Shares in the group, the world's biggest catering company, continued their downward spiral, falling a further 9 per cent, after it said Peter Harris, the chief executive of the group's UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa division, had been suspended. Last night, the UN said it was suspending Compass as a registered vendor pending the outcome of the investigation.. Sir Gerry Robinson was forced to beat a humiliating retreat yesterday after he failed to garner enough support from Rentokil Initial shareholders to seize control of the pest control to potted plants group. The failure of the former Granada chairman and star of the television series I'll Show Them Who's Boss to win the high-profile battle with Rentokil's incumbent management is likely to tarnish his corporate reputation.. The acquisition price is much higher than earlier estimates of about £150m.. Compass, the crisis-torn catering group, suspended one of its top executives yesterday and ordered an independent investigation over claims of improper behaviour in connection with a contract for the United Nations.
BSkyB, the satellite TV group, is to push aggressively into the broadband and telephony markets, after yesterday's £211m acquisition of Easynet. The move means Sky can take on the "triple play" offering of cable rivals, which provide TV, internet and voice telephony, as well as the broadband market led by BT. The two companies are "confident" of reaching an agreement with Holtzbrinck, Mecom said. "We are on track and the deal will go on uninterrupted," Mr Montgomery, the chairman of Mecom, said.3i said it had quit the deal, reckoned to be worth up to €160m (£100m), because it failed to agree on "commercial terms with parties involved". It was unclear whether 3i had been unable to reach an agreement with its bid partners or Holtzbrinck. But Patrick Dunne, a spokesman for 3i, insisted its move did not result from the controversy generated by the planned acquisition "3i has an excellent reputation in Germany. We have been investing in the country for 20 years and have a very good relationship with the media there," he said.Holtzbrinck has been forced by Germany's cartel office to put Berliner Verlag up for sale after acquiring it from a rival publisher, Gruner+Jahr, which is a unit of Bertelsmann..
The chain was floated in 1993 by the entrepreneurs Luke Johnson and Hugh Osmond. Mr Johnson failed to buy it back in 2003 and lost out to TDR Capital and Capricorn Ventures in a bitter bid battle.. David Montgomery, the former chief executive of the Mirror Group, has pledged to continue with a controversial attempt to acquire a German newspaper despite losing one of his backers, 3i, from his bidding consortium yesterday. The proposed acquisition of the Berliner Zeitung has caused a furore in Germany on fears about foreign ownership of German media and Mr Montgomery's reputation as a cost-cutter. Mr Montgomery's London-listed investment vehicle, Mecom, and the other member of the consortium, the US private-equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson, said they will go on with discussions with Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of Berliner Verlag. We have three truly great brands - Pizza Express, Ask and Zizzi. At the core of the group's strategy is a dedication to provide high-quality food at value-for-money prices with excellent customer service.
