Eurozone Agrees To Extend Greek Bailout

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to extend Greece's rescue loans - although not by as long as the government wanted.

The deal, which will enable Athens to continue paying its bills, was reached at talks in Brussels which were delayed for four hours as ministers worked on a draft accord.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone's top official and the Dutch finance minister, said Athens had asked for a six-month extension but this was rejected.

"Four months is the appropriate delay in terms of financing and future challenges," he said.

The agreement was clinched just a week before Greece's €240bn (£178bn) bailout expires, leaving just enough time for some member country parliaments to endorse it.

Video: Greek Rescue Package Explained

As part of the deal Greece must provide a list of economic and other reforms based on the current bailout programme by Monday.

This will be reviewed on Tuesday by the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission.

If the three institutions do not believe the proposals go far enough, the list will be revised with a view to it being agreed by the end of April.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the deal would mark a new era for Athens and its relations with the European Union.

Video: Osborne Urges Eurozone Deal

"Today was a pivotal moment because Greece for five years now has been lonely, isolated in the Eurogroup. Today that isolation has broken," Mr Varoufakis said.

He said Greece had not used any threats or bluff to get the agreement and added it was a small step in a new direction for the country.

Markets reacted positively to the deal, with the Dow and S&P 500 surging to fresh records on Wall Street.

Mr Dijsselbloem said it was a "first step in this process of rebuilding trust" between Greece and its euro partners and allows for a strategy to get the country "back on track."

Video: Greece: Everything You Need To Know

"Trust leaves quicker than it comes," he said.

Mr Dijsselbloem worked flat out on Friday to secure an agreement as Germany insisted Greece stick with the austerity commitments included in its bailout programme.

The fraught discussions focused on a new package of concessions beyond those contained in the formal request for a loan extension submitted on Thursday.

Greece has ruled out another bailout like the existing one, saying the people who swept the anti-austerity Syriza party to power last month would not tolerate it.

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1. Gallery: Art War On The Streets Of Athens

   Athens has become a Mecca for street artists as anger grows over the impact of Greece's bailout deal with Europe

Wall paintings have sprung up all over the city reflecting the general frustration at rising unemployment and falling living standards

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New Look Fashions Plans For £2bn Flotation

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The high street fashion retailer New Look has recruited bankers to work on a stock market listing that could value it at as much as £2bn.

Sky News has learnt that the company this week appointed JP Morgan, the Wall Street investment bank, to work on options for a flotation.

The hiring will fuel expectations that New Look's owners are actively preparing to take it public five years after it aborted an identical move amid challenging markets.

JP Morgan is working alongside Goldman Sachs, which is working with New Look to identify other potential investors for the company.

The chain, which trades from more than 800 stores in 21 countries around the world, is the UK's second-biggest women's value clothing and accessories retailer, according to Kantar Worldpanel, a research firm.

New Look has been owned since 2004 by Apax and Permira, two private equity firms, along with Tom Singh, its founder.

According to third-quarter financial results released last week, New Look saw like-for-like sales in the UK declined by 1%, a dip that it attributed to unseasonably warm weather.

The company is continuing to expand internationally, as well as attempting to grow its menswear business.

It now has nearly 20 shops in China although it retreated from Russia and Ukraine because of continuing instability in the two countries.

Anders Kristiansen, its chief executive, described New Look's trading performance as "robust...against a challenging backdrop".

"It was a record online sales performance over the Christmas period with all channels well-prepared for peaks in demand around Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day, whilst our high street presence came into its own as we handled a surge in demand for our Click & Collect and Order in Store offerings," he said.

Mr Kristiansen said last week that New Look was a company "ready to float" although he added that a decision to do so rested with the chain's owners.

New Look's examination of a stock market listing makes it one of several well-known companies looking at such a move.

Sky News revealed earlier this week that Center Parcs had hired bankers to work on a flotation which would value it at about £2.5bn.

New Look declined to comment.

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Three UK Banks To Award £2.5bn-Plus Bonus Pot

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Three of Britain's biggest banks are finalising plans to pay out a combined bonus pot worth more than £2.5bn just weeks before the General Election campaign gets underway.

Sky News has learned that Barclays and two taxpayer-backed lenders - Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - will separately announce approximately £2.8bn in new awards alongside their annual results during the next 12 days.

The bonus pool at each bank will be lower for 2014 than in the previous year despite the fact that City analysts expect them all to report stronger financial performances for the last 12 months.

Collectively, bonuses at the three banks will be roughly 15% lower than the equivalent numbers for 2013.

Barclays, which is independent of the taxpayer and has by far the largest investment bank of the three institutions, will say that bonuses fell from almost £2.4bn in 2013 to below £2bn last year, according to an insider.

The fall will come amid a retrenchment at Barclays' investment bank, with thousands of jobs being shed under a revamped strategy announced last year by Antony Jenkins, the chief executive.

Analysts are forecasting an uptick in annual profits at Barclays, which is due to report its results on March 2.

The news on pay will mark a contrast with last year's situation at the lender, which provoked a row with some leading shareholders by increasing bonuses despite a fall in profits.

Sir David Walker, Barclays' outgoing chairman, has signalled during recent discussions with investors that a rebalancing of distributions through dividends and bonuses was expected to continue in its 2014 results announcement.

Barclays has also set aside £500m to pay fines related to control failings in its foreign exchange operations, although it has yet to reach a formal settlement with any regulators.

One investor said that if confirmed, the recalibration of profits and bonuses would be "warmly welcomed" by institutional shareholders.

Lloyds and RBS will collectively pay out approximately £875m in bonuses for 2014, sources said on Thursday, compared to an equivalent figure of roughly £975m a year earlier.

Both banks, which report results towards the end of next week, are continuing negotiations over their bonus plans with UK Financial Investments (UKFI), whose directors discussed the issue at a board meeting on Wednesday.

One source close to RBS said its bonus figure was "hovering" around the £500m mark amid ongoing talks about the extent to which hundreds of millions of pounds in fines and mis-selling compensation payments should be reflected in rewards for staff.

Lloyds, meanwhile, will announce that it is paying out in the region of £375m, lower than last year's £395m, despite the fact that it hopes to announce the payment of its first shareholder dividend since the financial crisis.

Lloyds was fined more than £215m last year for its role in the global Libor rate-rigging scandal, and the punishment will be explicitly reflected in last year's bonus payouts, a source said.

Both the Lloyds and RBS bonus numbers remain subject to revision and possible influence from the Treasury, a Whitehall source said.

Despite the fact that the bonus pools across the major banks will be lower than the previous year, they could ignite a renewed political row, with Labour expected to criticise the payments.

Banking sources pointed out that the "vast majority" of the bonuses awarded for 2014 would be subject to long-term deferral and paid in shares rather than cash.

Sky News revealed on Wednesday that the two taxpayer-backed banks would be subject to a £2000 cap on cash bonuses for a sixth consecutive year.

Reforms introduced by the European Banking Authority mean that variable pay is now capped at 100% of salaries, or twice that sum if shareholders have explicitly approved the move.

While Lloyds secured permission last year to pay bonuses at the higher threshold, RBS fought an unsuccessful private battle with the Treasury which culminated with it only being able to pay out bonuses equivalent to an employee's salary.

Almost all major banks operating in Europe have introduced so-called allowances to contend with the European cap.

These count towards fixed pay but can be adjusted on an annual or in some more cases more frequent basis, leading to a review by the EBA which may announce further restrictions on their payment in the coming weeks.

Since being bailed out by taxpayers in 2009, RBS has paid out close to £6.5bn in bonuses to staff, according to research by Sky News.

RBS remains 80%-owned by taxpayers, with little prospect of a sale at a level that would reap a profit for the Treasury.

Lloyds, which has historically had a much smaller investment banking operation than RBS, has paid out an estimated £2bn in bonuses during the same period.

The bank is 24.9%-owned by UK taxpayers.

Barclays, Lloyds, RBS and UKFI all declined to comment.

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Tough Talks On Greek Debt As D-Day Looms

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

These could well prove the most important few days in the euro's existence.

In the corridors and meeting rooms of the Justus Lipsus building in Brussels, Greece and its euro counterparts have been charged with discussing how to keep the struggling nation in the single currency.

Their chances of success seem to be flagging.

Quite how we got here is a complicated story - it involves political and economic mistakes, financial jiggery-pokery, many decades of historical animosity and some big personality clashes.

Uncertainty continues over the Greek debt negotiations

Let's leave that aside for a moment and recall where we stand today.

Briefly: Greece is in dire need of money. The state has a series of debts to repay in March, some to the International Monetary Fund, some to the European Central Bank. 

Video: 'Confusion And Noise Over Greece'

It can't easily raise cash in the open markets (would you really want to lend to Athens right now?) so it will have to find that money elsewhere.

That means borrowing it from its eurozone colleagues. Greece is of course still receiving bailout support from the so-called Troika lenders (the European Commission, ECB and IMF), so the most straightforward thing would be to extend the existing bailout and withdraw some extra cash from it (there's about €7bn of it left, which would be very helpful right now).

However, extending the bailout would also mean extending the conditions attached to it - austerity, privatisations, labour market and pension reforms.

Syriza, the party which leads the new Greek government, adamantly set itself against that in its election campaign. It also said it would refuse to co-operate with the Troika in future.

That leaves it in a sticky place. Its finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has spent most of the past few weeks attempting to persuade his European counterparts to lend Greece some cash, but to do it as a "bridging loan" rather than as an extension of the "current programme".

That might seem like a mere terminological distinction - and in one sense it is. But underlying the terminology are real differences.

Signing up to the "current programme" again would mean obeying those hated conditions. A "bridging loan" of some sort, on the other hand, could have some discrete conditions of its own. Though some of these might be uncomfortable, they would at least be of Greece's new government's own making.

Video: Greeks Hope For Bailout Solution

The problem is that Greece's creditors are reluctant to let the country off all those conditions they set when lending them money.

For one thing, Greece has already been forgiven a chunk of its debts in 2012; the interest rates and maturities of its debts have been stretched out way into the future, making them cheaper to service.

For another, those conditions were not merely there as punishment - they were there to make the economy more healthy in the future.

Raising retirement ages, removing archaic protections on employees, privatising nationalised industries - those are precisely the kinds of Thatcherite reforms many other countries had to go through long ago, and are reaping the rewards of today.

Then there's the politics: German voters are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the idea of funding a poor creditor elsewhere whose own people seem to hate them.

The Spanish government is desperate that Syriza doesn't succeed, for fear of encouraging its people to vote for their own upstart leftist anti-austerity rival party, Podemos. The Irish would be furious if a country was given special treatment they were denied.

These countervailing forces mean getting an agreement, either today or this weekend or in the coming months, will be very difficult. And, as if things couldn't already be more difficult, the process has also been waylaid by some personal histrionics.

Video: Greek Bailout: The Key Numbers

The Greek negotiators have been unpredictable in the extreme - openly leaking bundles of documents, flagrantly disregarding the long-established rules of negotiations and publicly criticising their counterparts.

"These people are crazy," said one eurocrat when the talks broke down the last time, on Monday night. "They're totally crazy."

One can only assume yet more craziness to come in the next hours and days. The latest developments, on Thursday, included a letter from the Greek authorities which seemed to offer massive compromises on its position - including an extension of the bailout in some guise, and Troika supervision.

That was then dismissed abruptly by the Germans, who derided it as a "Trojan horse" gambit.

All of which threatens to make today's negotiations particularly awkward.

Meanwhile, hanging over all of this is the question of whether Greece will have money to pay its bills next month, whether it defaults, and, ultimately, whether it can stay in the euro.

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ECB Extends Funding For Greek Banks - Reports

The European Central Bank has decided to increase its emergency funding to Greek commercial banks, it has been reported.

"The increase has been approved," a bank source, who declined to be identified, told the AFP agency.

The source added the ceiling for emergency liquidity assistance - or ELA - to the banks had been raised from €65bn to €68.3bn.

An anti-austerity protest against the previous government

According to the source, the Greek central bank had requested an extension of roughly €  10bn, although other sources put the figure at half that.

The move comes a day before Athens is expected to request a six-month extension on a European loan agreement without any strings attached.

Video: Greek Bailout: The Key Numbers

On Monday, it rejected a plan to extend its current     €2 40bn (£178bn) bailout deal, describing it as absurd.

The deal which came with more than 400 austerity measures - including shrinking pensions and lowering the minimum wage - expires in 10 days.

There are fears if a new deal is not agreed in principle this week, Greece could have difficulty servicing its debts.

Video: How Would World React To Grexit?

That could lead to more capital being pulled out of Greek banks and a so-called messy default, which could see a return to the drachma.

Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said its request for a loan extension will be worded in such a way as to be acceptable to all parties.

He said it "will be written in a way that covers both the Greek side and the president of the Eurogroup," referring to Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

Video: Greeks Hope For Bailout Solution

Mr Varoufakis said he was hopeful of a positive outcome by the end of the week.

Earlier, the Greek parliament elected veteran politician Prokopis Pavlopoulos as the country's new president.

The 64-year-old's election ends an impasse over the choice of president that triggered early general elections last month.

Video: Osborne Fears Greek 'Chaos'

The latest developments come after a government source accused Germany of "arrogance" in its approach to the debt negotiations.

It followed German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissing talk of a loan extension as unacceptable.

He told broadcaster ZDF: "It's not about extending a credit programme but about whether this bailout programme will be fulfilled, yes or no."

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Childcare Costs Can Mean 'It Doesn't Pay To Work'

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

The cost of childcare is rising so quickly that for many families "it simply does not pay to work", a report has concluded.

The price of a part-time nursery place for a child under two has gone up by almost a third in the last five years with parents now being forced to pay more than £6,000 a year.

The annual survey, carried out by the Family and Childcare Trust, found that on average in England, Scotland and Wales sending a child to nursery for 25 hours a week costs £115.45.

That is 5.1% more than last year and 32.8% more than in 2010.

Parents who employ child minders are also paying more. The average cost of £104.06 per week is up 4.3% on last year.

Video: Childcare Costs May Have To Rise

"The reality is that for too many families it simply does not pay to work," the report said.

At Kidz R Us day nursery in Salford, Greater Manchester, parents told Sky News that paying for childcare takes up a significant portion of their income.

Mother-of-three Jennifer Lee said: "I'm a full time teacher and my partner's a fireman. You'd expect with two decent salaries to be able to cope financially, but it is difficult."

Amy Cooke said more than half her salary goes on paying for part-time childcare for her 15-month-old daughter Lilah.

If she has any more children or if nursery prices rise further she may have leave her job.

"I'd probably have to give up work and do it that way because my entire wage would go on childcare, so it wouldn't be worth it."

Stephen Dunmore, chief executive of the Family and Childcare Trust, has welcomed Government investment in childcare but says more needs to be done.

Video: More Kids To Get Free Childcare

"In spite of several positive initiatives, including more funding for free early education, the childcare system in Britain needs radical reform," he said.

"In the run-up to the General Election this May we want to see all political parties commit to an independent review of childcare. Britain needs a simple system that promotes quality, supports parents and delivers for children."

The issue of childcare costs is likely to feature highly in the coming months, with politicians keen to use today's report to score political points.

Labour's shadow minister for childcare and children, Alison McGovern MP, said "These figures lay bare the extent of David Cameron's failure - he is badly letting down working families.

"Since 2010 the failing Tory plan has seen the costs of childcare soar. On top of this, there are over 40,000 fewer childcare places and wages are down £1,600 a year on average."

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: "This report only relates to the prices parents pay after they receive the Government's offer of 15 hours of free childcare.

"It therefore neglects the record amount of fully funded childcare we are giving - savings worth a maximum of almost £9,000 per child."

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Rolls-Royce To Develop Sports Utility Vehicle

The luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce has announced it will develop its first sports utility vehicle (SUV) designed to "cross any terrain".

The announcement was made via an open letter from Rolls-Royce chairman Peter Schwarzenbauer.

The company has revealed few details about the new model, but said it decided to develop a luxury off-roader following consultations with clients.

"Many discerning customers have urged us to develop this new car - and we have listened," the company said in a statement.

"At Rolls-Royce Motor Cars we are uniquely focused on the desires of our customers and are driven by our own thirst to innovate.

Jaguar Land Rover announced the development of its first SUV in January

"So we challenged our engineers and design team, led by director of design Giles Taylor, to create a different and exceptional new car."

The vehicle will be developed at the company's base in Goodwood.

Video: What's All The Fuss About?

Rolls-Royce has gradually expanded its range of vehicles beyond luxury limousines such as the Phantom model, released in 2003.

The smaller Ghost II became available in late 2014, and the Wraith Coupe entered showrooms in 2013.

Last month, Jaguar Land Rover announced the creation of 1,300 new jobs after the company said it would develop its first SUV vehicle in Britain.

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1. Gallery: Rolling Back The Years

   The first design sketches of a new Rolls-Royce to be launched in 2010 have been released by the luxury car company. Known as the RR4, the new vehicle will be smaller than the existing Phantom and will be powered by a new engine unique to Rolls-Royce.

It's a far cry from the oldest-surviving Rolls. This 1904 10 horsepower two-seater dates from the company's first year of production.

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Energy Regulator Faces Blow From CMA Report

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Britain's energy sector may be beset by excessive regulation which acts as a barrier to new market entrants, competition watchdogs will say later.

Sky News has learnt that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is likely to label the energy industry's regulatory framework as an ongoing "theory of harm" that requires further investigation.

The development, which will be included in an issues statement published by the CMA, will represent a blow to Ofgem, the energy regulator.

A source close to the competition body said it would say that myriad regulatory codes in the electricity market may be making it difficult for smaller suppliers to compete.

The CMA document will also say that the governance of those codes may be acting as a barrier to innovation and change by energy providers.

While the statement will not present formal conclusions by the CMA, the ongoing designation of industry regulation as a key focus will embarrass Ofgem at a time when its leadership is under intense political pressure to shake up the energy market.

Labour has vowed to freeze prices for 20 months if it wins the General Election in May, a pledge which sparked fury among suppliers.

The CMA document, known as an annotated issues statement, is expected to focus on the standard dual-fuel and SME markets as areas of concern ahead of its proposals for remedial action later this year.

A Whitehall insider said on Tuesday that the CMA's work to date would conclude that dual fuel customers of the big six energy groups' standard tariffs could save between roughly £160 and £235 annually if they switched to the cheapest fixed tariff.

Those six companies - which include British Gas, Npower and SSE - earn 12% more revenue per customer on standard than fixed tariffs, the CMA is expected to say.

This fact is likely to prompt further analysis of whether customers' loyalty is being exploited by the major suppliers.

This week, the Government launched a campaign with the slogan "Power To Switch", which is designed to encourage consumers to shop around to find cheaper energy deals.

Crucially for the big six suppliers, the CMA is said to have concluded that their average profit margin across gas and electricity is 3.3%, with gas being the more profitable of the two.

A Whitehall source said the watchdog had not reached a decision on whether these margins were excessive.

In its original assessment last year, the CMA said it would examine a number of areas of concern, including the issue of vertical integration, which relates to companies which both generate power and supply it to customers; whether generators have the ability to manipulate prices; and whether incentives to compete are too weak.

A source close to the regulator said the CMA appeared to be transferring its area of focus away from generation to the retail market and the industry's regulatory for the next phase of its inquiry.

It is also likely to take an implicit swipe at the Government by referring to the potentially adverse impact of social and environmental costs on competition.

An industry insider said the Government's Electricity Market Reform programme to incentivise investment in low-carbon electricity generation would also come in for criticism over the way contracts had been awarded.

Ed Davey, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, sparked a row last year when he hinted that Centrica, the owner of British Gas, could be broken up in the wake of the CMA inquiry.

The competition authority is said to be planning to report that 40% of Centrica's domestic gas customers have been with the company for at least 10 years - a fact that may be seized upon by critics of the way the market operates.

All six of the major UK suppliers have announced price cuts since the turn of the year following pressure from Matthew Hancock, the Business and Energy Minister.

The CMA declined to comment on Tuesday.

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HSBC Issues Apology Over Banking Standards

HSBC has taken out adverts in national newspapers offering "sincerest apologies" over past activities at its Swiss operations.

In the open letter to its customers, shareholders and colleagues, HSBC's group chief executive Stuart Gulliver described recent media coverage about practices at the Swiss Private Bank eight years ago as a "painful experience".

However, the Business Secretary has said he wants greater assurances about tax transparency.

Vince Cable told Sky's Murnaghan programme that what emerged is "striking and unacceptable" - and he has called on former HSBC boss Lord Green to answer specific allegations about the business.

The full-page HSBC advert states: "We would like to provide some reassurance and state some of the facts that lie behind the stories.

The advert was published in the Mail On Sunday and The Sun On Sunday

"The media focus has been on historical events that show the standards to which we operate today were not universally in place in our Swiss operations eight years ago.

"We must show we understand that the societies we serve expect more from us. We therefore offer our sincerest apologies."

The bank added that since 2008 it had established a "much tighter central control around who are our customers".

It said it had also implemented tougher standards around tax transparency.

Earlier this week Mr Gulliver sent a memo to the bank's staff saying the revelations were painful and frustrating.

The adverts come amid a political row over tax avoidance, with Labour leader Ed Miliband on Saturday vowing to carry out an inquiry into the UK's tax authority should his party win power in the next General Election.

Mr Miliband argued that people not paying their fair share of tax had left "a £34bn hole in the nation's finances".

Promising an "aggressive" review into Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if his party wins in May, Mr Miliband pointed to suspicions of "sweetheart deals" with wealthy firms.

And the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has told Sky News a "crackdown" is needed because there had only been one prosecution out of more than a thousand cases of tax avoidance at HSBC's private Swiss arm.

"Was that because the Conservatives were back-peddling, brushing it under the carpet? Was it because the HSBC boss had now become a minister? Was it because their donors were involved in that HSBC activity? I think we need answers from David Cameron and George Osborne, and we need them soon," he added.

This week, Mr Miliband seized on allegations about tax avoidance by HSBC clients to brand Prime Minister David Cameron a "dodgy Prime Minister, surrounded by dodgy donors".

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Cable said: "I think the worst period we went through was 10 years ago, when all the leading banks were offering industrial-scale tax avoidance to British citizens to avoid British tax - and they were doing it out of London.

"There are still things happening that should definitely not be happening."

After a week of clashes between Mr Miliband and Mr Cameron, the former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke said there needs to be agreement on a "more sensible and defensible" system for funding political parties.

Mr Clarke told The Observer newspaper that the Conservatives should break their reliance on wealthy donors and embrace the need for more state funding of politics.

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Rival Firm Snaps Up Zolfo Cooper In £60m Deal

By By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The consolidation of London's professional services industry will accelerate this week when a division of Zolfo Cooper, an adviser on corporate restructurings, is snapped up in a deal worth just under $100m (£65m).

Sky News has learnt that AlixPartners, a New York-based advisory firm, is close to agreeing a takeover of the UK and European arm of Zolfo Cooper, an independent player in a sector increasingly dominated by global heavyweights.

Insiders said that AlixPartners had scheduled a board meeting on Sunday to approve the deal, with an announcement about the transaction expected as early as Monday.

If completed, the takeover will bring together two of the most prolific City advisers on the restructuring of companies which have run into financial or operational difficulties.

Zolfo Cooper has in recent weeks been working on a deal to secure the future of Intertain, the leisure group behind the Walkabout chain of bars.

The company is owned by Better Capital, the investment vehicle set up by Jon Moulton, who was forced to place another of his companies, City Link, into administration on Christmas Eve.

Zolfo Cooper's European operations are operated using the firm's name under licence from the US firm of the same name.

The takeover of its London-based operations is expected to crystallize significant payouts for its partners, although they are likely to remain with the combined group.

Among the firm's other assignments are the restructuring of Stemcor, the steel trading company which is part-owned by Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Last year, Zolfo Cooper also worked on a deal which saw dozens of Strada restaurants change hands.

For AlixPartners, the acquisition will be an important step towards achieving a five-year target of becoming the "leading global advisory, consulting, and interim management firm specialising in restoring, protecting, and enhancing corporate performance and value".

Employing more than 1200 people, AlixPartners is itself majority-owned by CVC Capital Partners, the private equity group which is the largest shareholder in Formula One motor racing.

CVC took control of AlixPartners in June 2012, with the financial terms of the deal remaining undisclosed.

Private equity investors have shown increased interest in professional services groups, while the big four accountancy firms have also been diversifying their offering by swallowing specialist players in areas such as cyber-security, investor relations and restructuring.

AlixPartners and Zolfo Cooper both declined to comment on Sunday.

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