Election debate battle hots up May 15, 2014 The Guardian and The Telegraph have teamed up with online video site YouTube in a bid to stage the 2015 general election debates. The debates, which five years ago were broadcast by major TV channels, are likely to feature the main party leaders: David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband. The trio argues that by [...]
Buffett dials up Verizon shares May 15, 2014 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought a new stake of 11m shares in Verizon Communications in the first quarter and added to its holding in Wal-Mart Stores, according to a regulatory filing last night. Berkshire, an ice cream to insurance conglomerate where Buffett is chairman and chief executive, increased its holding of Wal-Mart by 17.3 per [...]
Barclays in £600m bond swap May 15, 2014 Barclays is issuing at least another £600m of convertible bonds, or cocos, to boost its capital position. The bank is exchanging the new instruments for old bonds issued before the EU’s latest rules on capital buffers, CRD4, came into force. The bank has already issued £2bn of the instruments. Cocos boost a bank’s capital position [...]
RP Martin fined £1.5m in UK and US over Libor May 15, 2014 BROKERAGE RP Martin was yesterday hit with fines from both sides of the Atlantic after regulators found some staff had colluded with bank traders to try to fiddle Libor. It was fined £630,000 in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. The charge would have come in at £3.6m, but the FCA feared the firm [...]
Suitmaker Bagir crashes after M&S slashes orders from firm May 15, 2014 ONE OF the country’s biggest listed menswear suppliers crashed nearly 70 per cent in trading yesterday after its largest customer, Marks & Spencer, signalled a reduction in orders for the firm. Bagir Group, which floated last month, was forced to issue a profit warning due to the reduction in M&S orders, sending shares down 68 [...]
Card Factory greeted with share sell off May 15, 2014 DISCOUNT greeting card shop Card Factory fell as much as nine per cent in trading yesterday, as its shares started trading on the London Stock Exchange. The business, which is being sold by private equity house Charterhouse, priced its shares at 225p to raise £90m for the company but they tumbled to as low as [...]
Carphone and Dixons dial up £3.8bn merger May 15, 2014 DIXONS Retail and Carphone Warehouse shares slid into the red yesterday after the high street giants’ plans for a £3.8bn merger was given a mixed reception. The new group, which will be named Dixons Carphone, aims to exploit the ever-growing presence of smartphones in people’s lives and the so-called internet of things – where household [...]
What’s in a name? May 15, 2014 WHEN this big retail merger is finalised, the combined group will be known as Dixons Carphone. But why are they hanging onto the Carphone bit when no-one has one anymore? The first car phone was used in St Louis on 17 June 1946. It had three channels and weighed 36kg. Six years ago, analog cellular service, [...]
Bottom Line: Internet of things has no room for tradition May 15, 2014 LAST month, my aunt and uncle upgraded their Aga. The new model fits perfectly into their country kitchen – a tasteful pastel exterior and exposed, rustic hob – but there’s one big difference: this is an iAga, which can be controlled remotely by text or from a laptop (it even replies to tell you it’s [...]
Uber app joins $10bn club with new fundraising May 15, 2014 Innovative car hire app Uber is set to hit a valuation of $10bn (£6bn) in its latest round of funding as the company looks to raise less than $1bn from new private equity investors. The San Francisco-based startup, whose iOS and Android app offers smartphone users the ability to book a car in 113 cities [...]