BHP and Rio go to EU for tie-up BHP October 12, 2010 Billiton and Rio Tinto will meet EU antitrust regulators by the end of this month to help the European Commission decide whether to clear their proposed joint venture, sources said yesterday. The Commission is examining the miners’ planned $116bn (£73.54bn) iron ore production joint venture in western Australia to determine whether it is anti-competitive. Rio [...]
OBR set to move from Treasury October 12, 2010 The Office for Budget Responsibility is to move out of the Treasury to stress its independence, chancellor George Osborne said. The chancellor has also named his preferred candidates for the committee, to sit alongside OBR chairman Robert Chote. They are Stephen Nickell, a former member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee, and Graham [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NIGERIA APPROVES $2.5BN BID FOR NITEL Nigeria has approved a controversial $2.5bn offer for the country’s main fixed-line telecoms group, but has demanded that the winning consortium come up with a $750m downpayment to secure the sale. The approval follows years of ill-fated efforts to sell off Nitel, which has withered since liberalisation [...]
Rights issue on the cards for StanChart October 12, 2010 ALL EYES will be on Standard Chartered today following suggestions that the Asia-focused bank is ready to launch a rights issue to raise up to £7bn so it complies with new capital rules. Standard Chartered had a core tier one capital ratio of nine per cent at the end of June, which is within the [...]
Confidence fell in September October 12, 2010 FEARS among consumers of imminent government measures to slash public spending have intensified, prompting confidence to plummet last month and wiping out the gain seen in August, the Nationwide September survey will say today. The headline confidence index slumped nine points to 53, its weakest in more than a year and well below its long-term [...]
Switch to CPI measure set to reduce benefits October 12, 2010 MILLIONS?of pensioners will feel the pinch from April, when the government switches the measure used to shield them from rising prices. The changes, which will also affect the unemployed and other benefit claimants, will see payments rise in line with inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), as opposed to the retail price [...]
JOHNSON VS OSBORNE: ROUND 1 October 12, 2010 NEW shadow chancellor Alan Johnson laughed off his poor knowledge of economics in his first exchange with George Osborne at Treasury Questions yesterday. While Osborne quipped that he hoped Johnson spends longer as shadow chancellor than he did, Johnson attacked Osborne’s Budget proposals for public spending cuts as “entirely wrong” and claimed the deficit was [...]
Wall Street pay to reach a record high October 12, 2010 WALL Street pay is expected to reach a record high this year, for the second year running. The 35 top public securities and investment-services firms expect to pay staff $144bn (£90.4bn) in compensation and benefits in fiscal 2010, up four per cent from the $139bn paid out in 2009, a new Wall Street Journal study [...]
Cable U-Turn over uni fees October 12, 2010 VINCE Cable, the business secretary, yesterday completed a remarkable volte-face on university tuition fees and threw his weight behind Lord Browne’s report, which has recommended a massive rise in student contributions. Cable also dropped his long-time support for a graduate tax, insisting that it was simply “not feasible” given the parlous state of the country’s [...]
Lions Gate eyes a merger with MGM October 12, 2010 AMERICAN film studio Lions Gate Entertainment proposed a merger with troubled rival Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) yesterday, in a move to end months of tussling over the ownership of both firms. Lions Gate’s biggest shareholder, corporate activist Carl Icahn, gave the merger offer his blessing yesterday, saying in a statement that such a deal would [...]