Think tank calls for curbs on costly EU regulation March 29, 2010 THE SOARING costs of red tape came under the spotlight yesterday as a new report found that regulation has cost the UK economy £176bn over the past 12 years. Of that amount, around 71 per cent – or £124bn – was spent on complying with legislation from the EU, according to think tank Open Europe. [...]
Tax rises hit the price of luxury homes March 29, 2010 ANTICIPATION of increased taxes and lower bonuses has resulted in prices for London’s luxury homes increasing at the slowest rate for a year. According to Savills, the UK estate agent, prices for houses and apartments worth over £1m increased in the first quarter by only three per cent, compared with 4.6 per cent in the [...]
MOSCOW METRO BOMB HORROR March 29, 2010 A WOMAN places flowers in memory of the victims of a bomb explosion at Lubyanka metro station in Moscow. Two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people on packed metro trains yesterday, stirring fears of a broader campaign in Russia’s heartland by Islamists from the North Caucasus.
BC Partners raises £672m in German IP0 March 29, 2010 Brenntag, the world’s biggest chemicals distributor, received a warm reception in its market debut as Germany’s second-biggest floatation this year in a transaction that will net its private equity owners BC Partners £672m. Brenntag’s listing comes as the global market for initial public offerings (IPOs) is gathering pace, after a number of downsizings and postponements, although [...]
The Budget was impotent March 29, 2010 IT was fitting that in the week of the impotent and Kafkaesque Budget, I would end up at the “Business Not as Usual” conference. It is a summit organised by the National Student Enterprise Conference, a grassroots movement of 35,000 UK university students. Leave it to the uncorrupted kids to get things right. Victoria Lennox [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 29, 2010 Bank of America Merrill Lynch The bank has appointed Carole Berndt and Wayne Scott to its corporate banking team as part of a global shake-up. Berndt, pictured, is head of EMEA global treasury services and joined from Citigroup. Scott is head of EMEA financial institutions treasury sales, also based in London. He was most recently [...]
Grainger makes bid approach to Wigley-led Sovereign Reversions March 29, 2010 SOVEREIGN Reversions, the Aim-listed home equity release firm that appointed banking grandee Bob Wigley as non-executive chairman in December, yesterday said it had received a preliminary takeover approach from Grainger, the UK’s largest listed specialist residential landlord. Grainger’s approach has been made at 185p in cash per Sovereign Reversions share, valuing the company at just [...]
Ryanair looks for new phones partner March 29, 2010 Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget airline, said yesterday it would end its in-flight phone service when its trial with OnAir finishes and will instead look for another supplier to roll out the facility across its fleet. The Irish airline said the 13-month contract, which was tested across 50 Ryanair planes, would end because the carrier and [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 29, 2010 HMV Shore Capital have issued a “sell” recommendation for music retailers HMV Group as they remain unconvinced that management can maintain HMV UK profits and suspect profits would already be in decline. Shore Capital said HMV Live also lacks the scale, we believe, to overcome structural pressures on the group’s core businesses. RSM TENON RSM [...]
CITY: LONDON IS LOSING ITS EDGE March 28, 2010 BRITAIN’S status as a leading global financial centre is under threat as the vast majority of the country’s financial services sector believe that the UK has lost the competitiveness that had turned the City into an international financial hub. According to the latest quarterly survey of the financial services sector by the Confederation for British [...]