FTSE 100 Live: Stocks to dip after Asian markets hit with tech jitters; Oil falls as OPEC+ ups output
Rail worker strike talks resume April 12, 2010 Network Rail and the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union have resumed talks to resolve disputes between rail maintenance workers and management. Strikes were called off last week after an emergency High Court injunction was granted to Network Rail following a legal challenge to the union’s ballot. RMT’s officials will also meet this week to [...]
TRADER CALLS TIME ON SPOOF BAILOUT April 12, 2010 STRANGE happenings in cyber-space yesterday as a spoof charity site that has been causing much hilarity in the City was mysteriously whipped off the Web. The site in question was masterminded by Standard Bank bonds trader Jim Croft, who decided last week to set up a tongue-in-cheek JustGiving page to help raise £100m for crisis-stricken [...]
Ronson tops out the City’s Heron Tower April 12, 2010 HERON Tower, the tallest building in the City of London, was yesterday “topped out” at a ceremony held by the developer Heron International and construction firm Skanska. The 46-storey development, near Liverpool Street Station, is to be completed in February next year and will add 40,836 square metres of commercial office space to the London [...]
Surging demand fuels commercial property recovery April 12, 2010 BUSINESS take-up of commercial property space in the Central London area shot up in the first three months of this year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, the commercial real estate services company. Total take-up was 3.5m square feet, an increase of 20 per cent from the fourth quarter in 2009, and was largely driven by [...]
BASF set to make bid for Cognis April 12, 2010 The world’s largest chemical producer, BASF, is looking to buy Cognis. The bid, which could come as early as next week, would value the German maker of additives for cosmetics and detergents at about €3bn (£2.6bn). The owners of Cognis, Permira and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners turned down takeover offers for Cognis in 2006 as [...]
Glenmark settles patent row April 12, 2010 Glenmark Pharmaceuticals yesterday said its unit settled a legal row with riva GlaxoSmithKline over patent actions on doses of atovaquone and proguanil hydrochloride, the generic version of GSK’s Malarone malaria treatment tablets. Under terms of the settlement, Glenmark Generics would be able to market and distribute the generic version of Malarone tablets under a royalty-bearing [...]
M&C has assets seized in China April 12, 2010 Hotelier Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) yesterday said a joint venture partner in China had seized control of an office, sacked staff and sold assets including a hotel and a resort. M&C said following his dismissal in November the partner and former manager had procured the sale of the West Coast Resort Hainan Hotel and a [...]
Election spurs British home owners to sell April 12, 2010 SELLERS returned to the property market with a vengeance in March with the net balance of new instructions at its highest level since May 2007, the latest survey from the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (Rics) will show today. A net balance of 21 per cent of surveyors saw a rise in new instructions compared [...]
Zoo Digital enjoys a boost after it upgrades forecast April 12, 2010 ZOO Digital, which helps distribute programmes including Sex and the City, yesterday said full-year turnover would come in significantly ahead of expectations due to a strong pipeline of new contract wins. Zoo expects to report turnover of around $15m (£9.8m) for the year to March, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation coming in [...]
North-South housing divide stark as ever April 12, 2010 THE chasm between house prices in the north and south of the UK is as wide as ever, according to a new report published yesterday. Not one of the ten streets with the lowest average property values in England and Wales was in the south of the country, the property research website Mouseprice Most Affordable [...]