3i sells UK inspection firm June 22, 2010 BRITISH private equity firm 3i is to sell its commodities testing business to French health and safety experts Bureau Veritas for £450m. The purchase of Inspectorate is the biggest ever for Bureau Veritas, and is expected to boost its earnings for the year and make it one of the top three global goods inspection firms. [...]
Brand performance can be read in the leaves June 22, 2010 Looking at YouGov’s BrandIndex, we sometimes have a sense of how a brand is performing before any major announcements to the City are made. Take the UK restaurant and hotel business Whitbread, which has announced promising profits for the start of the year, primarily because of an improvement in the hotel market, and an increased [...]
Chemring set for steady growth from acquisitions and US orders June 22, 2010 ARMS firm Chemring posted steady growth yesterday, with increased sales to the American military but a slowdown in European business. The company’s order book grew by 16 per cent to £651m, translating to a seven per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £42.3m, Chemring said in a half-year statement. Several purchases dented overall pre-tax [...]
High Street braces itself for 20pc VAT June 22, 2010 GEORGE Osborne yesterday dropped a tax bombshell – announcing that VAT will rise from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent. The chancellor said the rise, which will be implemented on 4 January 2011, is expected to generate up to £13bn for the public purse. He said: “The years of debt and spending make this [...]
Retailers warn tax hike threatens sales recovery June 22, 2010 RETAILERS yesterday warned the rise in VAT would dent a recovery on the High Street, but won an important concession by convincing the Treasury to delay its introduction until 4 January. Treasury sources said the chancellor had taken into account the “hoo hah” experienced by the industry when the last change in VAT was enacted almost [...]
Markets relieved by lack of surprise in Budget June 22, 2010 As far as financial markets were concerned, the emergency Budget came in pretty much as had been telegraphed over the previous few weeks. With George Osborne starting by saying that this was going to be a “tough but fair” Budget that was ultimately “unavoidable”, the tone was set right from the off. It is fair [...]
Braced for the worst, we watched as Boy George’s voice finally broke June 22, 2010 AFTER months of playing with imaginary numbers, yesterday will go down as the day little Boy George grew up. Gone was the silky blue bowtie and tails of his youth as he took the floor, hunched over his brief. Gone were the floppy curls of dark hair in favour of a sensible brush to the [...]
Controversial IR35 tax rules set to be scrapped in a boost to small business June 22, 2010 SMALL businesses were given a boost by the chancellor yesterday with the news that controversial IR35 tax rules for entrepreneurs using personal service companies could be abolished. Other fillips included a reduction in the small profits tax rate and a national insurance contribution holiday for small start-ups in certain regions. Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax [...]
Government to review anti-avoidance rules in a bid to battle UK tax evasion June 22, 2010 THE GOVERNMENT pledged yesterday to crack down on high earners who avoid paying UK tax. Yesterday chancellor George Osborne said that avoidance activity was “not fair” because some of Britain’s wealthiest individuals paid less tax than “the people who clean for them”. In the emergency Budget, the government said that it is committed to “developing [...]
No hike in vice levies as 10pc cider tax is scrapped June 22, 2010 VICE goods, including alcohol, fuel and tobacco, survived the budget relatively unscathed, with no new duty rises announced. The rumoured five per cent increase in alcohol duty failed to materialise, although the industry will still be hit by the rise in VAT – likely to add 6p to the average pint. The biggest winners were [...]