New ad boss in frame

Ocean Outdoor, an operator of giant advertising billboards across the UK, has appointed the industry veteran Tom Goddard as chairman.

The company specialises in installing large-format adverts at high-profile locations including the Imax cinema in London, Liverpool’s St John’s shopping centre and George Square in Glasgow.

Goddard has spent many years in advertising, most recently as chief executive of the international arm of CBS Outdoor.

Hands ready for ports bid

Terra Firma, the buyout firm controlled by Guy Hands, is set to bid for PD Ports this week. Rival suitors include HgCapital, CVC, Carlyle and Star Capital. Babcock & Brown Infrastructure was forced to slash its asking price after steel giant Corus decided to mothball its Teesside plant, which accounts for a quarter of turnover. If bids do not surpass the firm’s £315m debt, Babcock could postpone the auction until conditions improve.

Veolia sale in pipeline

French water giant Veolia has put its UK arm up for sale to reduce its £17 billion debt pile.

The company has hired Morgan Stanley and HSBC to sell a 49% stake in Veolia UK, a water and waste management group that owns several businesses including Three Valleys Water and provides water to 3.3m people in the South East. It hopes to fetch about £400m for the holding.

Thames Water and infrastructure funds are expected to bid.

Willis faces Stanford suit

Texas lawyers representing Latin American customers of Allen Stanford are suing the UK insurance broker Willis Group, claiming that the broker gave its backing to Stanford’s alleged $7 billion (£4.3 billion) Ponzi scheme. The lawsuit, filed in Dallas by the legal firms Strasburger & Price and Castillo Snyder, claims that Willis “crossed the line from the role of insurance brokers to acting as sales agents for Stanford Financial”.

Dealhunter eyes Friends

Peter Dubens, the internet entrepreneur who made a fortune paying rock-bottom prices for websites such as Sportal and Sportinglife.com, left, has been shortlisted to buy Friends Reunited from ITV.

His Oakley Capital private equity arm is thought to be one of four bidders for the website, which Credit Suisse is trying to sell for the broadcaster.

Friends, acquired for £175m, may raise as little as £20m this time around after being overtaken in popularity by services such as Facebook. The Generations Network, a US owner of family tree websites, is also thought to be in the running. ITV, which is hunting for a new boss to replace Michael Grade, is also selling Freeview slots landlord SDN.

Dubens sold his sports websites, rebranded as 365 Media, to BSkyB for £96m in 2007.