Arriva accelerates across Europe May 27, 2014 BUS AND rail company Arriva has revealed a double-digit rise in revenues as it vies for more transport contracts in Britain and across the rest of Europe. Arriva, owned by Germany’s state railway since 2010, said turnover rose 12.5 per cent to €4.18bn (£3.39bn) last year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) [...]
Brand risk top fear for UK boards May 27, 2014 THREE-QUARTERS of UK board members see brand damage from scandals as the biggest risk they face, over direct financial costs or loss of business contacts, according to a new report released today. Twenty-one per cent of UK respondents placed shareholder activism among their top three concerns, almost twice the global average. A number of London-listed [...]
Bottom Line: Rail innovation comes from an unlikely source May 27, 2014 IT’S A symptom of Britain’s topsy-turvy railway set-up that Arriva, owned by the German state, is trying to encourage more competition just days after FTSE 250 firm Go-Ahead’s venture was picked for a new contract that offers even less chance for change than a typical UK rail franchise. Arriva said in its results it is [...]
Fracking tech patents reach a record high May 27, 2014 THE NUMBER of patents filed worldwide for fracking technology reached a record high in 2013, according to new Thomson Reuters data released today. Last year 706 applications were filed, up 28 per cent from 2012, for patents relating to the hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – technique, which is used to extract shale gas from [...]
Rio Tinto gets green light for Guinea project May 27, 2014 MINING giant Rio Tinto yesterday said it has agreed a deal with the Guinea government to develop the largest ever combined iron ore and infrastructure project in Africa. The FTSE 100 firm said that the $20bn (£11.9bn) project has the potential to double the country’s current GDP and will create around 45,000 jobs. A railway [...]
Game wins market share ahead of IPO May 27, 2014 Game Digital has scored ahead of its planned £400m float after new figures out yesterday showed that the video games retailer has grabbed a greater share of the entertainment market. According to Kantar Worldpanel, Game accounted for 6.3 per cent of the market in the 12 weeks to 13 April, despite not selling music or [...]
Korean messaging app in $3bn merger May 27, 2014 Kakao, the dominant messaging app firm in South Korea, has agreed to buy internet portal company Daum Communications in a $3.3bn (£1.96bn) stock deal, circumventing a potentially time-consuming initial public offering process with a back door listing. With the deal, Kakao is seeking to mount a serious challenge to Naver, the country’s biggest internet portal [...]
All not in good spirits for Ukip distillery party May 27, 2014 IF ANY of our esteemed politicians could organise a p***-up in a brewery, you’d think it would be Nigel Farage. But yesterday Ukip’s planned victory bash at City of London Distillery was moved last minute to Westminster InterContinental, supposedly due to the need for more capacity. But there’s more to the story, first reported by [...]
Smartphone wars go galactic at Heathrow May 27, 2014 THE SMARTPHONE industry is well-known for its tit-for-tat behaviour. When they’re not battling in courts over patents, phone-makers use advertising to take pot-shots at their rivals. Samsung once built an entire fake Apple store to use for filming in its mockery of Apple. A month ago on Earth Day, Apple commissioned a nationwide ad saying, [...]
Sony will set up joint venture to sell PS4 in China May 27, 2014 SONY, the Japanese technology giant, has signed a partnership to begin manufacturing and selling its PlayStation 4 console in mainland China. The joint venture with Shanghai-listed Shanghai Oriental Pearl was announced in a stock exchange filing by the state-controlled Chinese media company yesterday. The joint ventures, which will be located in Shanghai’s free trade zone, [...]