TalkTalk walks the walk March 29, 2010 SOMETIMES the sum of the parts is worth more than the whole. The demerger of Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk is the logical step for a company whose level of growth and evolution had started to trip itself up. TalkTalk fared well in trading today. The UK’s number one residential broadband provider, supplying over 4m homes, [...]
Carphone Warehouse March 29, 2010 Carphone Warehouse now owns 50 per cent of the retail arm of the business, including The Phone House, Best Buy Europe and Best Buy Mobile. It shares the outlets with its American partner Best Buy. It also owns 100 per cent of CPW Property, which owns and maintains the firm’s property portfolio. In addition it [...]
Talk Talk March 29, 2010 TalkTalk boasts being the UK’s biggest consumer broadband provider, supplying 4.2m homes. It also provides stand-alone fixed line services. It uses BT’s existing copper connections for its regular broadband. It also provides BT’s bundled superfast fibre connections on a wholesale basis, albeit with greatly reduced margins. It is looking at ways to roll out its [...]
Four Rio Tinto iron ore staff jailed in China March 29, 2010 RIO Tinto was scrambling to rebuild its relationship with China yesterday after four employees were convicted of stealing commercial secrets and taking bribes by a Shanghai court. Stern Hu, the mining giant’s former head of iron ore sales in China, and three colleagues were sentenced to between seven and 14 years in jail. All four [...]
LSE says it may fire compliance staff to cut costs March 29, 2010 THE London Stock Exchange (LSE) may start firing its own compliance staff to force down costs in line with rivals unless regulators create a level playing field, it said yesterday. LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet said the London bourse and rival Chi-X Europe were roughly level in terms of market share in equities trading of [...]
Share prices plummet as Falklands oil exploration reveals poor results March 29, 2010 DESIRE Petroleum, a UK oil exploration company, spooked investors by revealing poor drilling results in the Falklands yesterday. The firm’s share price fell 50 per cent after logging operations at its Liz well showed oil may be present in thin intervals but the overall reservoir quality is poor. It closed down 49p at 50p. The [...]
Antisoma crushed as lung cancer drug fails to deliver in late trials March 29, 2010 CANCER specialist Antisoma suffered a crushing blow yesterday as a lung cancer drug being developed with Novartis failed in a late-stage trial. Chief executive Glyn Edwards admitted Antisoma is now unlikely to get any money from its ASA404 treatment, which had been its biggest drug hope. An interim analysis concluded that continuing with the study [...]
Travelodge hotel will go ahead March 29, 2010 Travelodge yesterday announced it has secured planning permission for a 111-bed hotel in the heart of Twickenham, on London Road. The new-build hotel will involve a £7.5m investment in the town, and create 30 new jobs in the area. The development will start construction this summer and is expected to complete in Autumn 2011. Travelodge [...]
TD Bank awarded gilt status March 29, 2010 US bank Toronto Dominion Bank said yesterday its London branch has been recognised as a gilt-edged market maker by the UK Debt Management Office and the London Stock Exchange. As a recognised market maker, Toronto Dominion Bank said it would participate in gilt auctions by the UK government. UK government bond issuances rose to £225.1bn [...]
Balfour nets £200m contracts March 29, 2010 Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has been handed a number of lucrative support services contracts worth around £200m from the Highways Agency, Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water. The Highways Agency entrusted Balfour Beatty an extension to a joint venture covering the motorway and trunk road network in the South West, while the firm will also now [...]