Alliance Trust, Co-op, Suzuki: Business news in brief on Tuesday May 31

Alliance Trust share price rises on merger speculation; Co-op to sell crematoria for £43m; Suzuki blames lack of resources for using wrong mileage tests

The Co-operative Group is selling its crematoria to funeral services group Dignity and will plough the proceeds into improving its funeral homes business. (Getty)

Alliance Trust share price rises on merger speculation

The share price of Alliance Trust surged by 3.64 per cent when trading opened at the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday in response to a £5 billion merger proposal for the Dundee-based financial services group.

RIT Capital Partners, chaired by financier Jacob Rotschild, has expressed interest in combining both funds. A merger would take their managed assets to more than £5 billion.

Co-op to sell crematoria for £43m

The Co-op Group‘s Funeralcare division has agreed the sale of its five crematoria, as it continues to focus on its core funeral homes business.

The group will received £43 million for the five sites. All staff will transfer to the new owner, which has more than 725 funeral homes and 39 crematoria.

John Menzies to handle all Omani airports

John Menzies, UK baggage handler and newspaper distributor, will be forming a joint venture with Oman Air to provide ground services for all nine airports in Oman.

Edinburgh-based John Menzies said the venture, to be established in the last quarter of 2016, will employee around 2,500 people and handle more than 50,000 aircraft turnarounds per year.

“This venture represents real progress against our strategy by securing a hub location and by expanding in emerging markets,” Forsyth Black, Mensiez Aviation president said on Tuesday.

Suzuki blames lack of resources for using wrong mileage tests

Suzuki blamed a lack of resources for failing to use correct tests in Japan to calculate vehicle mileage.

The automaker reiterated its employees did not intend to manipulate fuel economy data for better readings. The company admitted this month that it performed indoor tests to acquire the resistance data that is needed to gauge fuel efficiency.

The testing issue affected 2.14 million vehicles, slightly more than the previously stated 2.10 million.