Peoples’ Bank of China relaxes control of market for renminbi March 17, 2014 THE PEOPLE’S Bank of China (PBOC) will today loosen the tight grip it keeps on foreign exchange of the yuan, after announcing plans to widen the band in which the currency is traded. The central bank will now allow the Yuan to be traded within a two per cent corridor of the official rate it [...]
Richard Desmond mulls Channel 5 float March 17, 2014 MEDIA tycoon Richard Desmond is considering a flotation of Channel 5 as an alternative to selling the station. Bidders are offering up to £700m for the broadcaster, which Desmond bought for just over £100m in 2011. But according to Sky News, Desmond is also working with Goldman Sachs bankers on a potential listing. Desmond, who [...]
Balls says bank salaries are a ponzi scheme March 17, 2014 BANKERS are running a “Ponzi scheme” and in a rational world would do the same job for half their current salaries, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said yesterday, calling for the reintroduction of Labour’s bonus tax. His remarks came after the business secretary Vince Cable was quoted in the Observer yesterday saying “I don’t understand why [...]
Bottom Line: A far-from mobile company has to pay whatever the locals want March 17, 2014 OH YES, it’s back on again. A slightly higher price has secured this Spanish asset for Vodafone, handily expanding its offerings in the Iberian peninsula. The good news for Vodafone is that it has money to burn right now, after the sell-off of its cash cow stake in Verizon for £84bn. The bad news is, [...]
US to abandon control of key internet group March 17, 2014 THE US GOVERNMENT will give up its control over the internet’s infrastructure as it abandons ownership of the body responsible for web addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the body that maintains the master database for such top-level domain names as .com and .net, as well as the corresponding numeric [...]
Alibaba heading to New York for market debut March 17, 2014 CHINESE e-commerce giant Alibaba said yesterday that it has decided to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, ending months of speculation that the firm would try to list in Hong Kong. The flotation could be the biggest since Facebook in 2012, with analysts estimating that Alibaba has a value of at least [...]
New online estate agencies plot a shake-up of property market March 17, 2014 EASYJET founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and former Capita chief executive Paul Pindar have thrown their weight behind two separate online estate agencies in an attempt to shake up the property market. The Greek-Cypriot billionaire is preparing to launch a new online venture, easyProperty, that aims to challenge traditional estate agents by offering a quicker and [...]
Canary Wharf to get first residential tower March 17, 2014 CANARY WHARF Group has become the latest developer to tap into London’s luxury housing boom after winning consent to build the business district’s first ever residential tower. Tower Hamlets has approved plans for the 58-storey Newfoundland skyscraper which will have 566 flats. Work is expected to start this summer and complete by 2018.
Malaysia plane search widens along new lines March 17, 2014 MALAYSIA has drafted in search teams from 25 countries to hunt for the missing flight MH370 as the search widens across swathes of Asian land and sea. Investigators have shifted the search area following a recently discovered satellite signal that suggests the plane was intact and probably airborne for seven hours after losing radar contact. [...]
Sixteen lenders accused of Libor manipulation March 17, 2014 SOME of the biggest banks across the UK, US and Europe are being sued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the US over claims their traders manipulated Libor interest rates. The regulator is launching legal action against 16 banks, including HSBC, Barclays, RBS, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank. The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) [...]