Best Buy’s low sales disappoint June 15, 2010 Top US electronics firm Best Buy reported lower-than-expected sales and profit yesterday, hurt by rising costs to expand its business and signs of weaker consumer demand. Net profit was $15m, or 36 cents a share, for the three months ended 29 May, compared with $153m, or 36 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on [...]
Eskom names new chief executive June 15, 2010 South Africa’s Eskom yesterday appointed Brian Dames as its new chief executive, the power utility said in a statement. The announcement comes as wage negotiations between Eskom and unions are deadlocked, with workers threatening to strike by the end of the week. Unions want an 18 per cent pay increase plus housing allowances while Eskom [...]
The accidental transport secretary turns his sights on planes and trains June 15, 2010 IT wasn’t meant to be like this. If the Tories had won an outright majority on 7 May, Philip Hammond would have gone to the Treasury as chief secretary and implemented the toughest spending cuts in a generation. As part of the coalition agreement, however, he had to step aside for a Liberal Democrat and [...]
BRIGHT STARS GATHER AT CITY’S ANNUAL OSCARS June 15, 2010 THOMSON Reuters rolled out the (imaginary) red carpet yesterday for the annual Extel awards, commonly known as the “Oscars” of the City. This year’s affair, hosted by perky Today presenter John Humphrys, was decidedly more upbeat than in 2009, when “credit crunch” presenter Axel Threlfall of Thomson Reuters’ multimedia platform Project Insider quipped that he [...]
£1,376,000,000,000 The amount of debt Britain will be saddled with by 2015 June 14, 2010 THE national debt will hit a staggering £1.4 trillion by 2014-15, equivalent to £23,000 for every man, woman and child. The revelation came in Britain’s first official but independent set of fiscal forecasts, released by the newly-created Office for Budget Responsibility yesterday. Interest payments on the massive debt pile are set to soar to £67bn [...]
CGT CAMPAIGN GATHERS PACE June 14, 2010 ANOTHER influential investor body yesterday pledged their support for City A.M.’s campaign against the new government’s planned hikes to capital gains tax (CGT) – proposals this newspaper believes would unfairly punish private investors and derail enterprise and long-term investment in the UK. The Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS) has already written [...]
Time is fast running out for ailing BP June 14, 2010 BP will be destroyed by US litigation – that, at least, was the shocking message forcibly conveyed to me by several senior US business executives at a high-powered dinner party last night. Guests were starkly divided by nationality: the Brits (correctly, in my view) highlighted the point that several US firms are deeply involved in [...]
Murdoch bids for BSkyB June 14, 2010 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation approached BSkyB with a bid to take full control of the satellite broadcaster that valued the company at roughly £12bn, but was rebuffed, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. BSkyB, which has News Corporation as its largest shareholder and Rupert Murdoch’s son James as its chairman, rejected the bid [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 14, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MINISTERS URGED TO EXTEND WIND SUBSIDIES One of the biggest investors in UK wind power will warn the government on Tuesday that it must extend subsidies for the industry or risk losing investment as European countries vie to build up wind capacity. ARAB NATIONS URGED TO MEET AID PROMISES Arab countries have been urged to use more of their [...]
Boris seeks wider powers June 14, 2010 Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, is proposing he takes on much wider powers covering development, housing, transport and the Olympic legacy in a far-reaching shake-up of the way the capital is governed. The proposals, which will devolve more powers from Whitehall to City Hall, are set to be unveiled today at the first meeting since the [...]