Battle of the broadcasters – BT vs SKY July 1, 2010 • BT yesterday attacked its major TV rival, offering Sky Sports 1 for as little as £6.99 a month • Sky pre-empted the BT move by hiking its wholesale prices, hitting the telecom firm hard IAN Livingstone, BT chief executive, could be staring down a £100m-a-year black hole after announcing a ground-breaking football package. The [...]
Miners agree Australian tax July 1, 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN government has settled a long-running spat with mining firms over the introduction of a mining super-profits tax. Prime minister Julia Gillard announced this morning that profits on iron ore and coal mining in the country will be taxed at 30 per cent, down from the 40 per cent mooted by her predecessor Kevin [...]
The real causes of the crisis of 2008 July 1, 2010 FOR all the latest furore surrounding bankers’ bonuses and the rest, we have yet again lost sight of how the crisis actually began, and politicians and regulators’ central role in promoting it. There were many factors, of course, with private institutions often behaving foolishly – but sub-prime lending, the crisis’ central catalyst, was promoted by [...]
Double-dip fears resurge July 1, 2010 FEARS of a global slump back into recession heightened yesterday after a slew of negative data showed manufacturing output slowed across the world and pending home sales in the US crashed by a third. Tokyo’s Nikkei stock index tumbled to its lowest level since 2005, while the FTSE 100 plunged to its lowest level in [...]
Aviva aims for clarity with its £8bn forecast July 1, 2010 INSURANCE firm Aviva will tell investors today it expects to boost the amount of capital it generates by at least 30 per cent this year to £1.3bn. The firm will also say its existing book will return £8bn in the next five years, in an effort to clarify its money-making potential to investors. Aviva is [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 1, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES GENERAL ELECTRIC CHIEF VENTS FRUSTRATION OVER CHINA The GE chief executive Jeff Immelt told Italian industrialists at a dinner on Wednesday that he was worried about the way Beijing was treating foreign companies. “I am not sure that in the end they want any of us to win or any of us to [...]
Dana reveals takeover talk as shares rise July 1, 2010 OIL and gas company Dana Petroleum has received a preliminary takeover approach from an unnamed company, the firm announced yesterday. The approach follows speculation last week that Austrian fuel group OMV was preparing to make a takeover bid, which sent share prices rocketing. Unconfirmed reports named the Korean National Oil Company as the current suitor. [...]
Dana Petroleum July 1, 2010 PERRENIAL takeover favourite Dana Petroleum has finally got an official offer. At 1,176p a share, Dana is valued at £1.09bn and KNOC’s bid is believed to be around £1.5bn. But investors shouldn’t let it go on the cheap. Yes its recent update declaring that the Monkwell gas discovery in the UK North Sea was too [...]
BA to offload pension risk to insurance firm July 1, 2010 BRITISH Airways said it had removed £1.3bn of pension risk in a deal with Goldman Sachs-owned insurance specialists Rothesay Life yesterday, removing another obstacle to its planned merger with Spanish airline Iberia. BA will pay Rothesay for insurance on 20 per cent of its exposure to the Airlines Pension Scheme, which provides defined benefit pensions [...]
ECB relief as banks repay €442bn loans July 1, 2010 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as banks repaid a record €442bn (£365bn) in year-long emergency loans. Demand for short-term credit was lower than expected, with Eurozone banks taking out €403bn (£332bn) in stopgap loans to keep liquidity during the repayment period. More than 1,100 banks paid back the 12-month loans [...]