Pearson raises full-year guidance October 25, 2010 Publishing group Pearson raised its full-year outlook again, saying it now expects adjusted earnings per share to be up around 10 per cent on last year despite the uncertain outlook. The educational technology provider and Financial Times owner said in July that full-year adjusted earnings per share should rise to around 70 pence, a seven [...]
Antitrust laws to be toughened October 24, 2010 David Cameron will unveil plans to shake-up Britain’s competition regime, making it easier to pursue anti-trust investigations and slashing the amount of time it takes to complete them. Speaking at the annual conference of employers’ organisation the CBI, the Prime Minister will say the government is “determined to help new entrants challenge big business”. “Today, [...]
G20 agrees to prevent a trade war October 24, 2010 THE G20 economies pledged to steer clear of an all-out currency war at the weekend, as countries including China and the USA agreed not to competitively devalue their currencies. The G20 finance ministers, who met in South Korea ahead of a summit next month, said in a communiqué they will “move towards more market determined [...]
BRICs to get IMF influence October 24, 2010 THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund has agreed a landmark deal that will hand more power to emerging economies, whose clout in the IMF has not kept up with their economic ascent. Europe will give up two of its eight seats on the 24-member board, which will be taken up by Brazil, Russia, India and China. In [...]
A welcome ceasefire – but not peace October 24, 2010 THERE will undoubtedly be some exuberance in the markets this morning on the back of this weekend’s G20 quasi-deal on currencies. Given that the possibility of currency wars has become an even greater risk to the world than the possibility of a sovereign default, a collective sigh of relief would be perfectly understandable. It would [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 24, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES QATAR KEEN TO BID FOR CHRISTIE’S AUCTION HOUSE Qatar is eyeing Christie’s, the auction house, as part of its plans to establish itself as a leading cultural destination in the Gulf. Although Christie’s has yet to receive a formal approach, Qatar’s emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, told the Financial Times in an interview [...]
Royal Mail managers may strike October 24, 2010 Managers at Royal Mail Group will be balloted on industrial action for the first time since 1979 over job losses, the Unite union said this morning. Unite is preparing a ballot for the start of November for 8,535 members working across Royal Mail, Parcelforce and Post Office Limited over the threat of compulsory redundancies. The [...]
Germany agrees tax reform October 24, 2010 Senior members of the German government agreed a tax reform plan yesterday to curb the extent of a tax rise for energy intensive companies from 2011 by hiking tobacco duty. Government officials also agreed on a simplification of the tax system from 2012 which would bring tax relief of €500m (£445m), the ministers said. The [...]
City on alert ahead of UK GDP figures October 24, 2010 ALL eyes in the City and Westminster will be on the Office for National Statistics tomorrow, as it prepares to release its first estimate of third-quarter GDP growth. Britain’s economy is expected to have grown by 0.4 per cent in the third-quarter, a decent rate of expansion, albeit one substantially lower than the boom-style 1.2 per cent [...]
The Worm readies himself to face the music over EMI deal October 24, 2010 ONE of Citigroup’s top investment bankers, David Wormsley, will take to the stand as early as today after he was called as a hostile witness by the lead counsel for Guy Hand’s private equity firm Terra Firma on Friday in the legal dispute over the sale of EMI in 2007. David Boies told District Judge Jed [...]