Yet its last major deal was a disposal, as it severed its lingering links with the old-style beerage by selling its sprawling pub estate.All the takeover speculation - and, it must be added, a long run of cheerful trading - has turned the shares, once one of the more sober performers, into relative high-flyers. And stretching even further into the distant past, Allied was linked with a variety of companies, ranging from Guinness (now part of Diageo) to the now departed Seagram empire.But Allied, once one of Britain's leading brewers, has never been prepared to be a sitting target It has often turned predator. French drink giant Pernod Ricard, with the help of a US group, was, it was said, hoping to swallow what is still the world's second-largest wine and spirit group.A year or so ago, Bacardi, the unquoted white rum group, was regarded as the likely partner. The stock market is always awash with rumours; it is all part of the investment scene Some, of course, are pure nonsense and quickly disappear. Others, possibly with variations, are inclined to hang around for years. Quite often they seem to achieve an air of inevitability, as it becomes clear they harbour developments well within the bounds of possibility. This month another round of rumours surfaced about Allied Domecq, an early constituent of the No Pain, No Gain portfolio.
j.daley independent.co.uk. Worse still, the vast majority of these fees are not detailed in the "key facts" document that the lender sends out.In spite of the regulator imposing a new, stricter rule book on the sector three months ago, it would seem there is still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to transparency in the mortgage market. Another broker, Savills, pointed out that many other mortgage charges are on the rise, with some providers inventing new fees to boost their profits.While the rate on my Bristol & West mortgage sounds reasonable, I soon found a section on their website that turned my stomach - a six-page list of no fewer than 25 possible levies that I and other customers could be landed with.Although higher fees may be the price we pay for more competitive interest rates, the sheer number of penalties and levies flies in the face of the idea of a simple, consumer-friendly mortgage market. While charges have always been high, a report this week from Charcol, the broker, revealed that the average mortgage arrangement fee has gone up by 42 per cent in the past six months. Please don't read this as any kind of endorsement that the housing market is safe to venture back into (I'm as petrified about the prospect of negative equity as the next person).But what astounded me about the whole process is the sheer number and size of fees I will have to pay for my mortgage. Let's hope Stelios is well aware of this before he has a problem on his hands.The number and size of mortgage fees shocks meAfter more than two years of dithering, I've finally got round to buying a flat this month.
Claims of over £10,000 will only be accepted if you're left-handed? Hopefully, not. Few financial services firms have made money by cutting corners. If easyrentacar is anything to go by, expect prices to start cheap and get more expensive as the company thinks of more add-ons and bizarre clauses to hit you with. Although it's good to see some new competition in a market reported to have seen premiums rise by 25 per cent in the past six months, I hope his company's approach to finance is not exactly the same as his approach to everything else. But consumer groups will surely not put up with such exploitation for too much longer.* Stelios Haji-Ioannou took another step in his progress towards world domination this week, announcing his launch into the home insurance market. So commission will continue to be king.Any life insurance company chief executive will tell you (off the record, of course) that the way to increase their sales is to put up commission - stark evidence that many advisers still make recommendations in the best interests of themselves, not their clients.Perhaps having kicked the life industry so hard during the past few years, the FSA is giving them a breather before it starts on this crusade.
