Pearson leads race for Wolters unit

Pearson, the publishing group, is understood to be the front-runner in the €700 million (£480 million) bidding battle for the education arm of Dutch publishing group Wolters Kluwer. Bidders including Wendel Investissement, the owner of French education publisher Editis, submitted second-round offers for the business yesterday. Bridgepoint Capital and Vestar Capital are also believed to have submitted offers, while Finnish media group SanomaWSOY is understood to be interested in parts of the business. (Siobhan Kennedy)

HRG shares rally

Shares in Home Retail Group (HRG) rallied by 3.79 per cent after the company beat market expectations on sales from its Homebase DIY business. Like-for-like revenues at Homebase rose by 9.9 per cent for the eight weeks to March 3, helped by demand for kitchens, bathrooms and garden furniture. Total sales, including new stores, rose 13.3 per cent. Turnover at Argos, HRG’s catalogue division, increased by 3 per cent. (Dearbáil Jordan)

Indago cashback

Indago Petroleum, the oil minnow run by Tim Eggar, the former Conservative energy minister, is handing £160 million back to shareholders after selling most of its assets in the Middle East to Emirates-based RAK Petroleum for £200 million. Indago shareholders will receive a special dividend of 60p per share next month. The company was floated on AIM two years ago and Mr Eggar said: “We are delighted with the cash value we are receiving.” (Steve Hawkes)

Stagecoach payout

Stagecoach will hand £700 million back to shareholders this June after strong trading that will see full-year results come in at the “upper end” of expectations. The cash return is almost double the £400 million promised before Christmas. Almost a quarter of the windfall will go straight into the pockets of Brian Souter, chief executive, and his sister, Ann Gloag. The two founded the firm in 1980 and still hold a near25 per cent stake. (Steve Hawkes)

Sainsbury's talks

Trustees to the J Sainsbury pension fund have hired Penfida Partners, a boutique firm of advisers, to help negotiate with potential bidders for the group. A consortium of private equity firms led by the CVC confirmed it had held preliminary talks with the supermarket about a possible £11 billion takeover. Sainsbury's prnsion trustees are likely to have a significant role in any talks as the pension fund is believed to have a deficit of up to £658 million. (Sarah Butler)

India's Reliance eyeing Carrefour

Carrefour, France's leading supermarket chain, could be a target for the Indian conglomerate Reliance. An official at the Bombay-based group said that it was in advanced talks either to take over Carrefour or to form an alliance.

This comes amid speculation that Carreforu's leading shareholder, the Halley family, wants to offload its 13 per cent stake, which is worth between €5 billion (£3.4 billion) and €5.5 billion. However, Carrefour denied that negotiations were taking place. The Halley family would not comment. (Adam Sage)

Citigroup rewards

Citigroup said that it awarded Charles Prince, chairman and chief executive, $25.98 million (£13.4 million) in remuneration for 2006, up about 13 per cent on a year earlier, though costs grew twice as fast as revenue. Mr Prince received $1 million in salary, a $13.2 million bonus, $10.6 million in stock awards, $746,607 in option awards and $395,779 in other benefits, the bank said. Citigroup’s operating profits last year rose 7 per cent to $21.25 billion. Revenue rose 7 per cent and operating costs rose 15 per cent. (Reuters)

Gambling rumour

The office of US congressman Barney Frank has confirmed that he is working on legislation to reverse last year’s ban on internet gambling. However, analysts cautioned that any attempt to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act could be stymied by lack of support. There were also rumours that charges may be dropped against John Lefebvre and Stephen Lawrence, the founders of Neteller, the online gambling payment processor. (Dominic Walsh)

GM turns in profit

General Motors made its first profit for two years in the final quarter of last year. The US carmaker, which is considering buying Chrysler, made a fourth-quarter profit of $950 million (£491 million) compared with a $6.6 billion loss in the same period of the previous year. Overall, the loss for 2006 reduced to $2 billion from $10.4 billion in 2005. Historic accounting errors meant that the publication of GM’s 2006 figures was delayed from January. (Christine Buckley)

Smurfit’s ambitions

Smurfit Kappa, the Irish packaging group, is returning to the stock market with ambitions to become the market leader in paper packaging, after raising €1.3 billion (£888 million) from investors. The group quit the lists in 2002 when Madison Dearborn, the private equity firm, bought Jefferson Smurfit, as it then was, for €3.4 billion. The company has debts of more than €4.5 billion (Carl Mortished)

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