Home Retail hit as shoppers cut back October 20, 2010 Home Retail posted an expected 23 per cent fall in first-half profit as cash-strapped low-income shoppers trimmed their spending. The firm, which owns Argos and DIY business Homebase, said it made an underlying pre-tax profit of £95m in the six months to 28 August. That was in line with company guidance of a 20-25 per [...]
Sanofi gets green light for Genzyme takeover October 20, 2010 France’s Sanofi Aventis said that it had received the green light from US antitrust regulators to takeover the US biotech company Genzyme. Sanofi said that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott Rodino antitrust improvements act of 1976 had expired. The act puts a waiting period on all mergers in the United States so that federal [...]
EU proposes Europe-wide VAT October 19, 2010 The European Commission has published proposals for direct taxes across the European Union (EU), including a possible Europe-wide version of VAT. The proposals are part of a package of options being explored to find new ways of funding the EU budget. The UK, France and Germany have all rejected the idea of direct taxes in [...]
BBC shares in the pain as axe looms October 19, 2010 State-funded broadcaster faces real-terms cuts of 16 per cent as licence fee frozen for six years Defence budget is cut by eight per cent and replacement for Trident is delayed until 2016 George Osborne prepares to unveil toughest spending cuts in Britain’s peacetime history THE BBC is being forced to share the pain of public [...]
A traumatic but necessary cutback October 19, 2010 IT WILL be grim. The Ministry of Justice will lose 14,000 jobs over the next four years. Close to 10,000 will go in the prison and probation system. There will be 42,000 job losses in the military. These form only part of the 490,000 net public sector jobs set to go over the next four [...]
What to look out for in today’s spending review October 19, 2010 OVERALL CUTS • The chancellor is expected to announce real-terms cuts of 3.6 per cent to total public spending over four years. • Because of interest payments on Britain’s debt pile, that will equate to an average 14 per cent cut for individual departments. • Some departments, such as Health and Overseas Aid, have been [...]
Former PM Thatcher in hospital October 19, 2010 Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher was admitted to hospital last night to be treated for an infection. She is thought not to have fully recovered from an illness which prevented her attending a reception at Downing Street to mark her 85th birthday last week. At the time the reason for her lack of attendance was [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 19, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES INDIAN OIL PLANS RECORD $4.3BN IPO Indian Oil plans to raise a record Rs190bn ($4.3bn, £2.73bn) by selling 20 per cent of its shares in what would be India’s biggest IPO, as several state-run groups are rushing to tap the nation’s booming equity market. Sumit Bose, India’s minister of disinvestment, said yesterday that [...]
EU hedge fund rules not as bad as feared October 19, 2010 HEDGE FUNDSEUROPEAN finance ministers have agreed tough new rules for hedge funds and private equity houses, although the regime will not be as strict as many in the industry feared. The directive, agreed in Luxembourg yesterday afternoon, will force alternative funds to comply with a costly registration regime, as well as subjecting them to restrictions [...]
Hands says he was betrayed over EMI October 19, 2010 GUY Hands, the head of private equity firm Terra Firma, accused senior Citigroup banker David Wormsley of betraying him over the sale of EMI, as he gave evidence in a New York court yesterday. Hands told the court he would never have bid for the record label if he had known all other interested bidders [...]