Myners set to examine bank profitability November 29, 2009 CITY minister Lord Myners will delve deeper into how investment banks are generating a crop of bumper profits next month, after highlighting concerns that they may have been generated unfairly as a result of taxpayer bailouts or taking advantage of market chatter. Myners will stop short of launching a full-scale official investigation but will return [...]
Lords anxious over Brussels’ hold on City November 29, 2009 MEMBERS of the House of Lords have written to City minister Lord Myners to highlight the need for the government to take a tougher stance on negotiations with Brussels over the reform of financial supervision in the European Union. The Lords EU sub-committee on economic and financial affairs is concerned that under current proposals, the [...]
Norton Rose is ready to expand in Asia on the back of its latest deal November 29, 2009 There is light at the end of the economic night – of that Peter Martyr is fairly certain. But the CEO of NortonRose, the City law firm, wants to make sure we are not facing a false dawn before he gets too excited. As he puts it: “The financial crisis has moved so quickly that [...]
Nat Ex loses East Anglia line November 26, 2009 EMBATTLED transport group National Express was dealt a further blow yesterday, after the Department for Transport (DfT) said it would take back its East Anglia franchise early. The government, which franchises the lines out to operators like National Express and FirstGroup, will take the line back on 31 March 2011, it said, rather than extending [...]
BAEslashes 642 further jobs in slump November 26, 2009 DEFENCE GIANT BAE Systems is planning to slash up to 642 jobs at eight sites across the UK, it said yesterday, as demand at one of its units plummeted. The sites affected are part of the company’s BAE Systems Insyte unit, which supplies radar surveillance, command and information systems, mission training and underwater systems programmes [...]
Network Rail is on track with cutting costs, but says revenue is still falling November 26, 2009 NETWORK RAIL, the rail infrastructure company, reported pre-tax profits of £146m for the six months to September yesterday, but said its net debt remained at more than £22bn, and its pension deficit had risen to almost £1bn. But chief executive Iain Coucher said the group was making good progress towards its efficiency savings target of [...]
Zurich and CSC in $2.9bn deal November 26, 2009 Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) has signed a $2.9bn (£1.76bn), 10-and-a-half year master service agreement with Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) for IT services in Europe and North America. The deal is expected to pave the way for country specific agreements later. Under the contract, CSC will centralise Zurich’s data centre and virtualise its servers and [...]
Walsh makes runway case November 26, 2009 British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh yesterday launched a roadshow to drum up regional support for Heathrow’s third runway. Walsh spoke to business leaders in Newcastle, saying Heathrow was an important domestic hub for businesses outside London needing a connection for long-haul flights. The speech was the opening gambit in a bid to soften Conservative [...]
Volkswagen invests in Brazil November 26, 2009 Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, plans to invest up to 6.2bn reais (£2.25bn) between 2010 and 2014 in Brazil to meet growing demand for automobiles, the head of its unit in the country said yesterday. VW expects Brazil’s car sales to reach 4m units by 2014, compared with about 3m now, chairman of Brazil VW Thomas [...]
Flash the cash on a few of the nicer things in life November 26, 2009 SHOPPING season is here, but that generally means shopping for presents for other people. There’s nothing like mooching around department stores looking for expensive gifts to make you realise what extravagant things you’d really like for Christmas, but aren’t likely to get. Indulge yourself, we say. Whisper it, but there’s still going to be rather [...]