Asda warns of shopper misery as sales drop August 17, 2010 SUPERMARKET chain Asda said yesterday shoppers were being hit in the pocket by government cuts as like-for-like sales excluding fuel fell 0.4 per cent in the second quarter. The chain said its market share had reduced in the 12 weeks to 11 July as total sales crept up “in the low single digits”. Chief executive [...]
BAA fends off strike with 2pc pay offer August 17, 2010 THE UNITE union told its workers yesterday they should accept a pay offer by airport operator BAA, as strike action over the August bank holiday was averted. BAA has offered ground staff a two per cent pay rise plus a one-off payment of at least £500 depending on company results, the union said yesterday, following [...]
FSA bans five insurance execs and hands out £150,000 fine over fraud August 17, 2010 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned five individuals in relation to insurance fraud and given one director a near-record fine of £150,000. The FSA said yesterday that the five insurance executives whom it had banned had shown complete disregard for the interests of their customers. Andrew Jeffery, a director of Jeffery Flanders Limited, was [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK BAA WAS RIGHT TO OFFER UNITE WORKERS A BETTER PAY DEAL TO AVOID STRIKE ACTION? August 17, 2010 JONATHAN RUMBALL | ROYAL LONDON “It’s not really right, everybody else is having to struggle, ask how many other people are getting pay rises this year? It’s typical union stuff, putting a gun to BAA’s head. They had them over a barrel.” GREG BEALER | CORNHILL CAPITAL “If it stops strike action then maybe it [...]
Cairn claims red tape may hold up deal August 17, 2010 TOP executives from Cairn Energy met Indian government officials yesterday to seek approval of its plans to sell a controlling stake in Cairn India to Vedanta for up to $9.6bn (£6.1bn). Cairn Energy chief executive Bill Gammell flew to New Delhi to meet oil minister Murli Deora and other officials to discuss implications of the [...]
Profits up at London Capital August 17, 2010 spread betting company London Capital Group, said first-half adjusted pre-tax profit rose 12 per cent yesterday, helped by strong spread betting performance, but cut its interim dividend by 60 per cent. “If the rest of the year follows the route of the first half, we would expect to be paying quite a substantial dividend at [...]
Koreans snap up French shopping mall August 17, 2010 SOUTH Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) said yesterday it would buy a 51 per cent stake in a French shopping mall from Anglo-French property investor Hammerson for around 350bn won (£189m). The deal is the latest addition to NPS’s growing investments in overseas property assets which include a $767m (£493m) purchase of Sony Center in [...]
SMITH JETS OFF ON LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY August 17, 2010 IN THE wake of the crisis, understated chic is still the name of the game for City top dogs – even when they’re kicking back on their summer hols. Who should be spotted by one of The Capitalist’s spies yesterday in Juan Les Pins, France, but Tullett Prebon boss Terry Smith, still pale-faced on the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 17, 2010 LLOYDS Morgan Stanley places an “underweight” rating on Lloyds banking group. It says first-half figures were reassuring but warns of lower improvement ahead, with a slowing down of its book re-pricing. The bank faces a funding challenge, with the world facing austerity measures and a predicted housing dip by the end of 2011, it believes. [...]
Carillion renews EDF contract August 17, 2010 Support services company Carillion has been awarded a five-year extension to its existing contracts with EDF Energy, worth £200m. Carillion’s existing four-year contracts began in 2007, and are being extended from January 2011. Under the contract extensions, worth £40m a year, Carillion will deliver infrastructure services for sub-stations and cabling to support the electricity network [...]