, the Belfast-based stockbroker, for undisclosed terms. [01-Oct-1998]

Rutland Trust is selling Ellis & Buckle, the loss adjuster, to Lindsey Morden Group for £60m. [30-Sep-1998]

Dowding & Mills has bought Peebles Field Services and Peebles Field Operations, which were subsidiaries of Rolls-Royce Power Engineering. [30-Sep-1998]

McLoughlin Pipelines, the Derby-based pipeline contractor, has been sold to management for undisclosed terms. [30-Sep-1998]

Claverley Hyde is to merge with Bollington to create one of the largest insurance brokers in the Stafforshire and Cheshire region. [30-Sep-1998]

Marshalls is acquiring Stonemarket, the concrete company, for £16m, in order to gain access to new customers such as independent merchants and garden centres. [29-Sep-1998]

CRH has acquired two French companies for £13m - Raboni, the Paris-based builders merchant, and Prefaest, the maker of drainage systems. [29-Sep-1998]

Ottakar's is buying Bells Bookshops for £1.1m, and is also preparing to open eight new bookshops before the end of the year. [29-Sep-1998]

Grampian Holdings has sold various golf-related businesses to a management team for £3.4m, and the new company will be called Caledonian Golf Group and based at the Ben Sayers factory in North Berwick. [29-Sep-1998]

Kingston Communications has bought Teleport London International, the broadcaster of TV and radio programmes to Armed Forces throughout the world, for £10m, in order to gain a foothold in the digital TV revolution. [29-Sep-1998]

Caremark, the provider of drugs to NHS patients who live at home, has been sold to a management team by its parent company MedPartners of the US. [28-Sep-1998]

Day Runner of the US is to acquire Filofax, the UK personal-organiser maker, for £50m. [26-Sep-1998]

Kingfisher is to merge its B&Q business with Castorama of France to create Europe's largest DIY retailing group and allow major cost savings. [26-Sep-1998]

Queensborough is acquiring 46 Deep Pan Pizza outlets from City Centre Restaurants for £10m, and will convert them into a chain of Italian-style trattorias. [25-Sep-1998]

Budgens is moving into home shopping with the acquisition of Teleshop for £0.5m, and will rename the service Budgens Direct. [25-Sep-1998]

Adaptive Broadband, the spin-off from the Olivetti & Oracle Research Laboratory that provides high-speed Internet access by wireless, has been acquired by California Microwave for £6.5m. [25-Sep-1998]

Harvey Nash Group is acquiring Inston, the Dutch supplier of computer systems staff, for £3.3m. [25-Sep-1998]

Expro Group of Aberdeen has acquired Oliserv, the Australian well testing company, for undisclosed terms. [24-Sep-1998]

Triplex has acquired Peak Automotive for £33m, as part of a strategy to become a leading supplier of automotive components. [23-Sep-1998]

Dexion, the warehouse and archive storage company, is to undergo a £350m merger with Norway's Constructor Group, and the enlarged business will be called Constructor Dexion Group. [22-Sep-1998]

Incepta, the owner of Citigate, has acquired Dewe Rogerson, the public relations and marketing company, for £27m and the new group will be called Citigate Dewe Rogerson. [22-Sep-1998]

Blue Circle Industries has sold its South African cement business to Lafarge of France for $240m. [22-Sep-1998]

More Group has acquired Sirocco, the French outdoor advertising company, for £52m, and will use it as a base to expand into other European countries. [22-Sep-1998]

Gall & Eke, the Manchester-based stockbroker, is being acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank for £8m, and will be integrated with the Canadian bank's London operation. [22-Sep-1998]

Rolls-Royce has sold its energy transmission division, which has plants in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Canada and Mexico, to VA Tech of Austria for £137m. [22-Sep-1998]

Self-Serve, the manufacturer of vending machines for washroom areas, is to undergo a £7m management buy-out, and will now look to expand overseas. [21-Sep-1998]

Siemens Metering is acquiring Central Quantum Office, the North Tyneside-based manager of transactions for gas suppliers, from British Gas Trading for £14m. [21-Sep-1998]

Motherwell Bridge has acquired Thomas A Metcalfe, the Manchester-based distributor of welding consumable products, for undisclosed terms. [21-Sep-1998]

Unidare has sold its Southborough International division to Complex Tooling & Molding of the US for £4.3m. [21-Sep-1998]

Ennstone is to acquire the stone and concrete division of Drings of Bath for about £1m, and it will become part of its Natural Building Materials subsidiary. [21-Sep-1998]

Lloyds TSB is acquiring three leasing subsidiaries from National Westminster Bank - NatWest Leasing Industries, NatWest Machinery Finance, and NatWest Specialist Finance - for £11m. [19-Sep-1998]

Kwik-Fit is acquiring Speedy Europe, the tyre and exhaust chain with 568 outlets across Europe including 376 in France, from SMK of Canada for £105m. [18-Sep-1998]

Cookson has acquired Matrix, the US manufacturer of micron-tolerance precision engineered products, for an initial £8m. [18-Sep-1998]

Hays is acquiring Castleton Data Services, the billing services company, for up to £15m. [18-Sep-1998]

Courtaulds Textiles is planning to acquire Claremont Garments for £10m, and claims the deal will make it the leading supplier to Marks & Spencer. [17-Sep-1998]

Try Homes is acquiring Amey Homes, the south-east based housebuilder, for £4.8m. [17-Sep-1998]

Clinton Cards is to acquire CSG Holdings, the greeting-card retailer, for £27m which will expand its chain from 504 to 715 shops. [17-Sep-1998]

SEP Industrial Holdings, the industrial fasteners company, is to sell its wholesale distribution division to Decco for about £12m. [16-Sep-1998]

Healey & Baker, the property consultancy, is being acquired by Cushman & Wakefield of the US for £70m, to create a combined business with over 7,000 employees in 39 countries. [16-Sep-1998]

GKN and Alvis are to merge their tanks businesses with GKN swapping its interests for a 29.9% stake in Alvis, and the deal is expected to lead to the closure of Alvis's plant in Coventry. [16-Sep-1998]

British-Borneo Petroleum Syndicate is to acquire Hardy Oil & Gas for £294m to create a new company called British-Borneo Oil & Gas, and this could herald the start of a new phase of consolidation in the sector. [15-Sep-1998]

GEC is acquiring the computed tomography subsidiary of Elscint of Israel for £167m, which will increase its share of the world market from 12% to 18%. [15-Sep-1998]

Unigate has bought the Roata group of companies, which run the Unipork pigmeat business in Northern Ireland, for £27m. [15-Sep-1998]

English China Clays has acquired Minco, the US fused silica and magnesia producer, for $28m. [15-Sep-1998]

Savills, the property consultancy, has bought the continental European operations of Weatherall, Green & Smith for £3m, and it now plans further acquisitions in Europe. [15-Sep-1998]

Dowding & Mills is acquiring Advanced Technical Services, the industrial repair company, for undisclosed terms, and is in discussions to acquire two more UK companies. [15-Sep-1998]

SEC is to sell Securitised Endowment Contracts, the marketmaker in endowment policies, to a management team for £6.5m, in order to focus on offering independent financial advice. [14-Sep-1998]

Albert E Sharp, the stockbroking firm, has been acquired by Old Mutual of South Africa for £41m, and will be merged with Old Mutual's recently-acquired Capel-Cure Myers broking operation. [12-Sep-1998]

Cookson has acquired Accel Corp, the US manufacturer of speciality cleaning systems for the electronics sector, for £9m. [12-Sep-1998]

Hercules Property Services has acquired Dunlop Heywood of Manchester from N Brown for £5m, which will give it a better balance of commercial and residential property work. [11-Sep-1998]

Grampian Country Foods has acquired Marshall Food Group, which could put an end to speculation that more jobs were to go at Marshall's chicken processing plant at Coupar Angus. [11-Sep-1998]

Baggeridge Brick has acquired Rudgwick Brick, the maker of traditional clay bricks, for £2.3m. [10-Sep-1998]

Norwich Union is acquiring Portfolio Partners, the Australian fund manager, for an undisclosed sum thought to be about £47m. [10-Sep-1998]

Tempus is acquiring VSM Media, the US media communications company, for up to £8.7m. [10-Sep-1998]

Scottish Media Group is set to acquire VCI, the video publisher, for £31m, although a rival bidder may emerge. [09-Sep-1998]

Nikko Europe is acquiring British Credit Trust Holdings, the motor finance company, for a sum thought to be under £10m, and will use it as a platform to expand into other consumer loan portfolios. [09-Sep-1998]

Babcock International has bought AKI Dryer Manufacturers, the US producer of panel dryers for the building materials sector, for £4.5m. [09-Sep-1998]

Kingfisher is to acquire Polish Life Improvement, Poland's largest DIY retailer, for about £16m, its first move into eastern Europe. [09-Sep-1998]

Cadbury Schweppes is acquiring Wedel, the leading Polish confectionery brand, from PepsiCo for £46m, while United Biscuits is in negotiations to buy the Wedel biscuit business. [08-Sep-1998]

Eidos is acquiring Crystal Dynamics, the US computer games company, for $47m. [08-Sep-1998]

British Vita is to acquire Doeflex, the industrial plastics company, for £66m, as part of a strategy to equalise the sales of its three divisions - foams, industrial polymers, and fibres and fabrics. [08-Sep-1998]

David Brown, the pumps and gears concern, is being acquired by Textron, the US industrial group that is building up a global fluid and power systems business, for £195m. [05-Sep-1998]

TLG, formerly Thorn Lighting Group, has received a £321m takeover offer from Cooper Industries of the US, and a rival bid may now emerge. [05-Sep-1998]

Cooper Clarke, the Lancashire-based builders merchant, is being acquired by Heiton Holdings of Ireland for £15.7m. [05-Sep-1998]

UPF Group, the auto parts company, is to undergo a £43m management buy-out with the backing of UBS, the Swiss bank. [05-Sep-1998]

BE Aerospace has acquired the CF Taylor aircraft galley structures business from TI Group for £15.4m. [05-Sep-1998]

Meyer Group has sold a number of timber businesses to a management team trading as Palgrave Brown for £10m. [04-Sep-1998]

Thistle Hotels has sold 30 provincial hotels to the Lehman Brothers investment bank for £66m, and they will now be run by Peel Holdings. [04-Sep-1998]

National Express has acquired Crabtree-Harmon, the US school bus operator, for up to £23m, and is now looking for similar acquisitions. [04-Sep-1998]

Yorkshire Water is acquiring 3C Waste from Cheshire county council for £120m. [03-Sep-1998]

Siebe is selling North Safety Products, the US maker of personal safety products, to Norcross Safety Products of the US for £137m. [03-Sep-1998]

Photobition, the media services provider, is acquiring Katz Digital Technologies, the US digital graphics company, for £30m. [03-Sep-1998]

Thomson Travel is to acquire Blakes Holiday Boating, the boat hire business, from Blakes Holidays for more than £2.5m. [03-Sep-1998]

Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon, the Kendal-based pump manufacturer, has acquired Wallwin Pump and Armfield from Biwater Industries for undisclosed terms. [03-Sep-1998]

Powerscreen International is selling SDC Trailers, its Northern Ireland-based trailer subsidiary, to a new company called Reltan Manufacturing for £6.75m. [02-Sep-1998]

Redbridge Holdings is acquiring AFI Fruit Importers, the Kent-based berry fruit distributor, for undisclosed terms. [02-Sep-1998]

First Leisure has sold a number of attractions to Leisure Parcs for £74m, including Blackpool Tower and piers at Eastbourne, Southsea and Blackpool. [02-Sep-1998]

Nordiko, the UK manufacturer of components for computer disk drives, is being acquired by two Japanese companies - Shimadzu and Marubun, in a £22m deal. [02-Sep-1998]

Scottish Hydro-Electric is to merge with Southern Electric, to create a £4.8bn group based in Perth called Scottish & Southern Energy. [02-Sep-1998]

Rubicon, the computer box maker, is to be acquired by Applied Power of the US for £207m. [02-Sep-1998]

JDR Cable Group, a cable system manufacturer for the oil and gas industry, has been bought out from its parent company, BI, by NatWest Equity Partners in a £36m deal. [01-Sep-1998]

Hartford Group is acquiring Bluelodge, the owner of the Pharmacy restaurant in London's Notting Hill, in a £7.2m reverse takeover, as part of a strategy to build up a branded restaurant business. [01-Sep-1998]

Scottish Media has acquired TAS Publishing, the trade journal publisher, for £3.1m. [29-Aug-1998]

Energis is to acquire Planet Online, the internet service provider, for up to £85m, in order to expand its corporate customer base and offer more internet services. [29-Aug-1998]

Bucknall, the building management company, is to undergo a £15m management buyout. [29-Aug-1998]

Personal Number Company is to expand its telecommunications business by spending £10m on a number of acquisitions, including PiperTel Communications, DIS Information Services, Unitel Networks and Telecommunications UK. [28-Aug-1998]

Oriflame International, the cosmetics marketing company, is to sell its Swedish retailing business to an undisclosed buyer for £14m in order to focus on direct selling. [28-Aug-1998]

Allied Domecq is set to acquire Bismarck, the German schnapps producer, for up to £15m. [27-Aug-1998]

Berisford has announced the £41m acquisition of Aladdin TempRite, the US catering equipment supply business, and the £8.7m acquisition of Viscount Catering, the UK maker of ranges and fryers. [27-Aug-1998]

London Bridge Software is acquiring the mortgage products operation of CheckFree of the US for £13m, which will enable the two businesses to cross-sell products to each other's customers. [27-Aug-1998]

Vodafone is acquiring BellSouth New Zealand, the mobile phone network, for £230m and plans to help lift the country's mobile phone penetration from 17% to 50% by 2005. [26-Aug-1998]

Marsh & McLennan of the US is acquiring Sedgwick, the UK insurance broker, for £1.25bn, and the two companies are expected to make cost savings of about £100m a year. [26-Aug-1998]

BBA is acquiring UNC Airwork, the US engine maintenance business, from UNC for £32m, as part of a strategy to focus on aviation and materials. [26-Aug-1998]

Wolseley is to acquire the Hall & Co building materials business from RMC for about £120m, and will merge it with its Builder Center division. [26-Aug-1998]

Belgo is acquiring Caprice Holdings, the London restaurant owner, for £13m, funded partly by a new £8m share placing. [26-Aug-1998]

City Technology, the Portsmouth-based gas sensor maker, is acquiring Endress & Hauser Gastec of Germany for £1.3m. [25-Aug-1998]

National Express is selling Highland Country Buses, which provides rural bus services in the Inverness area, to Rapson Coaches for £4m. [25-Aug-1998]

Quintiles Transnational Corporation has acquired Royce Consultancy, the Edinburgh-based pharmaceutical sales recruitment and contract organisation, for undisclosed terms. [25-Aug-1998]

Sidlaw has acquired S&R, the Edinburgh-based manufacturer of plastic and paper packaging, for £4.3m in order to improve its service to major confectionery clients. [25-Aug-1998]

Metroline has acquired Citylink, the Scottish coach operator, from National Express for £9.3m, its first move outside London. [25-Aug-1998]

Hewden Stuart has acquired Michael Bowyer, the Wokingham-based plant and tool-hire company, for £2.5m. [25-Aug-1998]

Singer & Friedlander is selling its Capital Markets division to management for about £0.8m. [25-Aug-1998]

Williams has acquired KS Conquest, the security services provider, from NatWest Equity Partners for £17m. [25-Aug-1998]

Reed Elsevier is selling its illustrated books division to management for £33m, and the new business will be called Octopus Publishing Group. [24-Aug-1998]

Nomura of Japan is set to buy Turner & Townsend's UK facilities management division for £4.5m, in order to build up a business called Servus Facilities Management that will manage and redevelop corporate properties. [24-Aug-1998]

Prize Food Group has acquired the Amble-based roast potato operation of Pillsbury, and will change its name to Cheviot Foods. [24-Aug-1998]

BLP, the laminate manufacturer, is acquiring Stanley Cole, the joinery company, and a majority stake in Berman Holdings, the furniture maker, funded by a £8m share offer. [22-Aug-1998]

Eliza Tinsley is to acquire James Dickie, the US engineering group, for £12.6m, which will provide its first US manufacturing base. [22-Aug-1998]

Britax International is selling its Autolease vehicle management business to Standard Chartered for £83m, and its Dutch vehicle leasing and dealership business to Pon Holdings for £2.7m, in order to complete its withdrawal from the motor trade. [22-Aug-1998]

National Westminster Bank is to sell Coutts Bahamas, the offshore private bank, to SG Private Banking of France for an estimated $100m. [22-Aug-1998]

Brown & Jackson has acquired B&J Props from Pepkor of South Africa for £2.3m, which will reduce its exposure to rent increases as B&J Props owns 14 of Brown & Jackson's stores. [22-Aug-1998]

Liberfabrica, the Bath-based book manufacturer, is acquiring Koninklijke Wohrmann, the Dutch printer, for £10.7m. [22-Aug-1998]

Thomson Travel is acquiring Crystal, the ski holiday and short breaks operator, for £66m, in order to maintain its leadership of the market and increase its share of specialist holidays. [22-Aug-1998]

Meggitt is to acquire Vibro-Meter, the manufacturer of vibration monitoring systems, from Electrowatt of Switzerland for £42m. [21-Aug-1998]

Vardon has acquired Harbour Club, the London health club, for £22m, and now plans to sell its London Dungeon and Sea Life tourist attractions and start opening health and fitness clubs in continental Europe. [21-Aug-1998]

Cantrade Investment Management has been acquired by The Board of Executors of South Africa from UBS for an estimated £20m, and Cantrade will now be relaunched as Chiswell Associates. [21-Aug-1998]

BTR has acquired Swichtec Power Systems, the New Zealand manufacturer of power equipment for the telecoms sector, for up to £44m. [20-Aug-1998]

Pearson has sold Register Group, the provider of advertising data, to Emap and Extreme Information for £12m. [20-Aug-1998]

Medeva is to sell its International Medication Systems manufacturing facility in California to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals of the US for £3.6m. [20-Aug-1998]

Boots has sold its Do It All chain of 139 DIY stores to Focus Retail, which is backed by Duke Street Capital, for £68m. [20-Aug-1998]

Cammell Laird is acquiring ALB Holdings, the operator of four dry docks in the north-east, for £33m, in order to enable it to take on larger ship repair orders. [20-Aug-1998]

ProLogis of the US has acquired Kingspark Group for £95m, in order to build up a UK warehousing business and improve its relationship with European logistics companies. [20-Aug-1998]

Friends Provident has announced a £750m bid for London & Manchester, the home services insurer, in a rare attempt by a mutual to acquire a publicly quoted company. [19-Aug-1998]

Axus UK, part of Ford Financial Services Group, is to acquire ACR, the vehicle contract hire business, from Alexanders for £14m, which will allow Alexanders to focus on motor dealerships. [19-Aug-1998]

Tadpole Technology is acquiring RDI Computer, the US computer workstation manufacturer, in a £3.7m reverse takeover. [19-Aug-1998]

American Tool of the US has launched a £33m takeover offer for Polyhedron, the manufacturer of power tools, in order to expand its presence in the UK market. [19-Aug-1998]

Waste Recycling is acquiring Yorkshire Water's refuse management business in an all-share deal that will give Yorkshire a 46% stake in the enlarged group. [18-Aug-1998]

Prudential is selling its Australian and New Zealand operations to Colonial of Australia for £495m, prompting speculation that it may use the proceeds to acquire a UK branch network. [18-Aug-1998]

Hexagen, the UK biotech concern, is to be acquired by Incyte Pharmaceuticals of the US for £25m in order to create a major force in the genomics sector. [18-Aug-1998]

Acorn Storage Centres is acquiring Abacus Self Storage from Caledonia Investments for £44m, to create Europe's largest self-storage company. [18-Aug-1998]

Autologic is acquiring Mansped, the distributor of car parts, from United Carriers for £2.3m, as well as Connection Freight for £0.9m. [18-Aug-1998]

Asprey Group has sold Hamilton & Inches, the Scottish jeweller, to management. [18-Aug-1998]

McLeod Russel is planning to acquire Trion, the US air cleaning equipment company, for £32m. [18-Aug-1998]

Sanctuary Group is to acquire Ted D Bear Group for about £2m as part of a strategy to become Europe's largest independent operator of music facilities. [17-Aug-1998]

Trifast, the fastenings company, has acquired Samson Industries of the US for £2.6m. [15-Aug-1998]

Astec is to acquire the Advanced Power Systems operation of Canada's Northern Telecom for about £200m, as part of a strategy to move into the manufacture of higher value products for the telecoms sector. [15-Aug-1998]

Jordec has sold Baris UK, the construction subcontractor, to management for about £1m. [14-Aug-1998]

Protection Packaging has acquired Otford Specialised Foams from TransTec for £2.3m. [14-Aug-1998]

Abbott Mead Vickers, the advertising agency, is linking up with BBDO Worldwide to acquire Irish International Communications for an initial £3.8m. [14-Aug-1998]

Durr has acquired Acco Systems, the US maker of industrial conveyor systems, from FKI for £14m. [13-Aug-1998]

BP is to acquire Amoco of the US for £30bn in what has been described as the world's biggest industrial merger, and about 6,000 jobs could be lost as a result. [12-Aug-1998]

L Gardner is acquiring Cleveland Guest, the supplier of aerospace components, for an initial £2.4m. [12-Aug-1998]

SEP Industrial is acquiring Diss, the fastener maker, for £2.3m. [12-Aug-1998]

Amersham Pharmacia Biotech is acquiring Molecular Dynamics, its US partner, for £160m, in order to help it compete in the development of DNA sequencing and genomics. [11-Aug-1998]

Gander Holdings, the property investment concern, is to acquire Barrasford Holdings for £24m in order to expand its residential lettings business in London. [11-Aug-1998]

Ring has acquired PH Products, the supplier of products to the domestic plumbing and gas installation markets, for £1.4m. [11-Aug-1998]

Stagecoach has acquired the Yellow Bus Company in Auckland, New Zealand, for £35m, having beaten off rival bids from a number of other international companies. [11-Aug-1998]

WPP has acquired Barry Gowers Advertising, the London-based healthcare agency, for an initial £0.7m. [11-Aug-1998]

Granada has sold Granada Vending Services to management for £35m, as part of a strategy to sell off non-core assets. [10-Aug-1998]

Killby & Gayford, the leading installer of automatic teller machines, is being sold to management for £12m. [10-Aug-1998]

Filtronic is acquiring LK-Products, the telecoms components company, from Nokia for £40m, and is strengthening its ties with Nokia by issuing new shares that will give the Finnish group a 7.5% stake in Filtronic. [08-Aug-1998]

Ocean Group is acquiring Skyking Freight Systems of the US for £4.8m, as part of a strategy to build up a US logistics business to complement its international air freight forwarding operation. [08-Aug-1998]

HP Bulmer is acquiring Green Mountain Cidery, the US cider company, for £8.7m in an effort to build up its international business in response to fierce competition in the UK. [08-Aug-1998]

Berkeley Group is acquiring Thirlstone Group, the builder of luxury homes in Surrey, in a £15m deal. [08-Aug-1998]

Field Group has acquired Drukkerij Van Os, the Dutch supplier of pharmaceutical booklets, for £3.7m. [08-Aug-1998]

RMC has bought out British Dredging's 50% stake in their British Dredging Aggregates joint venture for £4m. [08-Aug-1998]

F Duerr & Sons has acquired Samuel Moore Foods, the jams and preserves company, from Hazlewood Foods. [08-Aug-1998]

Racal Electronics has finalised the sale of its troubled data communications business to Platinum Equity Holdings of California for an initial £7.5m. [08-Aug-1998]

Fitness First has acquired a 50% stake in Fitness Club Freizeitanlagen for £10m, its first move into continental Europe. [08-Aug-1998]

Weir is acquiring SEBIM Holding, the French valve and actuator company, for £8m, in order to improve its market position in Europe, Africa and the former Soviet Union. [07-Aug-1998]

McKechnie has sold nine metals businesses in Australia and New Zealand to MCK Holdings for £65m, in order to raise funds to expand its remaining aerospace, engineered plastics, and fixings operations. [07-Aug-1998]

Laporte is to acquire Inspec, the speciality chemicals business, for about £611m, thereby creating a leading European supplier to the pharmaceutical, agrochemicals and life sciences sectors. [06-Aug-1998]

Dixon Motors has bought the Ford franchise for Bury in Lancashire from Quicks Group for £119,000. [06-Aug-1998]

Greencore of Ireland is to acquire Paramount Foods, the pizza base maker, for £28m. [06-Aug-1998]

Division is acquiring ObjectLogic, the US developer of software tools, for £13m. [05-Aug-1998]

Icom Systems, the IT services supplier, has been acquired by Keane of the US in a £30m deal. [05-Aug-1998]

Skillsgroup has sold PSL, its Unix products distribution business, to management for £15m, in order to focus on skills-based activities. [05-Aug-1998]

Parkland Group is selling its Autofil automotive textiles business to management and a computerised dye house in Nottinghamshire to a property investment trust, for a total £13.7m. [04-Aug-1998]

Bass is selling its BLMS amusement machine service business to a newly-formed company called Leisure Link, backed by Duke Street Capital, for £70m. [04-Aug-1998]

Firstserve Group is being set up to create the largest van distribution fleet in Europe, through the acquisition of Caverdale's industrial products division for £10m and the purchases of Gemmoco in Leeds and QMS in Kent for a further £11.6m. [04-Aug-1998]

Filtronic has acquired Litton Solid State, the US high-grade semiconductor company, for £26m in order to strengthen its technology base. [04-Aug-1998]

Croda International has acquired Westbrook, the manufacturer of lanolin and its derivatives, for £10.6m. [04-Aug-1998]

Whitbread and Allied Domecq are in discussions to merge their off-licence chains - Thresher and Victoria Wine - into a 50:50 joint venture in response to the growing power of supermarkets. [03-Aug-1998]

BTR is selling its Dunlop and Standard aerospace operations to Doughty Hanson for £510m, which will complete its transformation from a conglomerate into a focused engineering group. [01-Aug-1998]

Halifax has agreed the acquisition of the Birmingham Midshires building society for £750m, and will retain the Midshires brand for at least three years with no branch closures or compulsory redundancies. [31-Jul-1998]

Skandia Insurance of Sweden has acquired the UK general insurance business of Hibernian of Ireland for about £30m, and Hibernian will use some of the proceeds to make acquisitions in Ireland. [30-Jul-1998]

Amberley Group is acquiring DS, the Sweden-based supplier of chemicals to the German printing industry, for up to £12m. [30-Jul-1998]

Murray Lawrence is to merge with Angerstein to create one of the largest underwriting groups at Lloyd's of London. [30-Jul-1998]

GKN is set to acquire a US manufacturer of powder metal forged connecting rods from Borg-Warner Automotive, in a deal thought to be worth around $40m. [29-Jul-1998]

Booth Industries is to acquire CHB, the engineering and manufacturing company, for £3.1m. [29-Jul-1998]

Allen is to acquire the building and civil engineering business of Eve Group for £1.25m. [29-Jul-1998]

Polypipe has bought Domus Ducting, the manufacturer of modular ventilation systems, for £4.7m. [29-Jul-1998]

Rentokil Initial has bought eight businesses for a total £6.5m, including companies involved in pest control, environmental services, electronic security, tropical plants, and textile services. [29-Jul-1998]

Seascope Shipping is acquiring Marine Investment Management, the intermediary between merchant banks and shipping companies aiming to raise funds, for undisclosed terms. [29-Jul-1998]

Lloyds TSB is to acquire the Bank of Scotland's Countrywide Bank subsidiary in New Zealand in a deal thought to be worth about £300m, and will now be able to challenge Westpac for market leadership. [29-Jul-1998]

Vickers has sold Cantieri Riva, the Italian maker of luxury motor yachts, to Stellican for undisclosed terms. [27-Jul-1998]

Chrysalis Group is acquiring Choice FM Birmingham, the dance music radio station, for £6m. [25-Jul-1998]

Enron of the US has launched a £1.36bn agreed cash bid for Wessex Water, as part of a strategy to build a global water business. [25-Jul-1998]

ICI is planning to sell its US tioxide operations to NL Industries for £150m, while ICI's former tioxide plant at Grimsby is being sold by DuPont to NL. [25-Jul-1998]

Mellon Bank of the US is acquiring a 75% stake in Newton Investment Managers in a deal that values the UK fund management company at £170m. [25-Jul-1998]

Linklaters is to combine with the German, Belgian, Dutch, and Swedish members of the Alliance of European Lawyers to create the second largest legal practice in the world. [24-Jul-1998]

JJB Sports is planning to acquire Sports Division for £290m, which would give it a much stronger bargaining position with the major sportswear manufacturers. [24-Jul-1998]

United News & Media is planning to demerge its Garban and Harlow Butler money and securities broking business by distributing new shares to existing shareholders. [24-Jul-1998]

Reuters has bought the fund information service of Lipper Analytical Services of the US for undisclosed terms, as part of a strategy to move into the funds data business. [24-Jul-1998]

Neutrik Marketing has acquired Rean Products, the maker of control knobs and electrical components, from Lilleshall for £3m. [24-Jul-1998]

Powerscreen International has sold Geith International, the Irish construction equipment company, to management for £7m. [23-Jul-1998]

Jessops has acquired City Camera Exchange, the chain of 13 photographic shops, for undisclosed terms. [23-Jul-1998]

Hampson Industries, the specialist engineering concern, has acquired Walburton Holdings and its trading division WB for £2.7m. [23-Jul-1998]

Jacobs Holdings has bought Kenfield and JP Holdings, two vehicle recovery companies, for £2.7m. [23-Jul-1998]

WST Engineering has acquired Wilmid, the supplier of metal tube components to the auto industry, from Wagon Industrial for £1.9m. [23-Jul-1998]

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts of the US is acquiring Willis Corroon, the insurance broker, in a £951m deal that will see Royal & Sun Alliance and Guardian Royal Exchange acquire minority stakes. [23-Jul-1998]

Hurst Publishing, the publisher of Auto Trader magazine, has been acquired by the BC Partners venture capital group for £260m, and a trade sale or flotation could follow later. [23-Jul-1998]

Airtours has acquired Direct Holidays, the Glasgow-based tour operator that has 25% of the telephone booking market, for £81m, which will take it into direct selling for the first time. [22-Jul-1998]

British Vita has acquired JGP, the thermoplastic compounding company, for £2.2m. [22-Jul-1998]

Card Clear has acquired Retail Markets as well as an 85% stake in Master Change, which will provide it with currency exchange kiosks at a number of locations in the UK and Europe. [22-Jul-1998]

BBA has sold Ajax Magnethermic, the supplier of melting equipment and induction furnaces, to management for £82m, which completes its exit from specialist electrical activities. [22-Jul-1998]

Kingston Communications has sold Kingston SCL, the supplier of billing and operational support software, to management for £55m. [22-Jul-1998]

NFC has acquired Walsh Western Group, the electronics logistics company that operates in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands, for £8m. [21-Jul-1998]

Davis Service is acquiring Laundrycraft, the linen rental concern, for £7.2m. [21-Jul-1998]

Johnson Service, the dry-cleaning chain, is acquiring Connacht Court, the Irish textile rental company, for £33m. [21-Jul-1998]

First National Vehicle Holdings, the Abbey National subsidiary, is acquiring Fleet Management Services, the fleet car hire company, for undisclosed terms. [21-Jul-1998]

General Industries, the business finance concern, is set to acquire HACAS, the housing consultancy, for £6m, and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Assured Homes for £1.5m. [20-Jul-1998]

Kingspan, the Irish cladding and insulation supplier, has acquired Interlink for an initial £6m. [20-Jul-1998]

Perkins Foods has acquired Fresh-Pak Chilled Foods for £9.7m, its second acquisition in the chilled foods sector in three months. [18-Jul-1998]

Rolfe & Nolan, the financial software company, is to sell its capital markets division to IQ Financial Systems of the US for £4.6m. [18-Jul-1998]

BWI is to acquire RA Jones, the US packaging machinery company, for £33m, which will almost double its size and take it into new areas such as electronic packaging. [18-Jul-1998]

Golden Vale has completed the acquisition of Rye Valley Foods, the Irish prepared frozen foods company that has a strong position in the UK market, for £17m. [18-Jul-1998]

Radius, the computer services company, has received a £15m takeover offer from its management team. [18-Jul-1998]

Interpublic of the US is set to acquire International Public Relations, the UK owner of the Shandwick advertising agency, in a £104m all-share deal. [18-Jul-1998]

Colt Telecom has acquired Imaginet, the French internet service provider, for £12m. [17-Jul-1998]

Trifast is acquiring Lancaster Fasteners, the supplier of thread cutting screws, for £2.25m. [17-Jul-1998]

Siebe has acquired Electronic Measurement, the US power supplies manufacturer, for £34m, and it will form part of a new North American division called Lambda EMI. [17-Jul-1998]

Akzo Nobel is buying out the Elementis share of their Akros Chemicals joint venture for £66m, and Elementis will use the proceeds to cut borrowings. [17-Jul-1998]

Sleepy Kids, the animation company, is to merge with three other media companies - Clipper Films, Ridgeway Films, and the Richard Digance Card Company - to create a new group called InkLine. [17-Jul-1998]

Unilever has sold Plant Breeding International Cambridge, the leading breeder of wheat, to Monsanto of the US for £320m. [16-Jul-1998]

Medialink Worldwide of the US is acquiring London Bureau, the UK TV consultancy and photographic agency, for £5m. [16-Jul-1998]

Cooper Cameron has acquired Brisco Engineering's Aberdeen operation from Industrial Control Services for £7.7m. [16-Jul-1998]

Skillsgroup is selling its MBS operation to the Computer Company of the Netherlands for £1.8m. [16-Jul-1998]

Cable & Wireless is set to buy the internet assets of MCI in a £1.2bn deal, in order to allow the US company to win regulatory approval for its merger with WorldCom. [15-Jul-1998]

Courts is acquiring the Burns Philp chain of furniture stores in Fiji, which will give it a 60% share of the furniture retailing market. [15-Jul-1998]

Tomkins has agreed to sell the toe cap business of its Firth Cleveland Engineering division to Dinkie Heel, the footwear component company, for £1.5m. [15-Jul-1998]

Caverdale is selling its industrial products business to management for about £10m. [14-Jul-1998]

Ellis & Everard is acquiring Performance Polymers, the US polymer distributor, for £7.8m, as part of a strategy to reduce its dependence on the more cyclical commodity chemicals sector. [14-Jul-1998]

Glynwed International has acquired Williams Refrigeration for £44m, which will give it a leading position in the market for commercial catering equipment. [14-Jul-1998]

Volkswagen has agreed the £117m purchase of Cosworth, the high performance engine maker, from Vickers, and is to sell the motor sport division on to Ford for £50m. [13-Jul-1998]

Berisford is to acquire CP Hart, the bathroom distributor, for £14m, in order to move into the higher-margin end of the market and expand geographical coverage. [13-Jul-1998]

ED&F Man is to buy the brokerage accounts division of First Options of Chicago for about £7m, as part of a strategy to expand its financial services business through bolt-on acquisitions. [13-Jul-1998]

Norcros is to sell its Norprint labelling business to management for £8m, in order to focus on ceramics and speciality chemicals. [13-Jul-1998]

Eurocamp is to acquire Baldwin, the tour operator and restaurant group, for £35m, which will increase its share of the camping market from 40% to 55% and add additional European countries to its brochure. [11-Jul-1998]

BTP has acquired Bactria Biocides from Revertex Chemicals for £6m, and will integrate the business with its Nipa Laboratories fine chemicals division. [10-Jul-1998]

Hallmark Cards UK has acquired Creative Publishing, the greeting cards producer, for £188m, and the combined group will have a 29% market share. [10-Jul-1998]

Mirror Group has acquired the Derry Journal newspaper in Northern Ireland for £18.2m, as part of a strategy to strengthen its position in regional newspapers. [09-Jul-1998]

CB Richard Ellis, the US property consultancy, is acquiring Hillier Parker for up to £60m, and the London-based consultancy will be renamed CB Hillier Parker. [09-Jul-1998]

First Group has acquired CCB Holdings, the owner of Capital Citybus and Walthamstow Citybus, for £14m, which will increase its share of the London bus market from 11% to 16%. [09-Jul-1998]

RPC is buying the German disposable packaging business of Gizeh from Deutsche Beteiligungs for £16m, which will make it the second largest producer of plastic cups in Europe. [08-Jul-1998]

CMG has acquired Cometh Conseil and Cometh System, two French IT services companies, for £3m. [08-Jul-1998]

Severfield-Reeve has sold Structural Metal Decks to a subsidiary of Firth Steels for £1.8m. [08-Jul-1998]

Sutcliffe Speakman has bought Aegis Trading, the manufacturer and distributor of flame retardants, smoke suppressants and colour dispersions, for £3.2m. [08-Jul-1998]

Tinsley Robor, the music packaging company, is to be acquired by Impac of the US for £84m. [08-Jul-1998]

Neville Russell, the UK accounting firm, is to merge with Mazars & Guerard of France to create a combined firm with 3,500 staff in 26 countries. [07-Jul-1998]

WR Group has acquired the General Refrigeration contracting business from Bullough for £1.5m, which will allow Bullough to focus on office furniture and engineering. [07-Jul-1998]

Gala Clubs has acquired Ritz for £36m, creating a combined chain of 147 bingo clubs. [07-Jul-1998]

BTP is acquiring Archimica, the Italian fine chemicals company, for £100m, which will enable it to move into higher-value manufacturing of final ingredients for the pharmaceutical sector. [07-Jul-1998]

ICC, the business information company, is acquiring Market Assessment Publications for undisclosed terms, which will enable it to offer customers a wider range of titles and more detailed research in a number of industry sectors. [03-Jul-1998]

Metroline is acquiring the London Northern bus company from MTL Trust for £42m, which will increase its share of the London bus market from 7% to 13%. [03-Jul-1998]

Harvey Goldsmith Entertainments is planning a reverse takeover of Tring, the lossmaking budget music company, in a £8m deal, and will then look for a number of additional acquisitions. [03-Jul-1998]

Thorn is to acquire Eclipse Retail, the Australian rental company, for £25m, and will combine it with its Radio Rentals business in Australia and New Zealand which it will then sell off. [03-Jul-1998]

CRH, the Irish building materials group, has announced 14 small acquisitions at a total cost of £70m, including a builders merchant in Stoke, a fencing company in Doncaster, and a number of deals in the US and Europe. [03-Jul-1998]

Dixon Motors has acquired Cosmopolitan Motors, the London motorcycle dealership, for £1.5m, which takes its number of motorcycle outlets to eight. [02-Jul-1998]

Doncasters has sold the automotive components business of its recently-acquired Triplex Lloyd division to the Phildrew venture capital group for £80m. [02-Jul-1998]

Securicor is selling its telecoms systems business, which distributes branch exchange systems and handsets, to Samsung of South Korea for undisclosed terms. [02-Jul-1998]

Sinclair Montrose has acquired ASA Locums, the provider of specialist medical staff, for up to £11m. [02-Jul-1998]

Dixons is buying Seeboard's chain of 39 electrical retail stores for about £20m, and is said to be planning to close up to two thirds of them. [02-Jul-1998]

AEA Technology is acquiring EA Systems, the Californian developer of engineering software, for £9m. [02-Jul-1998]

Alliance Resources, the oil and gas production company, is acquiring Difco, which will give it a stake in a number of blocks in the east Irish Sea. [01-Jul-1998]

Norcros has sold its Magnordata ticketmaking business to Docusystems of the US for £5.5m, as part of a strategy to focus on tiles, adhesives, showers and speciality chemicals. [01-Jul-1998]

Arcadia is acquiring Wade Smith, the Liverpool-based designer clothing retailer, for £17m, and will use the brand to launch a chain of 30 designer children's wear stores. [01-Jul-1998]

Greene King is acquiring Beards of Sussex, the chain of 43 pubs, for £12m. [01-Jul-1998]

Nomura International is set to acquire Thorn, the rental group, for £980m, and the business is expected to be rationalised in preparation for a flotation. [01-Jul-1998]

HEV, the venture capital business of the former Hambros Bank, has been bought out by a new independent company called Duke Street Capital. [30-Jun-1998]

PowerGen has agreed to acquire East Midlands, the regional electricity supplier, for £1.9bn, and is also discussing a possible merger with Houston Industries of the US. [30-Jun-1998]

Groupe Chez Gerard is acquiring Richoux, the chain of six restaurants, for £7.2m in order to speed up its expansion plans. [30-Jun-1998]

PizzaExpress has acquired Cafe Pasta, the chain of eight London restaurants, for an initial £6m. [30-Jun-1998]

TI Group has increased its stake in Lips, the Dutch supplier of marine propulsion equipment, from 30% to 100% at a cost of £88m. [30-Jun-1998]

IMI has sold IMI Pactrol, its electronic controls division, to White-Rodgers of the US for £10m, in order to focus on its valves business. [30-Jun-1998]

Hays has acquired Delta Medical Express, a courier service based in France and Belgium, for £2.2m, as well as three French recruitment agencies for £18m. [27-Jun-1998]

Minit is to acquire Sketchley's retailing division, which includes 623 outlets, for £1.2m. [27-Jun-1998]

James Finlay has sold its confectionery business to Northern Foods in a £10m deal that will help finance the development of its tea plantations in Sri Lanka. [27-Jun-1998]

GEC is to buy Siemens' 40% stake in their GPT telecoms joint venture, in a £700m deal that will also see GEC transfer its 50% stake in their video-conference joint venture to Siemens. [25-Jun-1998]

Asprey is to merge with Garrard to create a single luxury jewellery brand called Asprey & Garrard, while other parts of the Asprey retailing business will be sold off to raise up to £100m. [24-Jun-1998]

Kingfisher is to increase its stake in BUT, the French electrical retailer, from 26% to about 62% at a cost of £103m, and will combine the business with its pan-European Kingfisher Electrical Retailing division. [24-Jun-1998]

Stagecoach has acquired a 49% stake in Virgin Rail for £158m, which means that Virgin will not now go-ahead with a planned flotation. [23-Jun-1998]

Atlantic Power, the oil and gas production management company, is to merge with Petroleum Geo Services, the Norwegian seismic specialist, in a £63m deal. [23-Jun-1998]

Sytner Group has acquired the Guy Salmon car dealership from Meteor for £6.4m, which will add Jaguar and Honda to its portfolio. [23-Jun-1998]

Duggan Steel is acquiring Tube Rollers, the Irish steel tube maker, from Jones Group for £1m. [23-Jun-1998]

Micro Focus is acquiring Intersolv, the US computer services group, in a £334m share deal that will enable it to offer a wider range of IT solutions to its customers. [19-Jun-1998]

First Choice is to acquire two holiday operators - Unijet for £110m and Hayes & Jarvis for £24m - in a move that is expected to increase its market share from 11% to 18%. [19-Jun-1998]

Thomas Cook has acquired Flying Colours, the tour operator and charter airline, for a sum thought to be about £50m, which is expected to increase its market share from 11% to 16%. [19-Jun-1998]

Phonelink is acquiring GB Mailing, the address software company, for up to £11m and Seaforths, the business travel agency that has developed electronic commerce products. [19-Jun-1998]

British Vita is acquiring Hyperlast, the polyurethane business, for £35m, in order to strengthen its industrial compounds division. [19-Jun-1998]

Cliveden, the luxury hotel business, is set to be acquired by a group of US investors called Destination Europe for £43m. [19-Jun-1998]

Thorn has sold its US rentals business to Renters Choice for £545m, and a large amount of the proceeds will be returned to shareholders. [18-Jun-1998]

Carlton Communications is planning to acquire Nimbus CD International, the US disk maker, for £160m, in order to give its Technicolor division access to the new digital versatile disks that are expected to replace CD-Roms and video cassettes. [18-Jun-1998]

NTL has acquired two cable TV operators - ComTel and Diamond Cable - for a total £1.4bn, in a further rationalisation of the sector that has seen the number of companies fall from 24 to five in the past five years. [17-Jun-1998]

Eadie Holdings is acquiring Black and Luff, the specialist engineer, for £2.5m. [17-Jun-1998]

Blue Circle is to acquire Needler, the Canadian aggregates and concrete blocks company, for £17m in order to strengthen its position in Ontario. [17-Jun-1998]

Cap Gemini of France has bought AT&T's UK division that develops network services and loyalty card schemes, for about £25m. [17-Jun-1998]

Ace of Bermuda is acquiring Tarquin, the holding company that includes Charman Underwriting, for £311m in shares. [17-Jun-1998]

Hunting is selling its Hunting Cargo Airlines business to a consortium comprising Compagnie Maritime Belge and Safair for £9m. [17-Jun-1998]

Granada Entertainments has sold the Camelot theme park and hotel in Chorley to management for £16m. [16-Jun-1998]

Rexam has bought Plasticos Dumex, the Mexican closures and containers company, for £5m. [16-Jun-1998]

Epwin has acquired Bendex Plastics, the maker of PVC-u cabling systems and other building products, for £4.5m. [16-Jun-1998]

London Scottish Bank, the consumer credit and debt collection concern, is acquiring Isis Factors, the invoice factoring company, for £6m. [16-Jun-1998]

Pearson is to buy Thorpe Park, the Surrey theme park, from RMC for up to £20m, and will combine it with its Tussaud's Group subsidiary. [13-Jun-1998]

Omnimedia is to acquire Sales Engineering and Computer Consultants in a £17m reverse takeover deal that will include a flotation on Aim and the raising of £3m to fund future expansion of the enlarged group. [13-Jun-1998]

CFS, the financial software company, is to acquire LeaseTek, the US lease administration software supplier, for £10m, funded by a £12.8m share placing. [12-Jun-1998]

Carlton Communications has acquired a 50% stake in Central de Video, the Mexican video cassette maker, for £9m. [12-Jun-1998]

Carlton Communications has acquired National Screen Service, the distributor of promotional material on films to UK cinemas, from its management for £2.2m. [12-Jun-1998]

Pubmaster is acquiring Mercury Taverns, the Midlands-based chain of 141 pubs, for £35m. [12-Jun-1998]

Lonrho has agreed the sale of its Princess Hotels chain to Canadian Pacific for $540m, in order to focus on its mining activities. [12-Jun-1998]

Network Associates of the US is to acquire DR Solomon's Group of the UK for £391m in order to strengthen its position in the European market for computer security software. [10-Jun-1998]

Molins is selling its Langston corrugated board machinery business in the US to a portfolio company of BankBoston Capital for £30m. [10-Jun-1998]

Reg Vardy has made a £36m offer for Trust Motor Group, in order to expand its car dealership business in Yorkshire, Scotland and Nottingham. [10-Jun-1998]

SDX Business Systems, the provider of integrated voice and data systems, is to be acquired by Lucent Technologies of the US for £124m. [09-Jun-1998]

Saatchi & Saatchi is selling its Siegel & Gale corporate identity consultancy in the US to management in a £20m deal. [09-Jun-1998]

WH Smith is acquiring the Internet Bookshop, which claims to be Europe's largest internet bookshop, for £8.8m. [09-Jun-1998]

Hewden Stuart, the equipment hire company, has sold three subsidiaries - Scot JCB, Gunn JCB, and Stewart Plant - to management for £11m. [06-Jun-1998]

Vickers shareholders have decided to sell Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to Volkswagen for £430m, thereby rejecting rival offers from BMW and Crewe Motors. [06-Jun-1998]

Vitec has acquired Drake Electronics of the UK for £2m and Systems Wireless of the US for £6.7m. [05-Jun-1998]

Bowthorpe has acquired Conversion Equipment Corp, the US telecoms and computer power supplies business, for $13.7m. [05-Jun-1998]

Yeoman, the navigational instrument maker, is to acquire Global Marine Electronics, the holding company for Brookes & Gatehouse, in a £2.7m reverse takeover. [04-Jun-1998]

WPP has acquired Conway/Milliken & Associates, the US customer research company, as part of a strategy to expand its information and consultancy operations. [04-Jun-1998]

EIS Group is selling Betol Machinery and Kabel Technik to Davis-Standard for £3.6m in order to focus on its fluid and precision technology business. [04-Jun-1998]

Vardon has acquired Cannon Sports & Leisure for £25m, as part of a strategy to refocus its business on health and fitness clubs. [03-Jun-1998]

Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands is set to go-ahead with its £1.83bn takeover of Courtaulds, having agreed to sell two of Courtaulds smaller coatings businesses to the rival bidder PPG Industries of the US. [03-Jun-1998]

Arlen, the electronics company, is selling its Betraine subsidiary to The West Co Inc for £7.2m. [03-Jun-1998]

Wolseley is acquiring three US building materials companies for a total £68m, including the Stock Lumber timber business, the Forward Enterprises pipe distribution business, and the Tozour Energy heating and ventilating business. [03-Jun-1998]

Guardian Royal Exchange is acquiring ING's US property and casualty business for £1.15bn, and is selling its Canadian division to ING for $375m, in a deal that will strengthen its position in the US Midwest and north-east. [02-Jun-1998]

Kier is planning to acquire Bellwinch for about £13m in order to expand its housebuilding business in the south-east. [02-Jun-1998]

First Group is buying the remaining 80% of the Mainline bus company in a £30m deal, in order to strengthen its position in the West Yorkshire market. [02-Jun-1998]

Lopex, the marketing and communications group, is acquiring Compass Marketing, the loyalty schemes specialist, for £2.7m. [01-Jun-1998]

Brewin Dolphin has acquired Wise Speke, the private client stockbroker, from Ockham for an initial £24m, which will improve its presence in the north of England. [30-May-1998]

Cable & Wireless has bought the internet backbone business of MCI of the US for £385m, beating off competition from two unnamed US groups and giving C&W access to large US corporate customers. [29-May-1998]

United Biscuits has acquired Biscuits Delacre, which operates in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, from Campbell Soup for £78m. [27-May-1998]

BTP is to acquire Hexachimie, the French fine chemicals business, from Bristol-Myers Squibb of the US for £53m, in order to improve its position in the manufacture of chemicals for use in the drug and agrochemicals sector. [27-May-1998]

British Pepper & Spice Company, the dried herbs and spices supplier, has undergone a management buy-out from Burns Philp & Co, its Australian parent, with £7.6m of funding coming from Primary Capital. [26-May-1998]

Kingston Metals is acquiring Glynwed's metals distribution business for £100m, leaving Glynwed free to focus on pipe systems and its consumer and food service products business. [26-May-1998]

St Ives has launched a £33m recommended offer for Hunters Armley, the printing company, which will give it about 10% of the market for direct-mail printing. [23-May-1998]

Greenway has acquired Excelube, the lubricants blender and distributor, from Brasway for £2.4m. [23-May-1998]

Hydra Tools has acquired Clarkson Osborn from FKI for £10m. [23-May-1998]

Carclo Engineering has acquired the Wipac electrical components business from Wolseley for £2.3m. [23-May-1998]

RMC Group has acquired Wulfrather, the German cement company, for £156m, and there is speculation that it may sell off some of Wulfrather's assets such as a cement plant in Coswig. [22-May-1998]

IMI has sold Birmingham Mint, the coin manufacturer, to an institutional buy-out led by 3i for £18m, as part of the continuing transformation of its specialist engineering division. [22-May-1998]

McKechnie is acquiring two US aircraft component companies - Arger and Jesse - for £54m in order to improve its engineering capabilities and gain access to blue-chip clients. [22-May-1998]

Syndicate Capital is acquiring Spreckley Villers Burnhope, the non-marine underwriting agency, for £54m in a further consolidation of the Lloyd's of London insurance market. [22-May-1998]

CPL Industries is acquiring UKPP, the oil distribution subsidiary of Powell Duffryn, for £29m, which completes Powell Duffryn's withdrawal from the fuel distribution business. [21-May-1998]

Vero is acquiring Danica, the Danish power supply manufacturer, for up to £11.8m. [21-May-1998]

Ocean, the logistics company, is acquiring Mercury Holdings, the newspaper distribution business, for an initial £30m. [21-May-1998]

Sutcliffe Speakman is to be renamed Banner Chemicals, and will focus on its chemicals distribution business following the sale of its carbons and environmental engineering divisions to Waterlink of the US. [21-May-1998]

Blue Circle Industries has acquired the cement business of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile for £19m through its Empresas Melon subsidiary, and SQM will take a 14% stake in Melon. [21-May-1998]

Belgo is acquiring three upmarket London restaurants for £9.3m - Daphne's, The Collection, and Pasha. [21-May-1998]

Aberdeen Lloyd's Insurance Trust is acquiring Hayward Brick Stuchbery, the holding company for the Chaucer underwriting agency, in a £18m deal. [21-May-1998]

Energy Group has announced the sale of the Peabody coal business in the US and Australia, as well as Citizens Power in the US, to the Lehman Merchant investment bank for £1.37bn. [21-May-1998]

Nycomed Amersham is selling its chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico to Searle for £40m. [21-May-1998]

Orbis is acquiring Hi-Security, the property security business, for £16m. [21-May-1998]

Lambert Fenchurch is acquiring Delta Insurance Services, the Swedish marine broker, for an initial £1m. [21-May-1998]

Associated British Ports has agreed to acquire American Port Services, the operator of car terminals at four US ports, for £106m, as part of a strategy to increase its range of services and expand overseas. [20-May-1998]

TI Group is to acquire EIS Group, the fluid technology and aerospace concern, for £267m, and is now said to be interested in bidding for Vickers' Kamewa marine propulsion business. [20-May-1998]

Nikko Europe of Japan has acquired Roadchef, the motorway service station operator, for £174m, having outbid a number of other interested parties. [20-May-1998]

Commercial Union is acquiring Berlinische Lebensversicherung, the German insurer, from Munich Re and Allianz for £207m, in order to gain access to the deregulated German market. [20-May-1998]

Glynwed has acquired Straub Holding, the Swiss stainless steel couplings concern, for £34m and will integrate the business with its pipe-systems division. [19-May-1998]

Associated British Ports is acquiring Exxtor Group Shipping Services, the operator of a roll on-roll off terminal at Immingham for £16m. [19-May-1998]

Pearson is acquiring Simon & Schuster, the US publisher, from Viacom for £2.75bn, and will retain the educational publishing side of the business and sell the remainder to Hicks Muse. [18-May-1998]

Micro Focus has acquired Micro Focus Italia, its Italian software distributor, for £2.6m, as part of a strategy to offer global solutions to customers. [16-May-1998]

Jermyn Investment Properties is acquiring ELP Property Group for £31m in order to expand its property portfolio in the south of England. [16-May-1998]

L Gardner has acquired the Ilkeston aerospace operations of Chromalloy UK for £8.7m. [15-May-1998]

Filtronic is to acquire Sage Laboratories, the US microwave equipment manufacturer, for £11m. [15-May-1998]

Unilever has acquired AmeriClean Systems, the US cleaning products group, in a deal thought to be worth up to £30m. [14-May-1998]

APW of the US is to acquire Vero, the electronics equipment company, for £115m following the withdrawal of Pentair from the bidding. [14-May-1998]

Enviros is acquiring Thomas Graveson, the generator of electricity from landfill gas, for £10m in its first move into the renewable energy sector. [14-May-1998]

Tilbury Douglas is acquiring How Group, the facilities management and engineering services concern, for £47m. [14-May-1998]

CWS Agriculture is to acquire Broadoak Farming, the farm management company that has been hit by a sharp fall in income. [14-May-1998]

Ushers of Trowbridge is acquiring The Little Pub Company, which includes 20 pubs, for £6.5m. [13-May-1998]

Abbot Group is acquiring the non-destructive testing and technical welding department of ICI Chemicals and Polymers for £2.8m. [13-May-1998]

SDX Business Systems has acquired Network Alchemy, the supplier of ISDN router-based PBX, for £2.6m. [13-May-1998]

Citicorp Venture Capital is to re-acquire Brunner Mond, the soda ash company that it floated two years ago, for £145m. [13-May-1998]

Cobham is acquiring Conax, the US maker of military equipment, for £40m. [13-May-1998]

Sun Chemical of the US is to acquire Gibbon, the UK printing inks company, for £26m. [13-May-1998]

American Greetings Corp of the US has acquired Hanson White, the supplier of greetings cards, for undisclosed terms. [12-May-1998]

Espirit Telecom is to acquire Plusnet of Germany from Thyssen for £108m, to help with its aim of becoming the leading alternative telecoms company in Europe. [12-May-1998]

Andrews Sykes is acquiring Cox Plant Hire from Transport Development Group for £50m, its first move into the general plant hire market. [12-May-1998]

First Choice is acquiring Royal Vacations, the Canadian tour operator, for £1.2m. [12-May-1998]

Safestore is acquiring Metrostore, the self-storage company, for about £6m. [12-May-1998]

Finelist is acquiring Bancrofts, the automotive paints distributor, from McLeod Russel for £16m. [12-May-1998]

CVC and Cinven, the UK venture capital groups, have won the auction to acquire the newly-named Kappa Packaging business from KNP of the Netherlands, in a £1bn deal. [12-May-1998]

Volkswagen has overtaken BMW in the race to acquire Rolls-Royce Motor Cars from Vickers with a recommended bid of £430m, and bids from the two companies are expected to be put to Vickers shareholders on June 4. [08-May-1998]

Capital Radio has acquired Red Dragon Radio, which operates two Welsh radio stations, from Emap for £18.2m. [08-May-1998]

Pearson has acquired Pasha Publications, the publisher of newsletters on the energy sector, for $18m. [08-May-1998]

IWP of Ireland is acquiring Jeyes, the cleaning fluids company, for £51m, which should improve its sales leverage with supermarket chains. [08-May-1998]

Seton Healthcare, the medical products company, is to undergo a £691m merger with Scholl, the foot-care company, which will give Seton the opportunity to expand overseas and manufacture Scholl products at lower cost. [07-May-1998]

Amey has acquired N Jones, the asbestos management company, for £2.5m. [07-May-1998]

Grantchester Holdings has acquired Edge Properties, the retail warehouse investment company, for £126m, in order to benefit more from the growth in out-of-town retailing. [07-May-1998]

Kingfisher is buying 60% stakes in two German electrical retailers - Wegert Verwaltungs and Promarkt Holding - for £49m, as part of a strategy to create a global retailing business. [06-May-1998]

FKI has acquired Allen-Stevens Group, the US doors and windows hardware company, for £43m, which will give its existing US business a commanding position in the market for window locking systems. [06-May-1998]

BTR has sold the Hawker Pacific and Hawker de Havilland aerospace businesses in Australia to Celsius of Sweden and Tenix of Australia respectively for a total £62m. [06-May-1998]

ICI has acquired Mona Industries, the US-based surfactants business, for about £25m. [06-May-1998]

Tomkins has acquired Le Pain Croustillant, the part-baked frozen bread company, for £44m. [06-May-1998]

Field Group has acquired Egelhard, the French cartons company, for £2.7m. [04-May-1998]

John Lusty is acquiring Unimerchants, the importer of Mediterranean food products, for up to £6.5m. [04-May-1998]

Partco has acquired SVG, the supplier of automotive body panels, for £4.5m. [04-May-1998]

Norman Hay is acquiring BK Engineering, the sub-contract precision engineering concern, for £2.4m. [04-May-1998]

Cendant of the US looks set to acquire the RAC motoring services business for £450m, which it will be able to merge with the recently-acquired Green Flag vehicle recovery service to create a powerful rival to the Automobile Association. [02-May-1998]

CRH of Ireland is acquiring MA Segale, the US aggregates, paving and construction business, for £36m. [02-May-1998]

Goode Durrant is selling its Ravenstock Tam equipment hire business to management for £26m, in order to focus on its commercial vehicle hire business. [02-May-1998]

Expro International, the oil services concern, has acquired Tronic, the instrument and power systems company, for £14.8m. [02-May-1998]

Ekco Packaging has acquired the aluminium foil and ovenable board tray business of Rexam for £12m. [02-May-1998]

Scottish Telecom, part of Scottish Power, is acquiring Demon Internet, the internet service provider, for £66m and the move is expected to give Demon the resources to expand further into mainland Europe. [02-May-1998]

Capital Radio has acquired XFM, the London pop music radio station, for £16m. [02-May-1998]

Dalgety is selling its agriculture division to a management team for £50m, and is now free to concentrate on its last remaining business - the Pig Improvement Company. [02-May-1998]

GE Capital Railcar Services, a subsidiary of General Electric of the US, is acquiring International Wagon Services, the rail freight car company, for undisclosed terms. [02-May-1998]

Powerscreen is selling its troubled Matbro specialist tractors business to John Deere of the US for £7m. [01-May-1998]

Stagecoach has bought Prestwick International, the operator of the Glasgow airport, for £41m, and is creating a new company called Stagecoach Aviation. [01-May-1998]

Investec of South Africa is to acquire Hambros for £428m, which will give it stakes in two fund management companies, a private equity operation, and a number of investment stakes. [01-May-1998]

Wagon Industrial has acquired YMOS Door Systems, the German maker of car doors, for £46m. [01-May-1998]

Texas Utilities has had its £4.45bn offer for Energy Group recommended by the UK electricity company's chairman following the withdrawal of PacifiCorp from negotiations. [01-May-1998]

Thompson Acquisitions has acquired Usborne, the fertiliser company, for £10.7m. [01-May-1998]

Soda-Club Group of Israel has bought SodaStream, the Peterborough-based soda-making machines supplier, for £15.5m, and the new group will be floated early next year. [01-May-1998]

Hemingway, the property investment company, is to acquire Olives Property for £28.6m in order to gain access to a portfolio of industrial properties. [30-Apr-1998]

Elan Corp of Ireland has acquired Neurex, the Californian developer of acute care drugs, for $700m. [30-Apr-1998]

Starbucks of the US is acquiring Seattle Coffee, the chain of 56 coffee houses, for £50m, and plans to build up a European chain of 500 stores. [30-Apr-1998]

Amazon of the US has acquired Bookpages, the UK internet bookshop, as part of a European expansion programme. [29-Apr-1998]

The British Standards Institution is to acquire Inspectorate for £36.5m, in order to help build up an international business for assessing quality standards and to benefit from its new-found commercial freedom. [29-Apr-1998]

Paccar of the US has acquired Leyland Trucks for undisclosed terms, as part of its expansion into the European truck manufacturing sector. [29-Apr-1998]

Cendant of the US has completed the $1.3bn acquisition of National Parking Corporation, the UK's largest private car park operator. [28-Apr-1998]

Reed Elsevier is acquiring two US legal publishing businesses from Times Mirror for £980m - Matthew Bender and the remaining 50% of Shepard's Company. [28-Apr-1998]

Commercial Union has acquired National Farmers Union, the US agricultural insurer, for £71m. [28-Apr-1998]

Rexam has bought Lawson Mardon's medical products division, which exports packaging, bags and pouches for hospitals, for £5.3m. [28-Apr-1998]

Siebe is to acquire Eurotherm, the industrial controls company, for £421m, which will make it the largest process automation group in the world. [28-Apr-1998]

Sowester, the marine equipment distributor, has been sold to management for £10m by its US parent Krug International. [27-Apr-1998]

Great Universal Stores has won its takeover battle for Argos having received sufficient acceptances from shareholders for the £1.9bn bid. [25-Apr-1998]

Pearson has sold its Future Publishing consumer magazines business to a management team backed by Apax Partners for £142m. [25-Apr-1998]

Grafton of Ireland is to acquire British Dredging, the builders merchant and dredging company, for £35m. [25-Apr-1998]

WPP is acquiring Goldfarb Corporation, the Canadian marketing research consultancy, for £24m. [24-Apr-1998]

APW of the US has launched a £94m agreed bid for Vero, the UK supplier of equipment to the electronics sector, but a bidding war could develop as Pentair of the US is also considering an approach. [24-Apr-1998]

Abbey National has announced the sale of its Spanish operations to Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo for about £120m, due to recurring losses. [23-Apr-1998]

Saint Gobain of France has acquired Oliver Ashworth, the pipeline products distributor, for £34m, and further UK acquisitions could follow. [23-Apr-1998]

BBA is acquiring Veratec, the non-woven fabrics operation, from International Paper of the US for £174m, which will greatly expand its international coverage and give it plants in Canada and Mexico. [22-Apr-1998]

Hanson is selling its US road paving operation to Colas of France for £55m and will use the proceeds to invest in its core activities. [22-Apr-1998]

Oasis is acquiring Coast, the womenswear retailer with 35 outlets, for £0.8m. [22-Apr-1998]

Boxmore International is acquiring Munier Cartonnage, the French supplier of packaging to the health care sector, for up to £4.2m. [22-Apr-1998]

United Overseas Group, the distributor of surplus branded consumer goods, is acquiring Intertrading Agencies Boersema Beheer of the Netherlands for £22m, in order to speed up its expansion into continental Europe. [22-Apr-1998]

NSB Retail Systems is acquiring Application Programming Techniques, the US software supplier to the retail sector, for £3.2m, in order to widen its customer base and bring in skilled IT staff and new technology. [22-Apr-1998]

Eastern Counties Newspapers is acquiring Home Counties Newspapers for £58m, thereby beating off a £60m approach from Southnews. [22-Apr-1998]

Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands has launched a £1.8bn agreed takeover bid for Courtaulds, which will make it the largest paints company in the world. [21-Apr-1998]

Newmond has acquired the water heating business of IMI for £20m. [21-Apr-1998]

ACX Technologies of the US has announced a £90m management buy-out of the plastics division of its recently-acquired Britton Group. [21-Apr-1998]

Tomkins has sold Axis Resources, its IT subsidiary, to management for £18m. [20-Apr-1998]

Wace is selling most of its UK printing business to Electra Fleming for £53m, in order to eliminate borrowings and focus on pre-press graphics and imaging. [17-Apr-1998]

Cookson is set to acquire AlliedSignal's European copper-clad laminates business for about £10m, which will give it its first manufacturing base in Germany. [17-Apr-1998]

Abbey National has acquired TSB Factors, the factoring and invoice discounting business, from Lloyds TSB for undisclosed terms and will rename it First National Invoice Finance. [17-Apr-1998]

Investcorp of Bahrain has won government approval to acquire both Watmoughs and the British Printing Company in order to create the UK's largest independent commercial printing group. [16-Apr-1998]

NTL is to acquire NetChannel UK, the interactive TV business, for about $1m in order to offer home shopping services and internet access to cable TV subscribers. [16-Apr-1998]

Telewest Communications has finalised terms for the £649m acquisition of General Cable, the fifth largest cable TV operator. [16-Apr-1998]

Croda International has sold its industrial paints operation to Ameron International of the US for £28m in order to focus on oleochemicals, and is also in discussions to sell its paints joint venture with Hoechst. [15-Apr-1998]

Perkins Foods has acquired Le Magicien Vert, the French chilled convenience foods company, for an initial £4.5m. [15-Apr-1998]

Royal & Sun Alliance is acquiring J Haenecour, the Belgian marine underwriter, for under £5m. [15-Apr-1998]

Barclay & Mathieson has acquired Tatham & Miller, the steel stockholding business, from Hill & Smith for £1.75m. [15-Apr-1998]

RPS Group is buying Utility Technical Services, the water management consultancy based in Durham, for £1.5m. [15-Apr-1998]

Orbis is selling its manpower security division to a management buy-out called First Security for £9m, in order to focus on its property and electronic security business. [15-Apr-1998]

Inspec is selling its Antwerp-based commodity chemicals business, which makes ethylene oxide and glycol, to management for £82m, and is likely to use the proceeds to make acquisitions in speciality chemicals. [15-Apr-1998]

Great Universal Stores has succeeded with its £545m takeover battle for Metromail, the US database marketer, having beaten off a rival offer from American Business Information. [14-Apr-1998]

Lynx has acquired Tenhill Computer Systems, the software consultancy, for £10m. [14-Apr-1998]

Waddington has sold its Waddington Arcol protective foam packaging business to Padiham Group for £6.6m. [14-Apr-1998]

GEC Alsthom has acquired Cegelec, the French electrical contracting business, from Alcatel Alsthom for about £400m. [10-Apr-1998]

Hanson has agreed to sell its US road building business to Colas of France for up to $95m, and is close to selling its heavy construction business to Skanska of Sweden for $55m. [09-Apr-1998]

James Finlay has acquired Plantation Investment Management, the Sri Lankan investment company with majority stakes in two tea growing companies, for £16m. [09-Apr-1998]

Greencore of Ireland has acquired Pauls Malt, the UK's largest malt producer, from Elementis for £61m. [09-Apr-1998]

Severn Trent has acquired Fischer and Porter of the US for £10m, giving it a leading position in the world market for chlorine disinfection equipment. [09-Apr-1998]

Cox Insurance is acquiring Anthony Kidd Agencies, the travel and personal accident insurance distributor, for £14m. [09-Apr-1998]

Action Computer Supplies has acquired SHL Technology Solutions' UK reseller business for £8m. [09-Apr-1998]

Rexam is acquiring Tritek Cardboard Packaging, the Newcastle-based corrugated sheet board converter, for £6.7m. [09-Apr-1998]

Savoy Hotel has been acquired by Blackstone Hotel Acquisitions, the US company controlled by Blackstone and Colony Capital, for £520m. [08-Apr-1998]

Norwich Union is selling its Maritime Insurance business to CNA Financial Corp of Chicago for £56m. [08-Apr-1998]

Flying Flowers has acquired Stanley Gibbons, the stamp dealer, for £13.5m, as part of a strategy to build up its mail order business with strong brand names in niche markets. [08-Apr-1998]

Cleanaway, the joint venture between GKN and Brambles Industries, is acquiring SKP Group, the German recycling and waste management business, for undisclosed terms. [07-Apr-1998]

Kingfisher has acquired F-Beat Records, the owner of the Demon Records music company, for about £2m. [07-Apr-1998]

Tele-Cine Cell, the post-production company, is to be acquired by Todd-AO of the US for £10m. [07-Apr-1998]

Punch Taverns is buying 1,428 pubs from Bass, and will invest £40m to increase their profitability. [07-Apr-1998]

Oxford Molecular is set to acquire Chemical Design Holdings, the pharmaceutical software company, for about £6m. [06-Apr-1998]

Carnival Corporation of the US is to buy the Cunard luxury cruise business from Kvaerner for £300m. [04-Apr-1998]

Investec of South Africa has acquired Guinness Mahon, the merchant bank, from the Bank of Yokohama for £95m, and the deal also includes the Henderson Crosthwaite private client stockbroking business and a 44% stake in Guinness Flight Hambro Asset Management. [03-Apr-1998]

ICI is planning to sell Crosfield Group, the maker of catalysts for detergents and silicas, to WR Grace of the US for £272m. [03-Apr-1998]

Biffa has acquired three companies for a total £23m, which will give it a waste collection business in Scotland and landfill sites in Swindon and Salisbury. [03-Apr-1998]

Powerscreen International is selling its Universal Conveyor subsidiary to E-type Cars for £1.8m. [03-Apr-1998]

Domnick Hunter has acquired Xebec, the Canadian compressed air and gas dryers company, for up to £1.5m. [03-Apr-1998]

Bradford & Bingley has agreed terms to acquire the Black Horse estate agency chain from Lloyds TSB for £56m, which will give it a much stronger presence in the south of England. [02-Apr-1998]

Meyer International is selling its Montague L Meyer wood wholesaling business to management for up to £40m, and it has also sold a Dutch DIY business for £34m and a UK supplier of timber frames for £0.6m. [02-Apr-1998]

TCS Consumer Services of the US has acquired Interglobe Telecommunications, the UK phone card services group, for £12m, making it the largest independent phone card company in Europe. [02-Apr-1998]

Apax Partners is planning to acquire Whitecross Group, the dentistry business, for £6.25m in order to set up a nationwide chain of dentists, although another potential bidder has emerged. [02-Apr-1998]

Wilde Sapte, the UK law firm, is to merge with Arthur Andersen's global network of legal practices creating a firm with 750 lawyers and £100m annual turnover. [01-Apr-1998]

Norbrook Laboratories, the animal health concern, is planning to buy J Webster Laboratories, the Canadian anti-bacterials company, from Merial for about £17m. [01-Apr-1998]

NRP, the financial services and residential property company, is planning a £3.5m reverse takeover of Teather & Greenwood, the stockbroker. [01-Apr-1998]

Fenner is selling its power transmission business to a management buy-in company called FPT Group, and will use the proceeds to invest in polymer products, hydraulics and conveyor belts. [01-Apr-1998]

ICI has acquired Acheson Industries, the US speciality chemicals company that makes coatings for TVs and lubricants, for £333m, and will merge it with its National Starch & Chemical division. [31-Mar-1998]

Avonmore Waterford is selling two US food businesses - Waterford Food Products and Avonmore Cheese - to Saputo of Canada for £21m. [31-Mar-1998]

NatWest Equity Partners has sold Zincocelere, the Italian manufacturer of printed circuit boards, to Viasystems of Italy for over £60m. [30-Mar-1998]

Unilever has acquired a controlling stake in Moskovsky Margarinovy Zavod, the Russian margarine and fats company, for undisclosed terms and will invest £12m in the company. [30-Mar-1998]

Birchin International is raising £1.4m in a share offer in order to fund the acquisition of Swinton Castle, as it transforms its business from book publishing to residential training. [30-Mar-1998]

Bowthorpe is acquiring General Easter Instruments, the US supplier of humidity sensors, for £12.5m. [27-Mar-1998]

Go-Ahead Group is planning to take full control of Thames Trains, which has a franchise to operate trains between Oxford and London Paddington, at a cost of £6.1m. [27-Mar-1998]

Vaux is to acquire Manor Hotels, the operator of three hotels in East Anglia, for £20m. [26-Mar-1998]

DC Cook is to buy Pendragon's Motown multi-franchise car dealership and used car business in Derby for £7m. [26-Mar-1998]

Seton Healthcare has acquired EMS Medical's urology business for £3.5m. [26-Mar-1998]

WPP Group has bought two US marketing consultancies - Charles Rivers Strategies and MSC Channel Research and Consulting. [26-Mar-1998]

Abbott Mead Vickers has sold its Leagas Delaney advertising agency to management for £4m. [26-Mar-1998]

Delta is to acquire Holec Holland, the Dutch electrical switchgear manufacturer, for £83m. [25-Mar-1998]

Gerber Scientific of the US is acquiring Spandex, the signmaking equipment company, for £109m. [25-Mar-1998]

National Parking Corporation, the owner of 500 car parks and the Green Flag recovery service, is being acquired by Cendant of the US in a £801m deal. [24-Mar-1998]

Waterfall Holdings is buying Radion, the Essex-based chain of pool halls, bowling alleys, health clubs and pubs, in a £14m deal. [23-Mar-1998]

Toad is acquiring Sextons, the distributor of car stereo and security systems, for £10m, and says the deal will make it the largest car electronics company in the UK. [20-Mar-1998]

Blue Circle has sold its Blue Circle Incineration subsidiary to a management team for £3m. [20-Mar-1998]

Rexam is selling its Smith & McLaurin self-adhesive labels business to management for £12.4m. [19-Mar-1998]

Bass has sold its Barcrest gaming machine manufacturing business to International Game Technology of the US for £42m. [18-Mar-1998]

Rubicon is selling its lead products and specialist castings divisions to a management team for £62m, and will use the proceeds to invest in electronic manufacturing services and magnets. [17-Mar-1998]

CHC Airmotive has acquired Hunting Airmotive, the aero engine repairer, from Hunting for £25m. [17-Mar-1998]

Finelist is acquiring Lucas Service UK, the distributor of vehicle parts, from LucasVarity for £33m, which will improve its position in the market for diesel engine and fuel injection parts. [17-Mar-1998]

Smiths Industries is selling the recently-acquired Graseby's product monitoring and environmental divisions to Thermo Electron of the US for £44m, and will use the proceeds to cut debt. [17-Mar-1998]

WS Atkins has acquired Silk & Frazier, the quantity surveying practice, for £5.1m. [17-Mar-1998]

Apollo Metals has acquired Bunting Titanium, the titanium business, for £1.9m. [17-Mar-1998]

Bullough is acquiring Flexiform, the steel storage maker, for £10m. [17-Mar-1998]

BTR is selling its Australian building materials and Formica laminates businesses to CVC Capital Partners for about £650m, as part of a strategy to focus on engineering. [17-Mar-1998]

Beck & Politzer, the industrial plant group, has been sold to management and Gresham Trust for £23m. [16-Mar-1998]

Great Universal Stores is acquiring Metromail, the US database marketing company, for about £500m, as part of a strategy to build up a US information services business. [14-Mar-1998]

Dunloe House of Ireland has claimed victory in its takeover battle for Ewart, the Northern Ireland property company, having gained acceptances for 52% of the target shares. [14-Mar-1998]

Westbury is to acquire John Maunders, the housebuilder, for £55m, in order to increase its presence in the north west of England and make cost savings. [13-Mar-1998]

Hogg Robinson is acquiring Destination Services Russia, its Russian partner in Business Travel International, for up to £1.4m. [13-Mar-1998]

Widney is selling its SPC International subsidiary to a management buy-out for £5.7m. [13-Mar-1998]

GE Power Controls is acquiring a low-voltage components business based in Liverpool from GEC Alsthom. [12-Mar-1998]

Mayflower has sold its Ribbons seat belt subsidiary to a company set up by Gresham Trust for £6.5m. [12-Mar-1998]

Newsquest Media has acquired Property Weekly, the publisher of property advertising newspapers, for £2.5m. [12-Mar-1998]

Haden MacLellan has acquired MBS Distribution, the industrial fastenings company, from Vector Industries for £24m, which will enable it to expand further into Europe and increase its presence in the automotive market. [12-Mar-1998]

Mirror Group is selling its 46% stake in The Independent to Independent Newspapers for £3m, but will retain a contract to print and distribute the newspapers for the next five years. [12-Mar-1998]

Hanson has sold Grove Worldwide, its US crane making business, to Keystone for £380m. [12-Mar-1998]

Camden Graphics, the greeting cards company, is being acquired by American Greetings of the US for undisclosed terms. [11-Mar-1998]

API is to acquire Astor Universal, the foil packaging company, from Markem Corporation of the US for £30m, in order to gain access to Astor's cold foil technology and improve its product range and geographical coverage. [11-Mar-1998]

WH Smith has confirmed that it is planning to buy the John Menzies retail chain for £68m, which will result in some job losses and the rebranding of the Menzies stores in England and Wales. [10-Mar-1998]

Avon Rubber is acquiring Hi-Life Rubber, the US manufacturer of liners for the dairy industry, for £22m, as part of a strategy to expand its product portfolio and geographical coverage. [10-Mar-1998]

Reed Elsevier has called off its £17bn merger with Wolters Kluwer, following an attempt by Wolters to renegotiate terms because of fears that the European Commission would force the combined group to dispose of a large part of the tax and legal publishing business. [10-Mar-1998]

Tarmac has acquired a US concrete paving business from Marshalls for £18m, which will expand its presence in the southern states. [09-Mar-1998]

First Group is acquiring Great Western Trains for £148m, a controversial move that will generate big profits for the former British Rail managers that bought Great Western. [07-Mar-1998]

Pearson is to sell its Mindscape software business in the US to The Learning Company for £90m, leaving Pearson with a £212m loss on disposal. [07-Mar-1998]

Royal & Sun Alliance is acquiring the New Zealand life assurance and investment operation of Norwich Union for £54m, which will enable it to cut costs and improve distribution in the Pacific Rim region. [07-Mar-1998]

Barcom, the plant-hire company, has been acquired by GE Capital of the US for £41m, and GE is expected to follow this with similar acquisitions as it aims to become a leader in the UK plant-hire market. [07-Mar-1998]

Avon Rubber is acquiring Cow Polymers, the maker of rubber mouldings for the auto industry, from Unipoly Industrials for £10m. [06-Mar-1998]

Jacobs Holdings has acquired Societe Vendomoise de Transports de Vehicules, the French car transportation group, for £3.9m. [06-Mar-1998]

More Group is to be acquired by Clear Channel Communications of the US for £446m, which will create the largest outdoor advertising company in the world. [06-Mar-1998]

IMI has sold its industrial heat exchanger division to Chart Industries of the US for £21m. [06-Mar-1998]

Paragon Group has bought Universal Credit, the consumer finance business, from Lloyds TSB for £25m. [06-Mar-1998]

Lawson Mardon Carton Europe has been bought by a management buy-in team for about £40m, and under its new name of First Cartons will offer a Europe-wide service for the supply of cartons to the confectionery, food and spirits sectors. [05-Mar-1998]

Faber Prest, the steel products distributor, is to be acquired by Harsco of the US for £57m, and the combined group expects to benefit from cost cutting and greater efficiencies. [05-Mar-1998]

Cadence Design Systems of the US has acquired Symbionics, the Cambridge-based chip design business, for undisclosed terms. [04-Mar-1998]

Brunner Mond has completed the acquisition of the soda ash business of Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands, which makes it the second largest soda ash producer in Europe. [03-Mar-1998]

Rexam has acquired NatWest Print, the cheque book printing operation of National Westminster bank, for £8.5m. [03-Mar-1998]

Hampson Industries has acquired Attewell Group, which includes Attewell and Pillar Seals & Gaskets, for £10m. [03-Mar-1998]

Hutchison Whampoa has bought the port of Harwich from HSBC Private Equity for a sum thought to be over £100m, and it plans to develop the port as a stop-off for cruise liners and as an entry point to mainland Europe. [03-Mar-1998]

CMG has acquired Microlex, the financial services software concern, for up to £18m. [03-Mar-1998]

BTR has sold its glass and plastic bottling operations to Owens-Illinois of the US for £2.2bn, and Owens-Illinois is now hoping that European regulators will not object to its strong position in the glass packaging market. [03-Mar-1998]

Perkins Foods is selling its fresh produce business to Greenery International of the Netherlands for £124m, in order to focus on chilled and frozen foods. [03-Mar-1998]

Pearson has sold its law and tax publishing business to Thomson Corp for £70m. [03-Mar-1998]

Travis Perkins is acquiring Sherry & Haycock, the Wiltshire builders merchant, for £13m. [03-Mar-1998]

General Motors' Residential Funding subsidiary is to acquire the mortgage service division of Birmingham Midshires Building Society, in an attempt to replicate its US business in Europe. [02-Mar-1998]

United News & Media has sold United Provincial Newspapers, the publisher of the Yorkshire Post, to Candover Investments for £360m, and its Spanish regional publishing operation to Hebdo Mag International for £43m. [28-Feb-1998]

Emap is to acquire London-based Melody Radio for £25m, but will have to sell its Cardiff radio stations to comply with regulations on radio ownership. [27-Feb-1998]

Tibbett & Britten has acquired Causse Walon, the French vehicle distribution and storage business, for £14m through Axial, its existing French logistics subsidiary. [27-Feb-1998]

EMI and Advent International of the US are to buy the Waterstone's chain of book stores from WH Smith for £300m, through a joint venture called HMV Media that will also acquire the 271 HMV music stores and the Dillons chain of book stores from EMI for £500m. [26-Feb-1998]

Commercial Union and General Accident have agreed a £14bn merger to create a new group called CGU that will be the UK's second-biggest insurer, and about 5,000 jobs will be lost. [26-Feb-1998]

Rank Group is acquiring Parkdean Holidays, the provider of self-catering holidays, from Vardon for £38m and will convert the 10 sites to its Haven format. [26-Feb-1998]

Shanks & McEwan is buying a number of Belgian waste management businesses from Sita for £67m. [26-Feb-1998]

Siebe is to acquire Wonderware, the US supplier of factory-control systems, for £225m. [25-Feb-1998]

Tarmac and Bovis are to merge their plant hire operations into a joint venture called Castlewyse, which will unite Bovis's Wyseplant branches with those of Tarmac's Castle Plant Services subsidiary. [25-Feb-1998]

First Leisure has sold its Riva Clubs chain of 22 bingo clubs to a management team for £38m, in order to focus on health and fitness, bowling and night clubs. [24-Feb-1998]

Rexam is acquiring Pajco Products, the US paper coverings business, for £13m and will integrate it with its coated paper business based in Massachusetts. [24-Feb-1998]

Investcorp of Bahrain has made an agreed £250m offer to acquire Watmoughs, as well as an undisclosed offer to buy the British Printing Company, as it aims to create the UK's largest commercial printing company. [24-Feb-1998]

Cookson has acquired Flogates and KSR, two Sheffield-based refractories companies, for £50m using the proceeds from its withdrawal from its joint venture with Johnson Matthey. [24-Feb-1998]

Coda, the accountancy software company, has been acquired by Baan of the Netherlands for £53m. [24-Feb-1998]

Bass has reached agreement to acquire InterContinental Hotels and Resorts from Saison of Japan for £1.7bn, beating off competition from Marriott International and others. [21-Feb-1998]

Northern Foods has acquired Woodgate Dairies, the East Sussex supplier of milk to supermarkets, for £17m. [21-Feb-1998]

AEA Technology has acquired Nycomed Amersham's industrial services unit for an initial £16m. [21-Feb-1998]

Barlows, the property company, has sold Rowlinson Constructions to management for £1.1m. [21-Feb-1998]

Siebe is to acquire Coleman Safety and Security Products, the US maker of home safety equipment, for £64m. [20-Feb-1998]

Somerfield and Kwik Save have agreed a £1.4bn merger that will lead to the creation of a £6bn food retailing business, but job losses could result from the closure of a number of Kwik Save stores and the Prestatyn head office. [20-Feb-1998]

Roxspur is acquiring Clayhithe, the measurement systems company, for £30m, which will give it access to products complementary to its existing range in the areas of temperature, flow, level and pressure control. [19-Feb-1998]

Southnews is acquiring the southern regional newspapers business of United News & Media for £47.5m. [19-Feb-1998]

GEC Alsthom has finalised a deal to acquire Wessex Traincare, the former British Rail rolling stock repair company. [18-Feb-1998]

Cementone is acquiring ITE, the international trade show business, for £65m, and will change its name to ITE Group. [18-Feb-1998]

Unilever is selling its Robert Timms, Pablo and Faggs coffee businesses in Australasia to Freshfood Australia and New Zealand for undisclosed terms. [18-Feb-1998]

Hanson is acquiring HG Fenton, the US aggregates company, for £50m, as part of a strategy to benefit from the consolidation currently taking place in the US aggregates market. [18-Feb-1998]

Northern Foods is acquiring Cavaghan & Gray, the chilled and frozen food company, for £79m. [18-Feb-1998]

Healthcall, the provider of night call services for doctors, is to be acquired by a management team for £50m. [17-Feb-1998]

Microvitec has sold its monitor displays business to Conrac Technology of the US for £1.4m in an attempt to raise cash to save the main business. [17-Feb-1998]

Sibir Energy has launched a £62m recommended bid for Pentex Energy, its former parent company, which will give it the additional skills it requires for its new oil exploration interests in Russia. [17-Feb-1998]

GEC has sold GEC Plessey Semiconductors to Mitel of Canada for £140m, thereby completing its withdrawal from unwanted industrial businesses. [14-Feb-1998]

Finelist is acquiring Independent Parts Group, the maker of vehicle components, for £38m, and expects the deal will generate cost savings and efficiencies in distribution. [14-Feb-1998]

ISA International, the computer supplies company, is planning to acquire John Heath, the office supplies company, for £29m in shares. [14-Feb-1998]

Westminster Healthcare has acquired Magnetic Resonance Imaging for £3.5m, in order to strengthen its diagnostics division in the south east. [13-Feb-1998]

Trocadero has bought five London bars trading under the Venom, Oxygen, Zoo Bar and Bar Madrid names for £10.5m. [13-Feb-1998]

BICC and Delta have agreed a £40m asset swap that will see Delta acquire BICC's construction and building wire business and BICC acquire Delta's power and rubber cables business, and about 870 jobs could be lost as a result. [13-Feb-1998]

Cala has acquired Victor Homes, the Yorkshire-based housebuilder, for an initial £2.8m, thereby expanding its coverage into the north of England. [13-Feb-1998]

RMC has sold its 50% stake in Chaufournieres de Hergenrath, the lime producer, to its Belgian joint venture partner for £54m, and the proceeds will help finance the recent acquisitions of four German concrete companies. [12-Feb-1998]

Milner Estates is to acquire the Five Oaks property company for £41m, and plans to make further acquisitions in future. [12-Feb-1998]

Chestertons, the property and estate agent group, has agreed a £70m deal to merge with Summit Group. [12-Feb-1998]

Laughton Rainsford has acquired Thomas Cork, the provider of in-store merchandising displays, for £32m. [11-Feb-1998]

Intrum Justitia, the debt collection agency, is being acquired by a new company called Collector in a £126m deal that will return it to private hands. [11-Feb-1998]

Rexam has reduced its stake in Graphocolor, the French metallised packaging company, from 50% to 20%, and sold its J Arthur Dixon greetings card business, raising a total £2.1m. [10-Feb-1998]

Eurotherm has acquired Action Instruments, the US manufacturer of monitoring instrumentation, for £9.5m. [10-Feb-1998]

MY Holdings is planning to acquire Farmoprint, the Italian packaging company, for up to £3m, and is also said to be planning marketing alliances in France and Germany. [10-Feb-1998]

P&O Nedlloyd has bought the Blue Star Line container shipping company from the Vestey Group for £60m. [10-Feb-1998]

NatWest has sold County NatWest Australia, the equities and corporate finance operation, to Salomon Smith Barney of the US for £52m. [10-Feb-1998]

CSI, the TV sports rights marketing company, has been acquired by Interpublic of the US for undisclosed terms. [10-Feb-1998]

Serco has bought Tecnodata, the Italian computer support services company, for about £9m. [10-Feb-1998]

Getty Communications has acquired Allsport, the sports photographic agency, for £18m, and will use the business to sell images via the internet. [09-Feb-1998]

Bodycote International has acquired Thermal Processing Group from TI Group for £15m. [07-Feb-1998]

GEC has sold Marconi Instruments, the measuring instruments business, to IFR Systems of the US for £65m, as part of a strategy to focus on defence, electronics and telecoms. [07-Feb-1998]

Rolfe & Nolan, the financial services software company, has received a £71m recommended takeover offer from SunGard Data Systems of the US. [06-Feb-1998]

Sears has sold its Cable & Co chain of shoe shops to Nine West of the US for £6m, thus completing its exit from the shoe business. [06-Feb-1998]

Dairy Crest, through its joint venture with Sodiaal of France, is acquiring Raines Dairy Foods Operating Companies, the supplier of dairy products to supermarkets, for £66m. [06-Feb-1998]

Intercare has acquired Freeman Pharmaceuticals for £3.4m. [06-Feb-1998]

Burmah Castrol has sold its 50% stake in a Japanese LNG venture to Mitsui OSK Lines and Nissho Iwai Corporation for £42m, in order to focus on lubricants and speciality chemicals. [05-Feb-1998]

A new company called Dataforce has been created to acquire two direct mail companies - Mailforce Group and Eros Marketing Support Services - for £14.5m. [05-Feb-1998]

Dalgety has sold its Spillers pet food business to Nestle for £715m and its Martin-Brower US distribution business to Reyes Holdings for £120m. [05-Feb-1998]

Target, the Coventry-based privately-owned parcels delivery company, is undergoing a management buy-out for undisclosed terms, with the backing of Legal & General Ventures. [05-Feb-1998]

Senior Engineering has acquired Bredan Kompensator Fabrik, the Danish manufacturer of expansion joints, for £4.4m. [04-Feb-1998]

AEA Technology is acquiring Code International, the producer of lifetime prediction software, for £6.9m. [04-Feb-1998]

Meggitt has bought Hayes Targets, the US developer of infra-red suppresser counter-measures and weapons training aids, from Pemco Aeroplex for $5m. [04-Feb-1998]

Waddington has acquired Trans Container Corporation, the Californian manufacturer of plastic bottles for pills, for £20m, in order to complement its existing healthcare packaging business on the other side of the US. [04-Feb-1998]

TI Group's John Crane division is acquiring Safematic, the Finnish supplier of pulp and paper sealing systems, for £17m. [04-Feb-1998]

Firth Rixson is selling its Lion Steel Equipment steel cabinets business to management for £3.6m. [04-Feb-1998]

Warings, the Portsmouth construction business, has been bought by a management team for £12m. [04-Feb-1998]

Whitecroft has bought NT Shapland & Petter, the Devon-based maker of timber fire doors, from Newman Tonks for £1.75m. [04-Feb-1998]

Enterprise Inns is acquiring Gibbs Mew, the chain of 310 pubs, for £48m and plans to convert 27 managed pubs to tenanted status. [04-Feb-1998]

Henderson, the UK fund manager, is being acquired by Australian Mutual Provident for £382m, and the two companies now expect to be able to offer a wider range of products. [04-Feb-1998]

WT Foods has acquired Eghoyan's Pitta Bakery, the London-based producer of ethnic foods, for £5.1m. [03-Feb-1998]

Guinness Mahon Holdings has sold Guinness Mahon Development Capital, which invests in small unquoted companies, to a management team for about £1m. [03-Feb-1998]

National Westminster Bank has sold its Canadian bank to Hong Kong Bank of Canada for undisclosed terms. [03-Feb-1998]

Harsco of the US has acquired Pandrol Jackson, the rail track maintenance company, from Charter for £42m, but the UK engineering company is keeping its railway track fastenings business. [03-Feb-1998]

Misys has sold its computer services business to a management team for £10m, in order to focus on software products. [03-Feb-1998]

Flemings is acquiring Banco Graphus, the Brazilian investment bank, for about $50m as part of a strategy to expand in emerging markets. [02-Feb-1998]

Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham are planning a £100bn merger to create the largest pharmaceuticals company in the world, thereby putting an end to SmithKline's plans to merge with American Home Products. [31-Jan-1998]

TransTec is to acquire Cremsa, the Spanish car parts maker, for up to £27m, in order to gain its first manufacturing base in continental Europe. [31-Jan-1998]

Cookson has sold its 50% stake in the Cookson Matthey Ceramics ceramic tiles joint venture to Johnson Matthey for £65m, as the two companies were having problems agreeing on the future of the business. [31-Jan-1998]

Kode International, the printed circuit board maker, has agreed to a £14m takeover offer from Cornerstone Equity Investors of the US. [31-Jan-1998]

Cavaghan & Gray has acquired John Richards, the Aberdeen fish processing company, for £1.3m. [30-Jan-1998]

DC Cook has acquired Peter Marson & Sons and Marson Garages (Wolstanton), the Newcastle-under-Lyme Renault dealership, for £2.1m. [30-Jan-1998]

Glaxo Wellcome is acquiring an 80% stake in Polfa Poznan, the Polish drugs company, for £132m as part of a strategy to expand in emerging markets. [29-Jan-1998]

Sage is acquiring State of the Art, a Californian supplier of accountancy software, for £160m in its largest acquisition to date. [28-Jan-1998]

Northern Foods has confirmed plans to demerge its Express Dairies division in March, and it is then planning to participate in the expected consolidation of the dairy sector. [27-Jan-1998]

Knickerbox, the underwear retailer, has been bought from administration by corporate recovery specialist Klesch Capital Partners for undisclosed terms, and the shops will now be refurbished and expanded. [27-Jan-1998]

NatWest Markets is selling its Asian equities and corporate finance business to a joint venture of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia for about £10m, as part of a strategy to withdraw from equities. [27-Jan-1998]

Dalgety is selling its food ingredients and Spillers flour milling operations to Kerry Group of Ireland for £335m, and its wheat processing research activities to DuPont for £24m. [27-Jan-1998]

Fairey has sold its Fairey Hydraulics division to a management buy-out for £55m, thereby ending its links with the aerospace and defence industries and enabling it to focus on electronic controls and process technology. [27-Jan-1998]

Life Assurance Holding is acquiring Aegon Financial Services from Scottish Equitable for a sum thought to be less than £30m. [27-Jan-1998]

Baker Hughes of the US has bought the process equipment operations of Weir for £10.6m. [26-Jan-1998]

Tomkins has sold its Carriage House Fruit retail operation in California to New West Foods, and the price is expected to exceed the asset value of £8m. [26-Jan-1998]

Hazlewood Foods has acquired Breadwinner, the London sandwich maker, for £14m. [24-Jan-1998]

LucasVarity has sold two starter motor and alternator businesses, with plants in London, Argentina and South Africa, to Prestolite Electric of Michigan for an initial £25m. [24-Jan-1998]

Cookson has acquired the jewellery components division of Inverness Corp of the US for an initial £24m in order to increase the value-added activities of its precious metals business. [24-Jan-1998]

Card Clear, the card payment and fraud prevention company, is acquiring HTEC, the loyalty card company, for £24m in a reverse takeover. [24-Jan-1998]

SEC Group, the financial services company, is acquiring Barclays Personal Taxation Service for up to £5m. [23-Jan-1998]

BWT of Australia is acquiring Kennicott Water Systems, the manufacturer of water treatment equipment, from Rolls-Royce for undisclosed terms. [23-Jan-1998]

Daily Mail & General Trust is about to acquire Essex Radio, in which it already holds 27%, in a deal that values the local radio company at £21m. [22-Jan-1998]

Ciba Specialty Chemicals of Switzerland is to acquire Allied Colloids in a £1.42bn deal, having outbid Hercules of the US. [22-Jan-1998]

Bank of Yokohama is looking to sell Guinness Mahon, the merchant bank, in order to focus on its domestic Japanese business, and a management buy-out has already been agreed for Guinness Mahon Development Capital. [21-Jan-1998]

Patriot American Hospitality of the US is to acquire Arcadian International, the UK operator of 12 hotels, for £92m. [21-Jan-1998]

CRH of Ireland has spent a further £40m on the acquisition of a number of small North American and European building materials companies, including businesses involved in glass distribution, masonry, paving, concrete bricks and fencing. [21-Jan-1998]

SmithKline Beecham has confirmed that it is in merger discussions with American Home Products to create the world's largest pharmaceuticals group with sales of about £16bn. [21-Jan-1998]

Volvo is to acquire the BRS truck rental business from NFC for £49m, which will make Volvo Contract Services the largest such company in the UK managing over 20,000 trucks, buses and coaches. [20-Jan-1998]

Sedgwick is selling two Dutch insurance subsidiaries - Praevenio and Schlencker - to Delta Lloyd, the Dutch company owned by Commercial Union, for £11.2m. [20-Jan-1998]

Glynwed has sold three businesses serving the construction markets for a total £3.3m - Leavlite Electropaint, IsoSystems and PTFE Fabricators. [17-Jan-1998]

Tate & Lyle has acquired a 61% stake in Industrias de Maiz, the Argentine corn sweetener and starch processing business, for £32m. [15-Jan-1998]

Sage has sold its Dataform print management business to management for £7.2m. [15-Jan-1998]

Hanson is negotiating the sale of its Spectrum heavy construction and civil engineering businesses in the US to Skanska of Sweden, and also plans to sell the Spectrum roadbuilding business to Bouygues of France. [14-Jan-1998]

Sheffield Forgemasters, the engineering group, has been sold to two US companies - Allegheny Teledyne and Atchison Casting - for a combined price of almost £100m. [13-Jan-1998]

Bridport is acquiring Air Carriers Interiors, the US maker of air cargo restraint systems, for an initial £2.1m. [13-Jan-1998]

Limelight is selling its loss-making Portland Windows double glazing business to Broach for £0.5m. [13-Jan-1998]

Barclays has sold part of its BZW Asian equities business to Credit Suisse First Boston for undisclosed terms, including the Taiwan equities operation and a 70% stake in a Singapore joint venture. [13-Jan-1998]

Hunting Oilfield Services has acquired Chase Manufacturing, the Canadian maker of couplings for the oil industry, for £4.7m. [10-Jan-1998]

Cobham has acquired Lincoln Laser, the US optical technology company, for $8.5m, and Nurad Technologies, the US microwave equipment maker, for $5.6m, as well as the passive microwave components business of Premier Microwave. [09-Jan-1998]

GEC Alsthom is acquiring the railway signalling operations of Italian-owned Sasib for undisclosed terms. [09-Jan-1998]

Cookson, the industrial materials company, is selling the UK horticultural products business of its Plantpak division to Synbra UK, the Dutch producer of plastics for the packaging and construction sectors. [08-Jan-1998]

JLI Group, the food processing company, has received a £25m recommended takeover offer from Harrington Food, a new company created by a management team, which will take JLI private. [07-Jan-1998]

Bass has announced the acquisition of four Australian hotels and the Browns chain of seven UK restaurants for a total £80m. [07-Jan-1998]

General Accident is pulling out of Scandinavia with the sale of Activ Forsikring, its Norwegian operation, to Skandia Insurance for undisclosed terms. [07-Jan-1998]

GAN Insurance has announced that its £300m sale to Life Assurance Holding will not take place until after its French parent is privatised later this year. [07-Jan-1998]

Reed Elsevier has sold IPC Magazines, the UK's largest publisher of consumer magazines, to a management team for £860m in order to focus on business and scientific publications. [06-Jan-1998]

Unilever is acquiring the Vegetaline solid frying fat business from Eridania Beghin-Say, the Italian-French food company, and selling its Frial liquid seed-oil business in France to Lesieur Alimentaire, a subsidiary of Eridania Beghin-Say. [06-Jan-1998]

McLeod Russel is acquiring Eurogard, the Dutch surface coatings business, from GE Plastics for £4.7m. [06-Jan-1998]

GE Capital Investments is to acquire P&P UK, the desktop computer business, from Skillsgroup for £11.5m. [06-Jan-1998]

Royal Bank of Scotland's venture capital arm has bought A&P Repair, the ship repair company, for £56m. [05-Jan-1998]

ICI has completed the sale of its polymer and intermediates business in the UK and the US as well as its 70% stake in a PTA joint venture in Taiwan to DuPont for £1.4bn, as part of its strategy to exit the bulk chemicals market. [03-Jan-1998]

Lynx has acquired Globelle, the computer networks supplier, for £3m, in order to improve relations with customers of its own Sphinx CST network business. [02-Jan-1998]

Readicut International has sold European Carpets to Interface Group of the US for £30m. [02-Jan-1998]

Treats Group is acquiring Richmond Ice Cream Company, the independent bulk ice cream manufacturer, in order to broaden their product range and make efficiencies in sales and marketing. [02-Jan-1998]

Life Assurance Holding is acquiring Gan Life & Pensions, the UK arm of Societe Centrale du Gan of France, for £316m. [02-Jan-1998]

Holliday Chemical is acquiring an Italian manufacturer of cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and other pharmaceutical intermediates from Hoechst Marion Roussel for £9m. [01-Jan-1998]

Expamet International is acquiring the Hanover-based expanded metals business of Ernst Sorst for £2.1m, in order to gain a strategic foothold in continental Europe. [01-Jan-1998]