The FTSE 100 reversed earlier gains to close down 0.1 per cent to 7,473.1, but the FTSE 250 rose 0.5 per cent to 21,070 today.
Ted Baker rejected two unsolicited non-binding proposals from private equity firm Sycamore Partners Management for a possible cash offer for the firm.
The fashion group said it had concluded the proposals from New York-based Sycamore significantly undervalued the company and failed to ‘compensate shareholders for the significant upside that can be delivered by Ted Baker as a listed company’.
The UK Government’s stake in NatWest Group has fallen to below 50 per cent, returning the lender to majority private control for the first time since it was bailed out by taxpayers at the height of the global financial crisis over a decade ago.
NatWest Group has bought 549,851,147 shares from the Government for around £1.2billion, resulting in the Government’s voting rights falling to 48.06 per cent, the bank said in a statement.
An Australian investment bank known as the ‘Vampire Kangaroo’ has snapped up a vital part of the UK’s gas grid.
Sydney-based Macquarie has taken a 60 per cent stake in National Grid’s gas transmission and metering business – a £5.76billion swoop which values the division at £9.6billion.
>If you are using our app or a third-party site click here to read Business Live
The shares were sold at Friday’s closing price of 220.5p, raising £1.2billion in the fifth transaction to reduce public ownership of NatWest
