Pendragon profit up 48pc after luxury car sales soar August 10, 2010 CAR dealer Pendragon reported a 48 per cent rise in first-half profit, helped by growing revenues at its premium cars and aftersales businesses, and said it would deliver further growth in the second half. The UK’s largest motor retailer on Tuesday posted a pre-tax profit of £15.7m on sales 15 per cent higher at £1.83bn [...]
IHG profit rise fuelled by business travellers August 10, 2010 InterContinental Hotels – the world’s biggest hotelier – reported a recovery in the hotel market helped by the return of the business traveller as it beat forecasts with a 22 per cent rise in first-half profits. The company, which runs more than 650,000 rooms in over 4,500 hotels worldwide, posted an operating profit of $219m [...]
GDF and International Power agree tie-up August 10, 2010 GDF Suez is offering International Power shareholders a cash sweetener of $2.2bn (£1.39bn) in a reverse takeover of the British firm that will create the world’s largest independent power producer in terms of revenue. The move will also give GDF, Europe’s second-biggest utility, a greater presence in the United States, Middle East and Asia, as [...]
BAA boost as Heathrow has record month August 10, 2010 THE number of people travelling through BAA’s UK airports increased by 0.3 per cent to 10.9m in July. Heathrow recorded its busiest ever month, with 6.7m people making journeys through the airport – 3.5 per cent more than last year. Meanwhile Sunday 18th July was Heathrow’s busiest ever day, with 232,000 passengers. Across BAA, the [...]
EU plans to levy direct tax on UK August 9, 2010 EUROPEAN bureaucrats are preparing plans for an EU-wide levy on financial transactions, domestic aviation and carbon dioxide emissions, putting them on a collision course with the British government. The European Commission wants to impose a series of pan-European taxes to fund its €140bn (£116bn) annual budget, allowing cash-strapped member states to reduce the amount of [...]
Investors stop £1.7bn super trust August 9, 2010 F&C ASSET MANAGEMENT was celebrating a dramatic victory last night after small investors shot down a merger between the F&C Commercial Property Trust (FCPT) and Ignis’ UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT). Minority shareholders voted by a narrow margin to block the creation of a £1.7bn “super trust” by joining the two real estate funds. In [...]
Skype eyes a $100m listing August 9, 2010 Skype, a provider of Internet telephone services, plans to raise up to $100m (£62.8m) in an initial public offering of its shares in the US, according to filings made to regulators yesterday. Analysts said this could be a bid by Skype’s private equity owners to recoup some of their investment of more than $2bn when [...]
Taking on Sky is a risky Vision for BT August 9, 2010 INthe run up to the new football season there is a fascinating encounter taking place off the field as BT Vision tries to take on the might of BSkyB in the showing of live football. BT Vision, boosted by a ruling from the regulator on the price that Sky can sell its sports channels to [...]
Unions threaten air chaos strikes August 9, 2010 UNIONS are threatening to cause travel chaos in the run-up to the August Bank Holiday with a ballot over strike action against the British Airports Authority (BAA). The Unite ballot of more than 6,000 firefighters and ground staff at six airports, including Heathrow, is expected to come out in favour of strikes on Thursday after [...]
Gulf well stakeholder sells bonds August 9, 2010 Anadarko Petroleum, which owns 25 per cent of the Macondo well at the centre of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, said yesterday it sold $2bn worth of bonds and will now not need a $1.5bn loan it previously lined up. Anadarko said it raised $6.5bn in financing commitments, in part to pay for potential [...]