Aviva warns firms over executive pay March 1, 2010 ChairmEn of large listed companies in the UK were warned to justify executive pay packets by one of the country’s biggest fund managers, it emerged yesterday. Aviva’s fund management arm, Aviva Investors, wrote to over 800 firms telling them it expected salaries and bonuses to be “prudent [and] aligned to business strategy and performance over [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK MORE CHIEF EXECUTIVES WILL DONATE THEIR BONUS TO CHARITY? March 1, 2010 DOUGLAS HELLER | HERBERT SMITH “Hopefully this will be the beginning of a trend but I suspect that if it is, the amount they will donate in the future will start to decrease. They’re doing it to get the government on their side. Less pressure from the public means more support from the government.” DICKIE [...]
Goals cheers after annual sales shoot up March 1, 2010 FIVE-a-side football pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres posted a seven per cent rise in profits yesterday, and said it planned to open seven new arenas this year. Sales for 2009 were up 10 per cent at £26m while profits jumped to £8.8m. The company said it was set to open the seven UK centres in [...]
Weak pound offers lifeline to factories March 1, 2010 RECOVERY in Britain’s hard-hit manufacturing sector is continuing apace, boosted by record growth in new exports and the strongest output growth since September 1996, a leading survey revealed yesterday. The CIPS/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) recorded a reading of 56.6 in February, unchanged from January’s fifteen-year high and well above the 50 mark that [...]
Mortgage approvals plummet March 1, 2010 LENDING to firms and households showed little sign of picking up in January from historically weak levels, in spite of a year of quantitative easing, Bank of England data showed yesterday. The Bank’s preferred measure of broad money growth M4, which excludes activity between intermediate financial institutions, stagnated in January. The annualised quarterly rate of [...]
Lending to households and firms was flat in January March 1, 2010 LENDING to firms and households showed little sign of picking up in January from historically weak levels, in spite of a year of quantitative easing, Bank of England data showed yesterday. The Bank’s preferred measure of broad money growth M4, which excludes activity between intermediate financial institutions, stagnated in January. The annualised quarterly rate of [...]
US consumer spending jumps by more than expected as manufacturing grows March 1, 2010 US consumer spending increased slightly faster than expected in January while the US manufacturing sector grew, adding credence to the view that the economic recovery is in full swing. The Commerce Department said yesterday that spending rose 0.5 per cent, increasing for a fourth straight month, after advancing by an upwardly-revised 0.3 per cent in [...]
European car sales rise in February despite caution March 1, 2010 Car sales rose sharply in France, Italy and Spain in February as scrappage schemes lifted business, but European carmakers are set to face tougher times ahead as governments phase out incentives. Scrapping programmes, which encourage new car purchases by paying cash bonuses when old models are traded in for new ones, limited the fall in [...]
Daimler in China joint venture March 1, 2010 Daimler plans to develop electric cars for China with battery maker BYD, underscoring the German carmaker’s dependence on outside companies to gain share in the market for zero-emission vehicles. Daimler’s alliance continues a trend among European carmakers, which have scrambled to strike alliances with battery makers as a way of expanding into electric and zero [...]
Japan drugmaker in US bid March 1, 2010 Astellas Pharma launched a $3.5bn (£2.3bn) hostile bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals to gain access to the blockbuster Tarceva cancer drug, in the latest move by a Japanese drugmaker to make inroads in the US. OSI shares surged 51.8 per cent to $56.20, well above Astellas’ $52-per-share offer as analysts expected a higher price or even [...]