EasyJet faces shareholder row over pay February 9, 2010 SHAREHOLDERS in easyJet have been urged to vote down the remuneration report at the airline group’s annual meeting next week by the investor advisory group Pirc. Pirc, which tends to take a tough line on executive pay, argues that various changes have been made to the airline company’s long term incentive programme without shareholder approval. [...]
Toyota moves ahead with a global recall February 9, 2010 TOYOTA suffered another blow to its image yesterday as it announced it was recalling nearly half a million hybrid models, including the latest version of its iconic Prius. The recall – the third at the beleaguered Japanese carmaker – comes on top of the 8m vehicles worldwide already needing fixes for problems with accelerator pedals. [...]
Prius hybrid callback continues to hit brand February 9, 2010 YOUGOV’s BrandIndex shows a steep fall in Toyota’s reputation with consumers following a series of recent recalls of their vehicles. The company has been plagued by a number of problems concerning the reliability of their brakes, accelerator pedals and floor mats. PRIUS HYBRID RECALL EXTENDS Yesterday’s announcement of further recalls of the Prius Hybrid is [...]
Nissan confident as it returns to profit February 9, 2010 NISSAN, Japan’s third-largest automaker, returned to quarterly profit yesterday and lifted its outlook for the second time, as brisk global sales signal the worst may be over for the auto industry. Nissan joins Toyota and Honda in raising annual forecasts, underscoring the impact of government stimulus and the improvement in the global economy following the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 9, 2010 ICAP Bank of America Merrill Lynch adds ICAP to its “Europe 1” buy list saying its current share price ignores the company’s strong portfolio of assets. Despite its revised earnings guidance for the third quarter, it believes its recent share price fall has been overdone. It notes half ICAP’s profits will come from electronic businesses [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 9, 2010 ING Real Estate The investment management company has appointed Mike Evans, the chairman of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, as a new non-executive director. Evans has held an advisory role with ING for over three years. He also recently completed a two-year stint as director of life assurance at law firm Pinsent Masons and originally spent almost [...]
Hector Sants to step down as FSA boss February 9, 2010 HECTOR Sants has resigned as the head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in a move that throws the future of financial regulation into doubt. Sants had been a major figure in the massive shake-up of banking reform following the global financial crisis. He has also spoken out against plans by the Conservatives to scrap [...]
UBS returns to profit February 9, 2010 SWISS bank UBS has reported its first quarterly profit for more than a year after a cost-cutting programme. UBS made a pre-tax profit of 1.2bn Swiss francs (£722.9m) in the three months to 31 December. This compares with a loss of 9.58bn francs in the same period in 2008. Its annual net loss was reduced [...]
Spain: There’s no costa del crisis February 9, 2010 SPAIN’S finance minister flew to London for emergency talks with bondholders yesterday as debt markets grew fearful over the country’s ability to finance itself. Elena Salgado met with fixed income houses, thought to include M&G and Standard Life, to reiterate the Spanish government’s promise to severely rein in its budget deficit to three per cent [...]
Boots seals clothing deal with Mothercare February 9, 2010 A RANGE of children’s clothing and accessories is to be sold in Boots after the chain sealed a deal with Mothercare. The two already have an agreement through which Boots sells toys from the Early Learning Centre which Mothercare bought in June 2007 for £85m. Mothercare chief executive Ben Gordon said: “We are delighted with [...]