BAA boost as Heathrow has record month August 10, 2010 THE number of people travelling through BAA’s UK airports increased by 0.3 per cent to 10.9m in July. Heathrow recorded its busiest ever month, with 6.7m people making journeys through the airport – 3.5 per cent more than last year. Meanwhile Sunday 18th July was Heathrow’s busiest ever day, with 232,000 passengers. Across BAA, the [...]
EU plans to levy direct tax on UK August 9, 2010 EUROPEAN bureaucrats are preparing plans for an EU-wide levy on financial transactions, domestic aviation and carbon dioxide emissions, putting them on a collision course with the British government. The European Commission wants to impose a series of pan-European taxes to fund its €140bn (£116bn) annual budget, allowing cash-strapped member states to reduce the amount of [...]
Investors stop £1.7bn super trust August 9, 2010 F&C ASSET MANAGEMENT was celebrating a dramatic victory last night after small investors shot down a merger between the F&C Commercial Property Trust (FCPT) and Ignis’ UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT). Minority shareholders voted by a narrow margin to block the creation of a £1.7bn “super trust” by joining the two real estate funds. In [...]
Skype eyes a $100m listing August 9, 2010 Skype, a provider of Internet telephone services, plans to raise up to $100m (£62.8m) in an initial public offering of its shares in the US, according to filings made to regulators yesterday. Analysts said this could be a bid by Skype’s private equity owners to recoup some of their investment of more than $2bn when [...]
Taking on Sky is a risky Vision for BT August 9, 2010 INthe run up to the new football season there is a fascinating encounter taking place off the field as BT Vision tries to take on the might of BSkyB in the showing of live football. BT Vision, boosted by a ruling from the regulator on the price that Sky can sell its sports channels to [...]
Unions threaten air chaos strikes August 9, 2010 UNIONS are threatening to cause travel chaos in the run-up to the August Bank Holiday with a ballot over strike action against the British Airports Authority (BAA). The Unite ballot of more than 6,000 firefighters and ground staff at six airports, including Heathrow, is expected to come out in favour of strikes on Thursday after [...]
Gulf well stakeholder sells bonds August 9, 2010 Anadarko Petroleum, which owns 25 per cent of the Macondo well at the centre of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, said yesterday it sold $2bn worth of bonds and will now not need a $1.5bn loan it previously lined up. Anadarko said it raised $6.5bn in financing commitments, in part to pay for potential [...]
Ambac in bankruptcy warning August 9, 2010 Financial services group Ambac said it lost $57.6m in the second quarter, after the US bond insurer suffered big losses on securities. The company warned it may have to file for bankruptcy if it cannot restructure its liabilities by the second quarter of 2011. The firm is looking at raising capital as well as a [...]
BBC to abolish pension top-ups August 9, 2010 The BBC board is set to scrap pension top-up payments to around 30 executives at the corporation, saving more than £1m. The move would slash director general Mark Thompson’s pay packet by around 20 per cent, in a bid to diffuse criticism over executive pay.
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 9, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES VOLATILITY IN WALL STREET TAKES IT TOLL ON TOP BANKS Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley each suffered at least 10 days of trading losses in the second quarter, underlining how turbulent markets have cast a pall on Wall Street since April. The banks’ trading results deteriorated sharply from the first three months of [...]