Blacks Leisure rejects Sports Direct takeover offer

Blacks Leisure has dismissed a £26m takeover approach from Sports Direct as "wholly inadequate".

Sports Direct, which is controlled by the Newcastle United owner, Mike Ashley, had offered 62 pence per share, Blacks said.

Sports Direct, which owns Sports World stores as well as brands including Slazenger and Dunlop, already owns almost 30% of Blacks shares.

The Blacks group includes Millets and Freespirit as well as the Blacks shops.

Blacks recently said it was on a "much stronger footing" after it closed 87 loss-making stores and reported good Christmas trading.

The closures included its O'Neill shops, which specialised in surfwear.

Last month, Sports Direct blocked Blacks from raising about £20m from shareholders as part of a drive to open new stores.

However, Blacks has vowed to press on with expansion plans. It said it would try to get around its suitor's objections to the fundraising by only requiring a majority of shares to be in favour of the plans.

Posted at 08:19PM Mar 19, 2010 by Kelly Board in Finance7 Company News  |  Comments[0]

ID Fraud on the Up

It is believed that identity fraud is set to soar this year after revelations of a massive growth over the second half of last year.

Experian have found that of all cases of identity in 2009, almost three quarters of them came between July and December.  Furthermore, they have said that business directors and business owners face the highest risk of having their identity stolen.

2009 as a whole also saw a 20% rise in ID fraud compared with the previous year according to the credit reference company.  London remained the hotspot for criminal activity but it is also said that places such as Cardiff, Manchester and Salford have a rising vulnerability to ID theft.

Further results from the study also showed that cases of fraud in which people are manipulating their own information is on the rise.  More and more people are doing this in order to gain extra credit.

With lower levels of lending on offer along with the potential of a rise in unemployment, it is thought the number of these cases is also set to rise substantially this year.

"Attempted fraud is on the increase and the nature of the threat is changing," said Nick Mothershaw, of Experian.

"Organised criminal fraudsters are moving into the mass-market, looking beyond those with obvious wealth towards lower-value but more vulnerable targets.

"At the same time, financial stress brought about by the recession is driving increasing numbers of people to commit fraud to maintain their lifestyles."

Posted at 03:02PM Mar 19, 2010 by Marc Stenton in UK Economy News  |  Comments[0]