Delancey buys up Minerva shares

Cityam 2011 Talkswere formally terminated on 25January this year."TMX Group and the third partywere not in agreement with respect toproposed undertakings regarding netbenefits to Canada," the parent of theToronto Stock Exchange said in Tiffany and co Jewelry a 731-page circular to be mailed to share-holders. A number of key UKand global indicators released yester-day suggest that the Western nationsare slowing again, with Britain notimmune from the bad news. Thebiggest change seems to be a slow-down in manufacturing: after power-ing the global bounce-back on theback of recovering trade and Asiandemand, producers are seeing growthweaken significantly. In part, this isbecause of a cost explosion, led by oilprices, but there are also other factorsat play, including a continuing hous-ing crisis in the US. This may just be ablip of the kind recoveries inevitablysee - we will only know for sure in acouple of months' time. But with anet 416,000 jobs created in the UK overthe past year - and well over that num-ber created in the private sector - therecovery has been decent so far. The official viewthat the economy merely stagnatedoverall during the fourth Tiffany Rings and firstquarter is clearly overly-pessimistic: itis based on a supposedly dire perform-ance by the construction sector in thefirst quarter of the year, but this isexplained by a dubious new measure-ment method. The industry has saidthat its performance was actuallymuch better. The figures are also refut-ed by the fact that the private sectorcreated a large number of jobs duringthat six months period - zero growthwould have signaled an unlikely slumpin productivity. Eventually, the officialstats will be revised up. Onemonth's data doesn't mean verymuch. UK banks andbuilding societies bought £36.1bn ofgilts in the six months to April, upfrom £11.4bn in the prior six-monthperiod. Overseas buying of gilts mean-while fell sharply. "Banks are buyinggilts partly under regulatory pressurebut also because private sectordemand for bank loans remains weak,"Henderson's Simon Ward said. Investment firm Delancey and its part-ner Area Property Partners have builtup their stake in their takeover target,Minerva to become its second-biggestshareholder. The pair bought up 12.5per cent of Minerva's stock yesterdayat 118p per share from minority own-ers, which will deter rival bidders fromentering the fray. APP and Delancey, Tiffany Bracelets Sale which is run by Jamie Ritblat, haveoffered £194m to buy the propertydeveloper and have been negotiatingthe deal since January. A medical devices group developingnon-tobacco nicotine delivery systemshas won the backing of Sir TerryLeahy in the latest private investmentby the former Tesco chief executivesince he retired in March. Possible outcomes includereferring the case to the CompetitionCommission. PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM PLAN ONHOLD David Cameron's plan to free publicservices "from the grip of state con-trol" has been put on hold until July,in the face of opposition from theLiberal Democrats and public con-cern over the privatisation of healthand social care. The plan to transformpublic services through greater use ofprivate providers, mutuals and socialenterprises has already been cut backand is now the subject of coalitionwrangling. Downing St insiders con-firmed on Wednesday that the vaunt-ed white paper on reform - originallyset for publication in January - is nowunlikely to be published until mid-July. CHARITIES PREPARE TO STEP IN IFLEADING CARE HOME FIRM FAILS Charities are drawing up plans totake over care homes from thebiggest private provider, which hasrun out of money. Industry insiderstold The Times yesterday that some ofthe biggest rival care home operators,including charities and private com-panies, are planning to take over thehomes. GOLDMAN TRADER'S DEFENCE FOUNDON DISCARDED LAPTOP Lawyers for Fabrice Tourre, theGoldman Sachs employee facingSecurities and Exchange Commissionallegations of fraud, are questioningwhy their client has been singled outas the only individual to face chargesover mortgage-backed securities. This makes thegap between citizens and the EUbureaucracy even bigger and deeper."