Ono investors reject second Vodafone bid March 13, 2014 ONO SHUNNED Vodafone’s improved takeover bid yesterday as the Spanish cable operator continues to race forward with plans for an initial public offering (IPO). Ono’s shareholders – including investment funds Providence Equity Partners, Thomas H Lee Partners and Quadrangle Capital – voted to proceed with IPO plans over coming weeks, despite Vodafone’s offer which was [...]
Morrisons cuts prices after new profit warning March 13, 2014 MORRISONS sent shockwaves through the food retail industry yesterday after warning that underlying profits would halve this year and announced plans to spend £1bn on cutting prices over the next three years. Chief executive Dalton Philips said it will invest £300m this year to narrow the price gap with discounters, following similar moves by Tesco, [...]
Bird seeds, flavoured milk and Netflix added to inflation basket March 13, 2014 NETFLIX and flavoured milk have been added to the basket of goods used to calculate consumer price inflation, shedding light on the way that the UK’s spending patterns and habits have evolved. With technological developments, online video streaming has become increasingly popular with the provision of services like Netflix. This has been added to the [...]
MPs call for more transparency on state contract bids March 13, 2014 THE PUBLIC Accounts Committee (PAC) today called for more transparency on companies bidding for government work, but businesses warned that the extra costs could squeeze out smaller competitors. In a new report, the PAC demanded an extension of the freedom of information act (FOI), access rights for the National Audit Office and requested private firms [...]
BP’s Deepwater ban on US government contracts abolished March 13, 2014 OIL GIANT BP will once again be able to bid for new contracts with the US government, ending the ban that resulted from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned BP from pitching for new government contracts in November 2012 after BP pleaded guilty to criminal charges relating to [...]
Inside Track: Investors: How best to avoid being shut out on listings March 13, 2014 CITY folk often have long memories and until very recently there was an average chance that if a private equity group tried to bring a company to market it would be hit by a barrage of cynicism. The disappointing performance of several stocks in the noughties, including Debenhams, ensured that for a good while whenever [...]
Biggest float in Denmark for 20 years as ISS lists March 13, 2014 DANISH cleaning and services firm ISS swept onto the Copenhagen stock market yesterday in the largest share float in the Nordic country since 1994. Shares in the company climbed 15 per cent on their debut yesterday morning after being priced at 160 Danish crowns (£17.88) per share, the midpoint of the range. The offering, which [...]
Shell slashes US spend as shale fails to deliver March 13, 2014 THE FORMER chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell had his pay halved last year in light of the oil giant’s “disappointing” performance, as the FTSE 100 firm unveiled its plans to slash its US upstream spending by 20 per cent. Peter Voser, who stepped down at the end of 2013, took home £7.2m, down from [...]
Premier warns investors: More defaults will happen in China March 13, 2014 A STRING of disappointing figures about the Chinese economy were released yesterday, while the country’s Premier, Li Keqiang, warned it is “unavoidable” that there will be more large-scaled defaults on bonds. “We are reluctant to see defaults of financial products, but some cases are hard to avoid,” Li said. “We have been paying great attention [...]
Bottom Line: This is the end of the big four supermarkets March 13, 2014 DALTON Philips kicked off more than just a price war yesterday. By promising to slash prices in an effort to turn around Morrisons’ fortunes, he also exposed a growing schism at the heart of the British grocery market. For years, supermarket analysts have talked about the big four (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) but with [...]