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British conglomerate Lonrho Plc, whose roots go back more than a 100 years to colonial Africa, received a buyout offer valuing the company about 175 million pounds ($266 million), double its market value at the close on Tuesday. Lonrho said an investment vehicle controlled by Swiss billionaire Thomas Schmidheiny and Swiss investor Rainer-Marc Frey had offered 10.25 pence for each Lonrho share, a premium of 97.1 percent to Tuesday's closing price.   Lonrho's agribusiness, which accounts for about 60 percent of revenue, supplies fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish to retailers in Africa. The business also has a logistics unit and distributorship for John Deere agricultural equipment. "We believe Lonrho has strong long-term prospects, but the significant capital required to grow the business over time is evident," Schmidheiny said in a statement on Wednesday. The company's free cash flow has been negative since 2007, according to Thomson Reuters data and its

Commerzbank shares leapt as much as 17.6 percent on Wednesday as investors bought back stock sold in anticipation of a share placing by Germany's bank bailout fund, which was completed earlier in the day. Hedge funds have bet heavily on a fall in the German lender's shares in recent weeks, partly also in anticipation of a planned capital increase. Roughly 12 percent of the shares have been used for such bets, according to data provider Markit. Having slumped from a high of almost 13 euros in January, the stock has bounced back strongly from a low of 6.96 euros on Tuesday. At 1055 GMT, the shares were up 14.1 percent at 7.94 euros, the biggest rise by a European blue-chip stock. "That is crazy. I have no other explanation for it than short covering", a trader said. Volumes in early trading of Commerzbank shares made up about 60 percent of all trade in German bluechip companies. Earlier on Wednesday, German bank rescue fund Soffin sold a 15 percent stake in Comme

Upbeat corporate earnings helped nudge Britain's top shares into positive territory on Wednesday, with low-cost airline easyJet leading the way after a robust update. The UK benchmark was up 13.41 points, or 0.2 percent, at 6,699.47 by 1101 GMT, pushing up to fresh 5-1/2 year highs. Easyjet and exchange operator London Stock Exchange topped the FTSE 100 leader board after estimate-beating updates, notching up respective gains of 6.6 percent and 4.9 percent. Traders said the positive earnings newsflow was very much the focus on a day otherwise marked by gloomy economic data from the euro zone where Germany's economy grew less than expected in the first quarter and France entered a shallow recession.   "The GDP backdrop is largely being ignored... given the fact that we're seeing continually strong corporate numbers," Matt Basi, sales trader at CMC Markets, said. "I think this has been the case now for probably six to nine months that the macro pictur

JANA Partners, a leading activist hedge fund firm run by Barry Rosenstein, has taken a liking to two of the most beaten-up technology stocks. JANA, which oversees more than $4 billion in U.S. stock holdings, disclosed stakes of 24.6 million Zynga Inc class A shares and 21.9 million Groupon Inc class A shares in regulatory filings on Wednesday.   The positions represent just over 3 percent of the companies' outstanding shares. The Groupon stake was worth $134 million as of the end of March, while the Zynga holding was valued at $86 million, according to the filings. Zynga shares rose 1.6 percent to $3.39 in afternoon trading, after gaining more than 7 percent earlier in the day. Groupon edged up 1.2 percent to $6.97, after achieving a nine-month high of $7.38 earlier on Wednesday. Groupon, the world's largest daily deal company, and Zynga, a leading social game developer, went public in 2011 at lofty valuations, but their share prices have slumped since then amid concern

Solid corporate earnings helped push Britain's top share index to a fresh 5-1/2 year closing high on Wednesday, led by low-cost airline easyJet after a robust update. The UK benchmark ended up 7.49 points, or 0.1 percent, at 6,693.55, its highest close since October 2007. Easyjet and exchange operator London Stock Exchange were bolstered by estimate-beating updates, notching up respective gains of 8.3 percent and 5.3 percent. Traders said the positive earnings news was very much the focus on a day otherwise marked by gloomy economic data from the euro zone , which contracted in the first quarter. Technical analysts remained bullish on the index, which has just recorded its tenth consecutive day of gains.   "You can't fight the trend," said Lynnden Branigan, technical analyst at Barclays Capital, who has 6,754, the 2007 peak, as an initial target. The FTSE has risen 7.5 percent in the past month as pledges of continued monetary stimulus from global central ba

Cantab Capital Partners is to close a retail investor-friendly version of its flagship hedge fund because of new European guidelines regulating investment in commodities, underlining the growing difficulty firms face in trading metals, grains and oil. Cantab, which manages $5.5 billion in assets, said it is closing its CCP Quantitative UCITS Fund at the end of June in response to guidelines from Europe's financial watchdog that make it tougher for "UCITS" funds to invest in commodity indexes.   A UCITS (Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) wrapper acts as a 'passport' enabling firms to freely sell regulated investment funds across the European Union to all types of investors, including retail. Computer-driven funds such as Cantab are among the biggest players in commodity markets - last year it bought three seats at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to cut its cost of trading. Like rivals, it launched a UCITS-compliant fund to off

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has added to its investment position in Apple and is waiting for the company's "next blockbuster product," Einhorn said on Tuesday. In a conference call for his Cayman Islands-based reinsurer Greenlight Capital Re Ltd ( id="symbol_GLRE.O_0"> GLRE.O ), Einhorn did not specify when the hedge fund added to its Apple position or the size of its current holdings.   At the end of 2012, the $8.8 billion Greenlight Capital held 1.3 million Apple shares, according to a regulatory filing. At the market close on Monday, the shares were worth about $600 million. Einhorn, one of the $2 trillion hedge fund industry's most closely watched investors, had been pushing Apple ( id="symbol_AAPL.O_1"> AAPL.O ) to return some of its massive cash pile to investors. He said Apple's roughly 17 percent stock price decline in the first quarter led to the biggest loss in the Greenlight investment portfolio in the period.

Britain's top fraud prosecutor is likely to face serious criticism over its handling of an investigation into the $600 million collapse of one of London's oldest hedge funds, a judge said on Tuesday. Already smarting from a 300 million pound damages claim after a botched investigation into the Tchenguiz property moguls, the office is under pressure from politicians who say it has not done enough to bring bankers and other financial industry figures to book since the 2008 crisis. Judge Alistair McCreath set a provisional date for the criminal trial of Magnus Peterson, the founder of Weavering Capital, for October 2014 and a provisional date for an abuse of process hearing for November 8 this year. He said the office was likely to face "quite serious criticism" in the trial.   The SFO in 2011 suspended its 2-1/2 year investigation into Weavering before a civil case awarded $450 million in damages against Peterson and three other directors. The Office later reopen

Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson is emerging as one of the biggest losers in this year's gold rout, further tarnishing his once legendary status in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry. Paulson's $700 million gold fund lost a whopping 27 percent in April, when the price of the metal plunged 17 percent over a two-week stretch, according to performance figures provided by a person familiar with the fund. The jarring one-month decline in the Paulson gold fund brings the year-to-date loss for the fund to about 47 percent, the source said. The fund's losses were magnified by the fact that its bullish bet on gold is effectively a leveraged bet that uses derivatives tied to the price of gold to enhance returns.   The majority of the money invested in the Paulson gold fund is believed to be the billionaire's own. Paulson rose to fame after he made $15 billion for his firm in 2007 by betting against subprime mortgages before the housing collapse. Since then, however, he

In the past two decades, a group of specialized hedge funds have transformed corporate bankruptcies, injecting much-needed capital while at the same time drawing fire as "vultures." Now these same funds may be poised to descend on another landscape: struggling cities and counties - and no place beckons more than Detroit.   This sudden interest in the staid world of municipal debt comes as these so-called distressed funds are looking for new places to put their money. Lucrative corporate bankruptcies have dried up, thanks in part to the Federal Reserve's policy of low interest rates. Of course, these hedge funds may be deterred by the financial and political constraints of local governments, which must pay police and collect trash and cannot be forced into liquidation. But despite the risks, some are already betting hundreds of millions of dollars that there are big returns in cash-strapped governments. Monarch Alternative Capital, which played a major role in the

David Einhorn, one of the most closely followed managers in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry, had some blunt advice on Wednesday for his fellow investors: Do your own homework. Einhorn, this year's star attraction at the Sohn Investment Conference, an annual confab where the industry's top investors share their favorite trade ideas, wrapped up his presentation by offering some words of warning about his public comments.   "It doesn't make sense to blindly follow me or anyone else into a stock," said Einhorn, president and co-founder of the $8.8 billion hedge fund Greenlight Capital. "Do your own work." He may have been talking to the converted. Einhorn's limited impact on Apple Inc APPL.O shares after he implored the technology giant earlier this year to better use its cashpile has been noted by industry analysts. A cover piece in March by Bloomberg Businessweek, "When David Einhorn Talks, Markets Listen -- Usually," highlighted th

Billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman listed some of his favorite stocks on Thursday and said the biggest winner of all might be mobile banking company Monitise. _0"> "That's a five bagger," Cooperman, who runs Omega Advisors, said about Monitise ( id="symbol_MONI.L_0"> MONI.L ) at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference on Thursday. "That's the one I would pick to win a contest with," he said on a panel that discussed fund manager's best ideas.   Cooperman also said he likes Express Scripts Holding Co ( id="symbol_ESRX.O_1"> ESRX.O ) Qualcomm Inc ( id="symbol_QCOM.O QCOM.O ) Citigroup Inc ( id="symbol_C.N C.N ), Metlife Inc ( id="symbol_MET.N MET.N ) and American International Group Inc ( id="symbol_AIG.N AIG.N ). AIG recently replaced Apple as the hedge fund industry's favorite stock, according to a report from Goldman Sachs. _2"> Cooperman's roughly $7 billion Omega Advi

One-time star money manager Philip Falcone will be barred from starting another hedge fund for two years as he winds down his existing fund and returns money to investors, under a preliminary deal with securities regulators to settle fraud and other charges that was made public on Thursday. The agreement by Falcone and his hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, to settle two lawsuits brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was disclosed in a filing by Harbinger Group Inc ( id="symbol_HRG.N_0"> HRG.N ), the publicly traded investment company of which Falcone is chairman and chief executive. The settlement would also include the payment of $18 million.   While the dollar amount involved in the preliminary settlement is relatively small, the ban on new fundraising means Falcone will have to continue winding down his hedge fund. It would, however, would permit Falcone to remain CEO of Harbinger Group, which has been acquiring stakes in insurance-related b

Billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb says Sony Corp reminds him of Yahoo before he waged a bitter proxy fight that triggered a boardroom shake-out at the Internet company last year. Loeb's Third Point hedge fund has built up a $1.1 billion stake in Sony ( id="symbol_6758.T_0"> 6758.T ), making it the Japanese group's biggest shareholder, and Loeb said on Tuesday he was pushing Sony to sell up to a fifth of its profitable music and movie business in a move he says would help turn around its struggling electronics business.   "I rely a lot on my experience and pattern recognition. The Sony situation reminded me a lot of Yahoo ( id="symbol_YHOO.O_1"> YHOO.O )," Loeb said in an interview with Reuters in Tokyo on Wednesday. In the case of Yahoo, Loeb began pushing the company in 2011 to go back to basics to compete against the likes of Google Inc ( id="symbol_GOOG.O_2"> GOOG.O ) and Facebook Inc ( id="symbol_FB.O_3&qu

Shares in clothing retailer Esprit Holdings Ltd ( id="symbol_0330.HK_0"> 0330.HK ) were set to open down 6.6 percent on Wednesday after it warned of a substantial second-half loss due to soaring costs related to store closures and acquisitions in China . _0"> The Europe-focused clothing and accessories retailer said after the market closed on Tuesday that it would record a goodwill impairment of between HK$1.8 billion to HK$2 billion related to the acquisition of the remaining interests of associated companies in China. The company also said it would close around 16 loss-making stores, incurring an estimated cost of HK$250 million to HK$300 million. Shares of Esprit, which sells everything from bed sheets to jeans, were set to open down HK$0.72 at HK$10.18, lagging a 0.7 percent gain on the blue chip Hang Seng Index .HSI .   (Reporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)

Memory drive maker Fusion-io Inc said founders David Flynn, the chief executive, and Rick White, chief marketing officer, have resigned, sending the company's shares down 27 percent to their lowest ever. _0"> Director Shane Robison will succeed Flynn effective immediately, the company said in a statement. Fusion-io said its founders quit to pursue "entrepreneurial investing activities," but did not specify what these were. The company said that the departures were not related to any issues regarding its financial statements or accounting policies and practices. "While management indicated that the move has nothing to do with its accounting, the timing of the transition could raise some red flags as it could point to some disagreement over investment decisions or strategic direction of the company," Mizuho Securities analyst Abhey Lamba said in a research note.   Flynn and White will both serve as advisers to the company and remain on the board fo

Tim Hortons Inc ( id="symbol_THI.TO_0"> THI.TO ) named a long-time Nestle executive as its new chief on Wednesday, a job that will be no easy task given drooping demand at the Canadian coffee and doughnut chain and a push by a U.S. hedge fund for better returns. Shares of Tim Hortons, which boasts that it sells eight of every 10 cups of coffee sold in Canada, fell more than 2.5 percent after the company posted its first decline in established store sales since its 2006 initial public offering.   The company, under pressure from hedge fund Highfields Capital to boost shareholder returns, said it is considering the Boston-based fund's key demands. But any change will await its new CEO, Nestle ( id="symbol_NESN.VX_1"> NESN.VX ) veteran Marc Caira, a 59-year-old Canadian. Highfields wants the chain to take on new debt to buy back shares and believes that Tim Hortons' U.S. returns do not justify further investment there. It also wants the company to

Energy drinks maker Monster Beverage Corp's ( id="symbol_MNST.O_0"> MNST.O ) sales missed analysts' estimates as the industry took a hit from concerns over the health risks of such drinks, sending its shares down 16 percent after the bell. _0"> Energy drinks have come under review for their caffeine levels, which opponents argue, could lead to serious cardiac and other health problems. The U.S. FDA is investigating reports of five deaths that may be associated with Monster's energy drink. "The softness in the energy drinks market ... continued through the first quarter of 2013, we believe partially due to the ongoing negative publicity that continues to appear in the media questioning the safety of energy drinks," Chief Executive Rodney Sacks said on a conference call with analysts. Sales at Monster, which has posted double-digit quarterly sales growth over the past two years, rose 7 percent to $484.2 million in the first quarter. Analy

Tim Hortons Inc ( id="symbol_THI.TO_0"> THI.TO ) named a long-time Nestle executive as its new chief on Wednesday, a job that will be no easy task given drooping demand at the Canadian coffee and doughnut chain and a push by a U.S. hedge fund for better returns. Shares of Tim Hortons, which boasts that it sells eight of every 10 cups of coffee sold in Canada, fell more than 2.5 percent after the company posted its first decline in established store sales since its 2006 initial public offering. The company, under pressure from hedge fund Highfields Capital to boost shareholder returns, said it is considering the Boston-based fund's key demands. But any change will await its new CEO, Nestle ( id="symbol_NESN.VX_1"> NESN.VX ) veteran Marc Caira, a 59-year-old Canadian. Highfields wants the chain to take on new debt to buy back shares and believes that Tim Hortons' U.S. returns do not justify further investment there. It also wants the company to en

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc ( id="symbol_GMCR.O_0"> GMCR.O ), maker of Keurig single-serve brewers and K-Cups, raised its full-year earnings outlook on Wednesday after a better-than-expected second quarter and said it had expanded its relationship with Starbucks Corp ( id="symbol_SBUX.O SBUX.O ), sending its shares up almost 16 percent after hours. _1"> The new 5-year agreement, which replaces one first signed in 2011, triples the number of Starbucks drinks to be sold in K-Cups with the addition of Seattle's Best and Torrefazione Italia coffees, Teavana teas and Starbucks cocoa. It also ends speculation that Starbucks might walk away from their partnership following the expiration of certain Green Mountain patents and the launch of Starbucks' own single-serve brewer of espresso drinks. "Starbucks is the largest coffee brand out there. Them coming and saying 'we want a long-term deal with you' is a very good thing for our syst

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, aided by growth at its cable networks, and said it is on track to split off its slow-growing publishing business by the end of June. Its revenue rose 14 percent from a year earlier to $9.5 billion in the quarter, ended March 31, News Corp said on Wednesday. The company posted adjusted earnings of 36 cents per share, just beating the 35 cents expected on average by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.   News Corp shares rose 3.6 percent to $33.00 in after-hours trading, after closing at $31.86 on the Nasdaq . One-time items, including the purchase of a controlling stake in German pay TV operator Sky Deutschland and the sale of an ownership stake in New Zealand's Sky Network Television, helped lift net income to $2.85 billion, a jump from $937 million a year earlier. The New York-based company said it is on track to separate its cable channels, movie studio and other fast