Tributes paid to dead cyclist July 2, 2009 Staff at PR firm Citigate Dewe Rogerson paid tribute to their former colleague Catriona Cockburn yesterday, who died in a cycling accident on Monday. 39-year-old Cockburn collided with an HGV lorry. A message on the company’s website said she would be “enormously missed.”
Cattles axes seven more executives July 1, 2009 DOORSTEP lender Cattles has launched a boardroom bloodbath, axing seven executives linked to a “breakdown in internal controls”. Finance director James Corr, chief operating officer and chairman of credit division Welcome Financial Services Ian Cummine and another unnamed senior executive of Welcome all had their contracts terminated after the review by law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus [...]
Hochschild Mining ups its stake in Gold Resource July 1, 2009 HOCHSCHILD Mining, the gold and silver producer, said yesterday it had exercised an option to up its stake in Gold Resource, spending $20m on a further 5m shares. It said the price was a discount of 20 per cent to the previous 30 day closing price average. The purchase will be funded from its existing [...]
Japanese banks agree merger July 1, 2009 Loss-making Japanese banks Shinsei and Aozora have struck a merger deal that will create the country’s sixth-largest bank. The combination will create a lender, with assets of around 18 trillion yen (£110bn). Shinsei will take a 58 per cent stake in the new bank, although ownership will be split equally once Aozora’s preferred shares are [...]
Food for growth at Sodexo July 1, 2009 French catering and services group Sodexo stuck to its earnings targets as healthcare and education contracts, and its vouchers unit compensated for a decline in spending by corporate clients. The world’s second-biggest caterer after Britain’s Compass Group said it was continuing to target full-year sales growth of four to seven per cent at constant currency [...]
BRITAIN’S GREAT TRAIN DEBACLE July 1, 2009 NATIONAL Express was last night fighting to remain in the rail industry, as fears mounted it could be stripped of its two remaining franchises. The operator announced it was walking away from its east coast rail franchise, triggering a shock renationalisation of the Kings Cross-Edinburgh line. The news capped a day of woe for the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 1, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES SCRAPPAGE INCENTIVES REVIVE CAR DEMAND Car sales rose in several big European and Asian markets last month, lifted largely by government scrapping incentives aimed at reviving consumer demand. The numbers give weight to the notion that stimulus measures are pulling the global motor industry out of its deep downturn, but carmakers and industry [...]
O2 considers T-Mobile bid July 1, 2009 T-MOBILE UK could find itself at the centre of a bidding war after O2 became the second mobile network operator to consider buying the firm from Deutsche Telekom, its German owner. O2’s Spanish parent company Telefonica is kicking the tyres at T-Mobile UK, after Vodafone entered talks with Deutsche Telekom earlier this week. Telefonica is [...]
DSB fined over bad advice July 1, 2009 The Dutch market regulator has fined privately held DSB Bank for excessive lending practices and giving bad client advice during a period when former finance minister Gerrit Zalm was its financial chief. Market regulator AFM said in a statement that it had fined DSB €120,000 (£103,800) for the infractions, which took place in 2008. An [...]
JAGUAR LAND ROVER DELAYS PAY DAY July 1, 2009 JAGUAR LAND ROVER, the carmaker, asked workers to delay salary payments yesterday to help its cashflow problems. The firm wants to push payments back two weeks to the end of the month. Last week the carmaker’s owner, Tata Motors, run by chairman Ratan Tata, posted a £280m 10-month loss.