TAKEOVER BILL IS DOUBLE LAST YEAR'S ALREADY
The great bid boom that has been roaring away this year has already pushed the takeover bill up to more than twice the total for the whole of last year. So far, it has reached a massive £2,113 million - and that doesn't include the minibids and mopping up operations. If they are included the total would come out nearer the £2,200 million mark. Last year, the takeover tally topped the £1,000 million mark. Many of the biggest link-ups this year have been genuine mergers, like the £400 million British Motor Holdings-Leyland affair. But the biggest of them all was the three-way banking get-together between Barclays, Lloyds and Martins, involving a little matter of £580 million. The most active company in the takeover business has been the textile giant, Courtaulds headed by Sir Frank Kearton. Between January 1 and March 5, when the group had to submit to a ban on bids unless they were cleared by the Board of Trade, it took over no fewer than eight companies.
(From the EVENING STANDARD city column)
£152 MILLION "WAR PROFIT" FOR TANKER OWNERS
Tanker owners made a massive £365m. profit in the four months following - and because of - last year's Arab-Israel war, according to a study by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (O.P.E.C.).
The study was based on an examination of [illegible] and short-term charters in the four-month [illegible] June to September. While only approximate, admittedly from a partisan source, the first [illegible] indicate a repetition of the post-Suez situation [illegible]. The main beneficiaries then, as apparently last year, were oil companies with large fleets - [illegible] with its heavy dependence on Middle East [illegible] was probably an exception - and the big [illegible]. However, the fortunate owner of only one 60,000 ton tanker would stand to make [illegible], according to O.P.E.C.'s calculations, between £230,000 and £300,000 every trip [illegible] Gulf.
TAKE YOUR PICK! (our emphasis throughout)
...But afterwards they broke away, taking hundreds more with them, and headed along the Strand and Chancery Lane for the DAILY MIRROR building. [illegible]
(From DAILY MAIL, April 16)
[illegible] addressed his 1,000 followers outside the DAILY MIRROR yesterday.
(From DAILY MIRROR, April 16)
More than 2,000 students last night fought with police outside a London newspaper office.
(From DAILY SKETCH, April 16)
A force of 9,800 police yesterday held at bay a crowd of 1,000 demonstrating outside the Holborn offices of the Springer group of German newspapers.
(From DAILY TELEGRAPH, April 16)
West Berlin's student demonstrations spread to London today as more than 2,000 marched [illegible]
(ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT of April 15)
After joining the main rally in Trafalgar Square, Mr. Tariq Ali took his mob, now swollen to about [illegible], [illegible] the DAILY MIRROR building
(From SUN, April 16; this newspaper showed a photograph of the demonstration and described it being [illegible])
A crowd of about 1,000 advanced on the office[illegible]. Halted by the [illegible] surrounding the building [illegible]
(From THE TIMES, April 16)