Meet the woman behind the €1.4bn Dalata buyout coup
Even Alf Smiddy, a senior independent director at Dalata up to 2021, and a critic of the proposed deal, saluted Pandox and its largest shareholder, Eiendomsspar, for the 'textbook execution' of a takeover bid. 'They played a blinder — confident, fast, savvy and strategic,' Smiddy posted on LinkedIn last week. He is dismayed, however, at the 'surrender of the Dalata board'.
Eiendomsspar, which owns 36 per cent of Stockholm-quoted Pandox, teed up the transaction. It built a stake in the owner of the Clayton and Maldron hotel brands in the wake of a capital markets day last October. Five months later, the board of Dalata announced a strategic review, including a formal sales process (FSP). 'That opened up the opportunity to Pandox,' Nõu says.
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Daily Mail
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John Swinney is accused of 'grandstanding' after holding private talks with top European official
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Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: 'John Swinney may enjoy meeting international leaders and grandstanding about issues outwith the SNP 's remit. 'But most Scots would prefer him to reduce taxes, put businesses on an equal footing with firms in other parts of the UK, and repair the damage his government has inflicted on essential services like our schools and NHS.' Mr Swinney met Ms von der Leyen on Saturday after she arrived in Scotland to hold talks about an EU/US trade deal with President Trump at his Turnberry resort in Ayrshire. Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet the President to discuss issues including a ceasefire in Gaza and the UK's trade deal with the US today at the same venue. Mr Swinney is also due to hold talks with the President during his four-night stay in Scotland. Labour peer Lord George Foulkes said Mr Swinney's discussions with Ms von der Leyen about reserved issues are a 'huge concern'. 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Reuters
an hour ago
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US, Europe strike trade deal averting tariff threats
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
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Von der Leyen, describing Trump as a tough negotiator, said the 15% tariff applied "across the board", later telling reporters it was "the best we could get." "We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability," she said. The deal, which Trump said calls for $750 billion of EU purchases of U.S. energy in coming years and "hundreds of billions of dollars" of arms purchases, likely spells good news for a host of EU companies, including Airbus, Mercedes-Benz and Novo Nordisk, if all the details hold. The baseline 15% tariff will still be seen by many in Europe as too high, compared with Europe's initial hopes to secure a zero-for-zero tariff deal, though it is better than the threatened 30% rate. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal, saying it averted a trade conflict that would have hit Germany's export-driven economy and its large auto sector hard. German carmakers, VW, Mercedes and BMW were some of the hardest hit by the 27.5% U.S. tariff on car and parts imports now in place. But Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who heads the European Parliament's trade committee, said the tariffs were imbalanced and the hefty EU investment earmarked for the U.S. would likely come at the bloc's own expense. The euro rose around 0.2% against the dollar, sterling and yen within an hour of the deal's being announced. The deal mirrors key parts of the framework accord reached by the U.S. with Japan last week, but like that deal, it leaves many questions open, including tariff rates on spirits, a highly charged topic for many on both sides of the Atlantic. Carsten Nickel, deputy director of research at Teneo, said it was "merely a high-level, political agreement" that could not replace a carefully hammered out trade deal: "This, in turn, creates the risk of different interpretations along the way, as seen immediately after the conclusion of the U.S.-Japan deal." "We are agreeing that the tariff ... for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%," Trump said, but he quickly added that a 50% U.S. tariff on steel and aluminum will remain in place. Von der Leyen said that tariff would be cut and replaced with a quota system. Von der Leyen said the rate also applied to semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, and there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. Trump appeared to suggest pharmaceuticals would not be covered, leaving some question about that aspect of the deal. No fact sheet was immediately issued by the White House. "We will keep working to add more products to this list," von der Leyen said, adding that spirits were still under discussion. Eric Winograd, chief economist at AllianceBernstein in New York, noted the similarity with Japan's U.S. deal. "We will need to see how long the sides stick to the deal. From a market perspective, it is reassuring in the sense that having a deal is better than not having a deal," he said. The deal will be sold as a triumph for Trump, who is seeking to reorder the global economy and reduce decades-old U.S. trade deficits, and has already reached similar framework accords with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has not hit its goal of "90 deals in 90 days." He has periodically railed against the European Union, saying it was "formed to screw the United States" on trade. Arriving in Scotland, Trump said the EU wanted "to make a deal very badly" and said, as he met von der Leyen, that Europe had been "very unfair to the United States". Trump has fumed for years about the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $235 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The EU points to the U.S. surplus in services, which it says partially redresses the balance. Now he argues, his tariffs are bringing in "hundreds of billions of dollars" of revenues for the U.S., while dismissing warnings from economists about the risk of inflation. On July 12, Trump threatened to apply a 30% tariff on imports from the EU starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the major U.S. trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. The EU had prepared countertariffs on 93 billion euros ($109 billion) of U.S. goods in the event there was no deal, and Trump made good his 30% tariff threat. Some member states had also pushed for the bloc to use its most powerful trade weapon, the anti-coercion instrument, to target U.S. services in the event of a no-deal.
