Amadeus will offload Opodo September 20, 2010 SPANISH travel services group Amadeus is said to be seeking a buyer for its European online travel agent Opodo. JPMorgan has been hired as an adviser and a deal could be announced before the end of the year. Amadeus, the travel-reservations technology company, has controlled Opodo since 2004 but does not view the holding as [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 20, 2010 CARPHONE WAREHOUSE Morgan Stanley has raised its Carphone Warehouse target from 220p to 275p and issues an “overweight” rating for the retailer. The broker believes consensus forecasts for Carphone Warehouse do not factor in the impact that high-selling-price smartphones will have on like-for-like sales over the next 12 months. ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND JP Morgan [...]
CITY BOSS FINDS SLICE OF ARCTIC HISTORY September 20, 2010 REGULAR readers will remember Tim Levy, the bold chief executive of alternative investment firm Future Capital Partners, who last month set off on a gruelling expedition to the Arctic with one of his best mates, hare-brained TV adventurer Bear Grylls. Levy and Grylls – famed for his creepy crawly-eating escapades on Channel 4’s Born Survivor [...]
Moody’s reaffirms UK’s triple-A rating September 20, 2010 The government welcomed a report by credit ratings agency Moody’s which reaffirmed the outlook for the nation’s triple-A sovereign debt rating, saying it supported its approach to cutting public debt. “This supports the Government’s approach to cutting the deficit,” said a Treasury spokesman. “Moody’s say that their stable outlook for the UK’s AAA credit rating [...]
Mortagage lending falls in August September 20, 2010 Gross mortgage lending fell six per cent year-on-year in August to £13.3bn, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has said. That was the lowest August total since 2000 and represented a drop of 14 per cent from July. The figures chimes with other surveys in showing a cooling in the housing market following a sharp recovery [...]
Safran seals $1.9bn deal for biometric firm September 20, 2010 France’s Safran confirmed a $1.09bn (£696m) deal to buy L-1 Identity Solutions and its core biometric identity business in a move that will also see BAE Systems extend its reach in the United States. Safran, which makes aero engines, military goggles and security equipment, said shareholders would get $12 a share in cash in the [...]
BP shares jump after oil leak “permanently” stemmed September 20, 2010 Shares in BP jumped over 1.8 per cent and outperformed rivals after the oil major said it had permanently sealed an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico that caused the United States’ worst ever oil spill. Jason Kenney, oil analyst at ING, said BP had hit “a significant milestone” in dealing with the disaster [...]
FTSE opens slightly up September 20, 2010 The FTSE 100 opened up 7-13 points, according to financial bookmakers, rallying modestly after falls on Friday in tandem with slight gains on Wall Street and in Asia, with all eyes on Tuesday’s Federal Reserve meeting. The UK blue chip index closed 31.69 points, or 0.6 per cent lower on Friday at 5,508.45 as weak [...]
HSBC sells banknotes business for $15m September 20, 2010 Global bank HSBC Holdings said that it would sell the physical assets of its wholesale banknotes business in Asia to United Overseas Bank for $15m £9.5m) in cash. HSBC said it would also licence the technology system used in connection with its Asian wholesale banknotes business to UOB. The transaction is expected to be completed [...]
Londoners hit as house prices fall September 19, 2010 THE UK HOUSING market dropped back for the third month in a row in September, with London prices now also moving into the red. Figures from Rightmove show that average asking prices across the UK dropped by 1.1 per cent to £229,767 compared with the previous month. Prices have now fallen back by a total [...]