Shares ban fuels Cazenove rumour

STAFF and City firms owning shares in stockbroker Cazenove have been banned from trading them - a clear indication that the group expects to continue talks with potential bidders.

Investment banks Lehman Brothers and Citigroup are understood to have shown interest in buying Cazenove, stockbroker to the Queen and David Beckham.

Shares in Cazenove, which also acts as broker to almost half of all FTSE 100 firms, are not publicly listed but are traded in a private internal market. This allows trading between staff and a handful of City institutions that own stakes in the business.

Trading in the shares was due to resume on Friday after Cazenove published final results at the end of June. But the group suspended the shares because of intense speculation about a possible takeover bid.

Chairman David Mayhew said last month that Cazenove was still planning to float, but he confirmed it had also received approaches from potential buyers. Suspension of the shares suggests he expects either that takeover talks will develop or that he will receive further approaches.

Cazenove is under no obligation to suspend trading in the shares, but it has opted to behave as much as possible as if it were a listed company with its shares publicly traded.

There has been no trading since 26 March when the internal market valued the shares at 350p each and the whole business at £762m.