Aviva rebuffs £5bn bid from RSA August 13, 2010 INSURER RSA has approached rival Aviva about buying its general insurance operations in the UK and elsewhere for £5bn, Sky News has reported. Aviva declined to comment, while RSA was not immediately available. The approach was immediately rejected by the Aviva board, and there are no ongoing discussions between the companies, accoring to the report. [...]
John Lewis sales accelerating August 13, 2010 RETAILER John Lewis said year-on-year department store sales accelerated last week, shrugging off fears that prospective tax rises and employment uncertainty would hit consumer spending. The employee-owned firm, traditionally seen as a bellwether of the UK retail sector but which has outperformed competitors for over a year, said sales at its 28 department stores and [...]
German economy grows by “record” 2.2pc August 13, 2010 The German economy grew by 2.2 per cent in the three months to the end of June – its fastest quarterly growth in 20 years, official figures show Strong exports, helped by a weaker euro, fuelled the rise. The national statistics office, Destatis, said: “”Such quarter-on-quarter growth has never been recorded before in reunified Germany,”
Cable snubbed over Green role August 12, 2010 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable, a vociferous opponent of tax avoidance, was not consulted over the appointment of Sir Philip Green to lead a review into government efficiency, City A.M. has learned. In the past, Sir Philip has been associated with sophisticated tax planning arrangements in the UK and offshore locations to produce tax savings on [...]
BAA staff set to strike over wages August 12, 2010 UK AIRPORTS are set to face chaos in the coming weeks after BAA staff in the Unite union voted three-to-one in favour of strike action yesterday. Unite, which represents two-thirds of BAA’s workforce, said the vote showed the firm’s offer of a one per cent basic pay rise was “derisory”. Union heads will meet on [...]
Alarm at drop in Greek GDP August 12, 2010 WEAKER than expected growth from Greece and a surge in unemployment spread fresh fears in the City yesterday over the country’s ability to weather the sovereign debt crisis. The Greek economy shrank by 1.5 per cent in the second quarter and the unemployment rate jumped to 12 per cent, according to official statistics, reflecting the [...]
De La Rue stumped for an answer August 12, 2010 IN the 1930s the bank note manufacturer De la Rue created a number of boardgames, including a cricket game called Stumpz. Yesterday its chief executive James Hussey was well and truly stumped as he resigned with immediate effect following the discovery last month of serious problems with the group’s paper production operations. What makes this [...]
BP hit by record US fine August 12, 2010 BP will pay a record $50.6m (£32.5m) fine for continuing safety problems at its Texas City refinery, where an explosion in 2005 killed 15 workers and injured around 180. The energy giant, still reeling from the Gulf oil spill, has settled 270 of the 709 cases brought against it by the US Operational Safety and [...]
Big Pharma in corruption probe August 12, 2010 The US government is investigating leading pharmaceuticals firms as part of a corruption probe. Companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Merck are under scrutiny for hospitality, licensing and consultant payments made across the world. The US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are thought to be examining whether the drugs market breaches local [...]
Android overtakes iPhone sales August 12, 2010 Global sales of Apple’s iPhone have been overtaken by phones using Google’s Android system, according to research by Gartner. Android’s global share of the market now stands at 17.2 per cent, up from 1.8 per cent a year ago, with growth largely coming at the expense of Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. Apple’s [...]