Burberry boss Christopher Bailey takes home £5.2m August 21, 2014 Burberry chief executive Christopher Bailey has pocketed £5.2m from share sales just weeks after shareholders rebelled over a controversial £27m pay package awarded to him this year. A regulatory filing yesterday showed that the luxury brand’s new boss exercised options on shares granted under previous award schemes. A spokesperson said the main reason for the [...]
Exclusive: Lenders want a sunset clause on mortgage limits August 21, 2014 The Bank of England should make new limits on mortgages temporary by inserting a sunset clause immediately, the Building Societies’ Association (BSA) will tell regulators next week. Other lenders are also worried – specialist banks fear they will be unable to lend to certain categories of rich borrower, and some big banks are worried the [...]
Britain’s biggest media groups are now top US takeover targets August 21, 2014 Multi-billion dollar takeovers threaten Britain’s largest media and television groups, the boss of Channel 4 warned last night. Liberty Global’s interest in ITV, in which the US-listed group recently bought a 6.4 per cent stake, and Rupert Murdoch’s ongoing fascination in upping his 39 per cent stake in the now pan-European BSkyB empire were top [...]
Hyder Consulting chief Ivor Catto set for windfall after £288m Arcadis takeover August 21, 2014 The chief executive of British engineering firm Hyder Consulting is in line for a £1.24m windfall after the firm agreed a £288m cash takeover offer from Dutch rival Arcadis. Hyder, which helped design London’s Tower Bridge and Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, said it had accepted a 730p per share bid from engineering group Arcadis. [...]
Central Line & Waterloo and City Tube strike chaos August 21, 2014 Transport disruption will hit the capital again today as train drivers on both the Central Line and the Waterloo and City Line strike in protest over: “management’s refusal to treat drivers with the respect and dignity they deserve”. The Aslef transport union intends the industrial action to last 24 hours with a further one-day strike [...]
Phoenix rises and sets sights on £100bn of UK acquisition opportunities August 21, 2014 Insurer Phoenix is understood to be looking at £100bn worth of potential acquisition opportunities in the UK, following a promising set of half-year results announced yesterday. The group is also seeking an investment-grade credit rating that it expects will reduce the cost of its debt by around 50 basis points and give it access [...]
US says Islamic State must be defeated soon August 21, 2014 ISLAMIC State militants represent a major threat to the US that may surpass that once posed by al-Qaeda, US military leaders said yesterday. “This is an organisation that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated,” said chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey speaking [...]
Borrowing blues adds to concern on fiscal targets August 21, 2014 Government borrowing fell during July, according to figures released yesterday, but questions about whether the government would meet its current fiscal targets still remained. Public borrowing fell to £0.8m in July this year, cut from £1.6bn in the same month last year, when one-off interventions were removed. However, in the first four months of the [...]
Fastest growth since 2010 seen by US factories August 21, 2014 US MANUFACTURING is currently enjoying a growth spurt, with the fastest expansion in four years this month, according to a private survey released yesterday. Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figures for August came in at 58, the highest reading since 2010. Any score about 50 indicates growth, and higher readings suggest particularly rapid expansions. Some [...]
Food spending falls for first time in 25 years as supermarkets wage price wars August 21, 2014 Spending on groceries has fallen for the first time since records began 25 years ago, laying bare the challenges facing Britain’s supermarkets in winning over cash-strapped shoppers. The amount spent in food stores fell 1.3 per cent in July compared with the same time last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, which put [...]