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Private equity firm Sycamore Partners on Thursday said it was interested in acquiring apparel retailer Express Inc, after disclosing a 9.9 percent stake that made it the largest shareholder in the company. Express confirmed on Thursday in a press statement that it had received a letter from Sycamore, highlighting their interest in buying the company. Columbus, Ohio-based Express has adopted a stockholder rights plan, setting the trigger at 10 percent. Express's shares rose as much as 32.8 percent to $18.00 in extended trading. The stock closed down nearly 3 percent at $13.55 in regular trading on Thursday, valuing the company at $1.14 billion. "We would like to perform confirmatory due diligence to determine a definitive valuation of the company," Sycamore said in a letter to the company's board. ( link.reuters.com/huv99v ) The private equity firm said it would take 30 days to complete its due diligence, obtain financing commitments and submit its offer, accordi

Canada's Amaya Gaming Group Inc on Thursday said it will buy for $4.9 billion Rational Group, which owns and operates the world's biggest online poker company PokerStars. The transaction will be financed with a combination of cash on hand, new credit facilities and equity financing, the company said in a statement. The deal is backed by Blackstone Group LP's credit division, GSO Capital Partners, which will buy more than $600 million in convertible preferred shares and other securities. Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Macquarie Capital will provide $2.9 billion in credit facilities and other financing. Rational Group, owned by Oldford Group, operates gaming and related businesses including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which are collectively the world's most popular and profitable online poker brands with more than 85 million registered players on desktop and mobile devices. Amaya said it expects the transaction will "expedite the entry of PokerStars and Full T

Shares in Britain's house builders, including Barratt Developments and Persimmon slipped on Friday after finance minister George Osborne said he would give the Bank of England stronger powers to curb mortgage lending. _0"> British house prices have risen by 11 percent over the last year, benefiting house builders but leading to concerns that a bubble could develop. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said at the same dinner on Thursday evening that interest rates could rise sooner than expected. Shares in the listed house builders, which also include Bovis Homes Group, Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley Group, were down between 2 and 4 percent. (Reporting by Paul Sandle ; editing by Kate Holton )

Shares in Britain's housebuilders and property developers fell on Friday after the government and the Bank of England signalled they were ready to intervene to cool the country's surging house market. British house prices have risen by 11 percent over the last year, benefiting house builders but leading to concerns that a bubble could develop. Finance minister George Osborne said late on Thursday he would now give the Bank of England stronger powers to curb mortgage lending, while the Bank's Governor Mark Carney also noted that interest rates could rise sooner than expected, in his strongest warning yet. Shares in the country's biggest housebuilders including Barratt Developments and Persimmon, fell over 4 percent, dragging down the FTSE 100 blue-chip index, while Bovis Homes Group, Taylor Wimpey, Bellway and Berkeley Group, were down between 3 and 4 percent. Land Securities and British Land, the country's two largest listed property developers, were also hit,

Hedge funds are gambling on profiting from further falls in the share prices of British bookmakers, who face increased taxes on two fronts and curbs on how they run their high street betting shops. According to Markit data, interest from short sellers in several British betting firms has risen over the past two months, with Ladbrokes shares on loan climbing to more than 6 percent of the total available, from 4.7 percent, while William Hill's shares on loan have risen to 2.6 percent from 0.3 percent. William Hill is the market leader and part of the FTSE 100 index of leading British stocks, while Ladbrokes is Britain's second-largest bookmaker. Short sellers at hedge funds borrow a security they expect to fall so they can sell it now, buy back later at a lower price, then pocket the difference after returning the shares to the lender. Britain this week moved to tighten planning controls on the spread of betting shops and the high-stakes gambling machines that make up a gro

Hedge fund East Lodge, founded by ex-CQS portfolio manager Alistair Lumsden, has opened to external money, a letter to investors seen by Reuters showed. _0"> East Lodge has launched the East Lodge Capital Credit Opportunities Fund and is targeting assets under management of $250 million within three months, a source close to the company added. Lumsden previously managed $3.2 billion for hedge fund CQS, with a focus on asset-backed securities. Estimated performance during April, when the fund used just internal money, was 4.27 percent, the investor letter showed. (Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Chris Vellacott)

UK-based hedge funds saw their assets increase by $57 billion between January 2013 and April 2014, while fund managers in France, Spain and Germany posted a net decrease, data from Preqin research showed. _0"> Firms headquartered in the UK now account for $423 billion in hedge fund assets, more than 10 times the amount of assets managed in any other single European country, it said in a statement. Following the UK are Sweden, with assets under management of $34 billion; Switzerland, with $31 billion; France, with $20 billion; and Netherlands, with $9 billion. The UK is also home to most of the start-ups of recent years, it said, with around half of all known new launches in 2013 and so far in 2014. Within the UK, London is the most popular place to be based, with 90 percent of all hedge fund assets managed from the capital, Preqin added. (Reporting by Simon Jessop and Nishant Kumar )