Swiss co bids for Silverjet

Dubai, June 8: A Swiss investment company said on Sunday it had made an offer to buy and relaunch Britain's business class-only airline Silverjet which collapsed last month.

Ireland-registered Kingplace, which is managed by Swiss trust and management company Heritage, said it was making the offer on behalf of private clients.

"Kingplace can confirm that it has made an offer to (administrator) Begbies Tr-aynor and Lawrence Hunt, CEO Silverjet, with a view to purchasing Silverjet," Mr Ian Ilsely, director of Kingplace and chairman of Heritage, said in a statement.

"We are excited at the prospect of acquiring Silverjet and resuming operations as quickly as possible with the existing staff... We will be investing in the future development and su-ccess of the brand. We will make a further announcement in due course."

Silverjet was set up in early 2007 and flew 88,000 passengers in just over a year, operating services from London to New York and Dubai.

It became the third business class-only airline flying between London and New York to collapse after failing to get an emergency $5 million (£2.5 million) loan from Abu Dhabi-based investors.

Record fuel prices and worsening economic conditions in Britain and the US had buffeted the airline.

- Reuters

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Citi gets bid for MF unit

By Paritosh Bansal

New York

June 8: Citigroup Inc has received the first round of bids for Primerica Financial Services, its insurance and mutual fund sales unit, drawing interest from several life insurance and private equity companies, people familiar with the matter said.

With Primerica valued at about $7 billion, Citi is now trying to match various bidders into groups that could bid for the unit together, a source said on Friday.

Press reports have identified the unit as a candidate for sale as Citigroup tries to restore profitability after huge losses tied to flagging mortgage and credit markets, but the bank has never confirmed it was on the block.

Citi declined to comment.

A deal for the business, one of Sanford Weill's first acquisitions as he built the financial services empire that ultimately became Citigroup, could come by the end of this summer, the sources said. Mr Weill, who retired as Citi's chief executive in 2003 and is now the bank's chairman emeritus, bought Primerica in 1988 through his initial holding, a Baltimore-based consumer lender called Commercial Credit. - Reuters