The Business Matrix: Monday 30 April 2012

Dubai watertight on Atlantis now

Dubai now has full control of the Atlantis resort hotel perched atop its palm-shaped island. State-run investment firm Istithmar World has paid $250m (£154m) to buy out financially troubled business partner Kerzner International Holdings Ltd., which had held a 50 percent stake in the coral-colored hotel. Istithmar already owned half of the property. Kerzner will continue to operate the resort, which includes a water park and 18 restrautants, Istithmar said.

Terra Firma nears Four Seasons buy

Terra Firma Capital, the private equity firm that was founded by financier and investor Guy Hands, is close to a deal to buy UK care homes operator Four Seasons Health Care. The firm may pay up to £820m for control of the group, with a formal announcement expected today. The deal would be Terra's biggest since it lost control of EMI, the music publisher, last year. Four Seasons looks after about 25,000 people in 500 nursing homes inthe UK.

Independent on Sunday

Clinton Cards is battling to safeguard its future after attempts to sell the company failed. The group, which has 628 stores, is considering an insolvency procedure to jettison shops in an effort to turn around its dire performance.

The Sunday Times

The EC may this week accuse Google of abusing its dominant position in the internet search sector. The US could step up its own investigation into Google. If it loses the European case, the company could be fined up to 10% of its annual revenue.

The Mail on Sunday

Rupert Murdoch and his son James would get multi-million-dollar bonus payments should they be ousted from News Corp. Documents filed in New York show that the pair could get a combined deal worth £29 million should the company decide it wants them to leave.

The Sunday Telegraph

NBNK has held talks with Middle Eastern wealth funds with a view to boosting it bid for the 632 bank branches that Lloyds Group is trying to sell. It comes days after Lloyds ended talks with the Co-op group over the sale of the branches, expected to fetch £2bn.

Aberdeen reveals asset growth

Aberdeen Asset Management will be hoping its recent strong run can continue after releasing its interim results today. Singer Capital Markets is expecting the fund manager to reveal its assets under management total £185bn, with net outflows for the period of £1bn the result of a recent significant improvement.

BP faces first quarter profit fall

BP will be in the spotlight tomorrow when the energy giant announces its results for the first-quarter. Analysts from Oriel Securities are expecting an adjusted net income of $5.2bn, which would be a 6 per cent year-on-year drop, but production volumes should be the same as the previous three months.

Broadband boost for BSkyB

Much of the attention around BSkyB has been on the Murdochs' appearance in front of the Levenson Inquiry. Deutsche Bank, however, thinks this has been "wrongly obscuring continuing strong operational performance" of the satellite broadcaster, whose third-quarter figures appear on Wednesday.

RBS investment bank in spotlight

The bank's reporting season continues on Friday with Royal Bank of Scotland. Shore Capital's Gary Greenwood believes the progress of the company's overhaul of its investment banking business will be of interest, while the analyst expects the news from its commercial and retail operations to be "steady".