UK training and information company Wilmington Group plc (LON:WIL) said on Friday it had bought its trading partner Millennium ADMP Ltd out of administrative receivership for the cash sum of GBP465,000 (USD736,000/EUR579,000).

By rescuing this firm, Wilmington secures the continuing employment of its headcount as well as the future support for the operations of one of its own units, said Charles Brady, chief executive officer of the buyer.

The company took over the business and certain assets of Millennium ADMP today, through its wholly-owned unit Wilmington Millennium Ltd. It intends to pay for the acquisition using its existing debt facilities.

Millennium ADMP offers information and services to the insurance market along with data and sales services to Wilmington’s Smee & Ford Ltd unit. The business had profits before interest, tax and amortisation of GBP400,000 on a turnover of GBP5.9m for the fiscal year to 30 June 2011. Its gross assets amount to GBP900,000.

Wilmington Group serves professional business markets such as accountancy and tax, banking, charities, financial compliance, healthcare, insurance, law and pensions.

PLUS Markets Group plc (LSE:PMK), a British stock exchange for smaller firms, announced today that it is planning to close.

A formal sale process was launched by PLUS in February and the board of directors has considered various alternatives, such as potential offers for the company, offers of funding through a placing for shares in the company, the injection of capital into a subsidiary, the sale of certain assets and loan financing. Discussions were held with various interested parties, including major international stock exchanges and trading platforms, inter dealer brokers, technology providers, private equity and other wealth funds.

It was revealed in April that indicative proposals had been put forward by a number of parties, but PLUS announced today that an acceptable takeover offer has not been received to date and the company’s cash reserves have decreased.

The loss-making group has now informed the Financial Services Authority (FSA) that it intends to commence a process of “orderly closure”. In order to minimise market disruption, the plan is to wind down its regulated activities, including the operation of PLUS Stock Exchange plc (PLUS-SX), over a period of up to six months. This will be done in consultation with the FSA.

During the winding-down process PLUS has pledged to work to ensure that companies traded on the PLUS-quoted market are able to find suitable alternative arrangements for the trading of their shares.

For the time being the PLUS market will continue to operate as normal.

PLUS said that its board will continue to explore all possible options to preserve the remaining shareholder value, including any offers for the company’s remaining assets. The board will then consider what steps to take to either return any residual value to shareholders or to convert the company into an investing company under AIM Rules.

As well as PLUS Stock Exchange plc (PLUS-SX), PLUS operates PLUS Trading Solutions Limited (PLUS-TS) and PLUS Derivatives Exchange Limited (PLUS-DX).

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London-based miner Anglo American Plc (LON:AAL) welcomed on Tuesday the ruling of UK’s competition regulator on its planned joint venture with French cement producer Lafarge (EPA:LG) and expressed confidence that they would be able to meet the conditions attached to the approval.

The Competition Commission (CC) unveiled earlier today its final report on the investigation into the British JV planned by Anglo and Lafarge, asking the two partners to sell a substantial operations portfolio in order to win its approval.

In response, Anglo said it would work closely with the regulators towards a positive outcome and the conclusion of the JV deal as soon as possible.

Lafarge also reacted by saying that despite the required disposals, the proposed business combination would generate recurring synergies through enhanced operational efficiencies, improved logistics and value-added products.

The 50/50 venture, agreed last year, would merge Anglo American’s Tarmac UK with Lafarge’s construction materials operations in the UK into a business with combined sales of GBP1.8bn (USD2.9bn/EUR2.2bn) and EBITDA of GBP210m in 2010, the two companies have said.

The regulator, which expressed concerns in February that the JV would hurt competition in certain segments of the building materials market, said today it was still standing by that ruling. Before the JV deal can move ahead, Anglo and Lafarge have to sell operations including cement plants, rail depots, RMX plants and aggregate quarries, in order to protect consumers interest in key segments, especially since a lot of construction work is publicly funded, the CC said.

See also: UK Competition authorities demand disposals to OK Anglo American, Lafarge JV

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) rejected media speculation that it was in talks to buy US alternative beverage group Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST).

The comment came in response to a report by the Wall Street Journal, which citing informed sources, said that the beverage giant had been discussing a deal, but gave it up after the report sent Monster Beverage’s stock up 20% on Monday, raising its value at USD13bn (EUR9.8bn). Monster’s market capitalisation went back to USD11bn, after Coca-Cola denied talks.

For its part, Coca-Cola said it has always been in contact with Monster to maximise the value of their distribution relationship, but for the time being that does not include plans to take over the company.

According to the Wall-Street Journal report, some Coca-Cola shareholders have been against a deal and the price, and contacted the company to express their opposition to the takeover plans.

The two companies have been in talks over a deal a year ago, but Coca-Cola walked away then because of the high-price,the Wall Street Journal said.

Bloomberg cited Morningstar Inc analyst Thomas Mullarkey as saying that a deal with Monster would help Coca-Cola compete in the energy drinks sector, while ensuring a much faster international grow for Monster than the latter can master on its own.

In its statement, Coca-Cola said it continued to review options to maximise its commercial arrangements with Monster.

Monster’s portfolio comprises energy drinks, juice and soda beverages, with brands including Monster Energy, Monster Rehab, Monster Energy Extra Strength Nitrous Technology, Java Monster, X-Presso Monster, Worx Energy, Peace Tea, Hansen’s, Hansen’s Natural Soda, Junior Juice, Blue Sky, Hubert’s and Vidration.

German healthcare group Fresenius SE & Co KGaA (ETR:FRE) plans to make a EUR22.50 (USD29.75) a share cash offer to buy domestic hospital operator Rhoen-Klinikum AG (ETR:RHK), valuing it at around EUR3.1bn, as it seeks to boost its hospital business, the company said on Thursday.

The deal, which will combine Fresenius’ Helios with Rhoen-Klinikum, will create the largest private hospital operator in Germany with around EUR6bn in annual revenues and significant cost and growth synergies, the buyer said.

Fresenius plans to carry out the takeover through a voluntary public offer, subject to an acceptance level of 90% and regulatory clearance.

The bidder said it would publish the detailed offer documents in the second half of May, with the hope of closing the transaction in the third quarter of 2012.

The company anticipates it might have to dispose of some hospital locations in order to secure regulatory approvals, adding it does not plan a bourse listing for the combined company.
Financing will be covered with a syndicated loan, a bond issue and up to EUR1bn in equity instruments.

Eugen Munch, owner of 12.45% in Rhoen-Klinikum, has pledged his stock to the deal, saying he would also recommend the premium offer to other shareholders.

The target company, running 53 hospitals and 39 healthcare centres, reported EUR2.6bn in sales and a net income of EUR161m last year.

The manufacturing sector could lead the UK’s economic recovery, according to a report released on Friday by Begbies Traynor Group plc (LSE:BEG), a business rescue, recovery and restructuring specialist.

In its latest Red Flag Alert research, which monitors a series of indicators of UK company distress, Begbies Traynor has found that manufacturing is recovering while many other sectors are experiencing a tide of continued business distress across the country.

Overall, the underlying year-on-year trend shows a decrease of 17% in combined distress, indicating early progress away from another recession. In line with normal seasonal trends there were increased levels of distress in the first quarter of the year after the pre-Christmas retail and leisure spending peak. Combined instances of UK business distress increased by 55% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the previous three-month period, which gives an indication of the potential fragility of the recovery, Begbies Traynor said.

Looking more specifically at the manufacturing sector we can see clear year-on-year falls in combined distress, with food and beverage producers’ distress levels down 37%; a drop of 73% amongst print and packaging firms; and other manufacturing businesses recording 49% fewer instances of distress. Food and beverage manufacturers achieved falls in both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter distress, noted Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer.

Sectors that performed less positively in the first quarter of 2012 included property services, which showed a 122% increase in distress, and the construction sector with a 104% increase in distress as public spending cuts mean that some long-term infrastructure and construction contracts have been delayed or shelved.

US-based printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electro-mechanical solutions maker Viasystems Group Inc (NASDAQ:VIAS) has agreed to acquire sector player DDi Corp (NASDAQ:DDIC) for USD268m (EUR203.5m), the two said in a joint statement today.

Viasystems will acquire DDi for USD13.00 a share, which represents a premium of 20% to the volume weighted average price of the DDi’s common stock over the last three months. Including the assumed cash and debt on completion, the transaction is valued at nearly USD282m, the two companies added.

The deal will allow the parties to form a leader in the PCB sector with global capabilities and scale. It will raise Viasystems’ share in the military and aerospace as well as in the industrial and instrumentation markets. The enlarged entity will have a staff of about 15,650 and manufacturing floor space surpassing 4.3m sq ft (399,500 sq m) and one million sq ft in China and North AMerica, respectively.

The combined revenue of the merged entity would have been nearly USD1.32bn, while adjusted EBITDA would have reached USD183m, based on their results last year.

The transaction, which has already been cleared by both boards, is now awaiting regulatory nods and DDi stockholder approval and is seen to close late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter.

It is projected to enhance Viasystems’ adjusted EPS immediately. The deal is estimated to result in cost synergies of at least USD10m, to be realised within six months after completion.

The buyer has obtained funding from three banks in connection with this takeover.

Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and Jones Day are consulting Viasystems, while Jefferies & Co, Mooreland Partners LLC and Paul Hastings LLP are advising DDi.

Fashion and homeware retailer ‘Next’ accidently listed a £1,198 sofa on its website for just £98. The blunder meant that the sofa had been reduced by £1,100 instead of the intended £100.

Bargain-hunters rushed online to purchase the deal and the mistake went unnoticed as buyers even received confirmation emails and estimated delivery dates.

The pricing error was spotted by users of Hotukdeals, and remained unnoticed for nearly six hours.

Customers said that they had £98 – plus delivery charges – debited from their bank accounts, which meant those who managed to get their hands on the homeware, believed they were getting the ‘deal of the century’.

However these customers face a disappointment from Next, as the retailer is falling back on its terms and conditions small print which states it can cancel orders before they are dispatched for delivery.

After only a few hours Next spotted their mistake and quickly corrected the price. Yesterday the retailer said it planned on contacting all customers involved and explain that their orders would not be fulfilled.

The firm had been in talks with Trading Standards regarding the issue, and found they were well within their rights to ‘cancel the order at any time prior to dispatch’.

A spokesman for Next said: “For a few hours, one sofa option was shown wrongly priced on our transactional website and telephone ordering system. This was a genuine and unfortunate error, which we corrected as quickly as possible”.

He added: “We then discussed with our local Trading Standards offices how to deal with any orders that had been placed at the wrong price. According to our standard terms and conditions, we reserve the right to cancel an order at any time prior to dispatch”.

“We are contacting all customers involved, explaining that unfortunately we will not be able to fulfil their order. We are sorry for the inconvenience and disappointed caused”.

Next is not the first retailed to be affected by a price glitch, last year Currys was forced to apologise for listing a Samsung Galaxy Netbook for £22 instead of £229 on its website.

In October chocoholics snapped up thousands of boxes of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges from Tesco after an error in the pricing system, which meant the price was lowered to £1.75 for a pack of six instead of £16.50.

Hundreds of workers at booming Land Rover were called back from their Christmas and New Year holidays to help the vehicle maker keep up with demand.

Last week on Friday employees cut into their two-week break for a special festive season shift at the factory in Solihull, West Midlands, in advance of next week’s New Year resumption of work across the vehicle maker.

The staff were required as the company prepares to meet continuing demand for its Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Discovery and Defender model range.

The extra festive shift marked the end of a hugely impressive year at Lode Lane, where Jaguar Land Rover is creating up to 1,000 new jobs.

JLR spokesman Nick O’Donnell said: “The reason for opening up for one day is to cope with high demand. It is to ensure we make good progress on getting the cars finished and ready.

“It has been a very good sales performance this year for Land Rover. Everyone has been talking about the Evoque at Halewood and the awards it has won and the sales achieved but also, across the board at Solihull, there has been a very strong performance.

“We have seen strong growth in emerging markets such as China, Russia, India etc. In the year to the end of November, we have seen Range Rover up by 27.4 per cent, Range Rover Sport by 18.9 per cent, Discovery by 16.5 per cent and the Defender by 10.1 per cent.“

In the autumn JLR owners Tata announced hundreds of millions of pounds were being pumped into the Solihull factory ­ creating 1,000 jobs  to take the workforce to over 5,500.

The major jobs expansion followed the announcement of a two-year building programme at Lode Lane, with new and extended production facilities, warehousing, offices, a new fire station, data centre, internal roadworks and an upgraded entrance.

The Lode Lane expansion follows a sales boom over the last 18 months, with pre-tax profits of £287million in the three months to September 30. Quarterly sales revenues rose to £2.9billion, with export demand from China helping fuel growth.

Land Rover successes bring workers in during their holiday period

The Insolvency Service has released figures showing that more young people are turning to debt Relief Orders to protect themselves from creditors.

Disturbing research shows that a quarter of the 44,000 who have taken out orders since 2009 are aged 25-34

Una Farrell, of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, said: “These figures highlight the difficult financial situation many young adults are in. Many face a future of higher debts and fewer assets than older generations.”

The rising cost of university fees, legal loan sharks and the lack of job opportunities is thought to be driving many young people towards a debt mountain.

This is borne out by the number of 16 to 24 year olds out of work passing a million last month, the highest total on record.

The GMB Union have also released figures showing a decline in living standards.

Their figures show that 277 workers out of 322 have suffered a drop in living standards in the UK as the real value of earnings falls by 5.9%

There are 11 occupations where the fall has been more than 25%, 10 occupations where the fall has been between 20% – 25% and 16 occupations where the fall has been between 15% – 20%. Below are the lists of the 277 occupations that have seen falls in living standards set out in 5% bands.

These figures are from a new analysis by GMB of official earnings data for occupations. The figures are in addition to those for all 197 areas of the UK which were published earlier this week.