At this stage, I have to confess one of my muckers in the national press called me a couple of weeks ago to ask me if I thought the dollar’s meteoric climb against sterling would undermine the deal. “I haven’t got a clue,” was my response. “I thought it was an all-share transaction.”
Still, it seems that respective valuation issues have again scuppered any imminent hope of a deal. You have to laugh – after all, both brokers are meant to be experts in derivatives, which, as far as I recall, are extremely useful tools to hedge financial exposure.