Car sales plunge despite scrappage scheme January 21, 2010 CAR production plunged last year despite a late surge fuelled by the Government’s scrappage scheme. Many companies cut back on manufacturing early in the year as recession-hit Brits cut back. Honda was one of the companies badly hit – reducing production at its plant in Swindon, Wiltshire, for four months from February. The introduction of [...]
Tube strike over Jubilee line pay row January 21, 2010 LONDON Underground maintenance workers on the Jubilee Line are to stage a series of 24-hour walkouts in a row over pay. Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) employed by Alstom on the Jubilee line will walk out from 7.29pm next Wednesday. They will also strike each Sunday evening at the same time [...]
Rusal raises $2.2bn with Hong Kong listing January 21, 2010 RUSSIAN aluminium giant Rusal has sold $2.2bn (£1.36bn) of shares in a public listing in Hong Kong. Rusal sold 1.61bn shares at 10.80 Hong Kong dollars (86 pence) each. Shares in the company will start trading on 27 January. Rusal, which is the first Russian company to list in Hong Kong, is controlled by the [...]
Fraud costs UK economy £30bn a year January 21, 2010 FRAUD costs the UK £30bn every year – more than double previous estimates. The total equates to £621 per adult in the UK, according to the annual report buy the National Fraud Authority. A massive 58 per cent of fraud was in the public sector at a cost of £17bn. False insurance claims cost the [...]
John Lewis sales up after thaw January 21, 2010 JOHN Lewis’s sales shot up last week as the big thaw saw customers flooding back. The department store chain reported an 11.1 per cent rise in turnover – with more than half its outlets up on last year’s equivalent sales. Fashion sales were up 19 per cent with cold weather clothing. Oxford Street grew sales [...]
New rules would be bad for London January 21, 2010 HOW predictable. No sooner was Barack Obama humiliated by the Massachusetts electorate earlier this week – his left-wing candidate lost Ted Kennedy’s ultra safe seat to a radical conservative – than he announces another war on Wall Street. It is easy to forget in Britain, where Obama remains extraordinarily popular, that his administration is no [...]
Tories give their full support to Obama’s plans January 21, 2010 THE Tories yesterday threw their weight behind Barack Obama’s plans to break up Wall Street institutions and hinted that a Conservative government could follow suit. “This is a welcome move by President Obama that accords very much with our thinking. I have said consistently that we should look at separating retail banking from activities like [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 21, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MUSIC INDUSTRY CLAIMS 95 PER CENT OF DOWNLOADS ILLEGAL AS CD SALES FALL A quarter of all recorded music industry revenues come from digital channels but online file-sharing continues to undermine the global music industry, with sales of physical and digital music falling last year, according to trade body the International Federation of [...]
OBAMA’S PLAN | HOW IT COULD HIT THE CITY’S BIGGEST PLAYERS January 21, 2010 RBS Has a hedge fund and prop trading desk. As it is majority owned by the government, taxpayers will be the biggest losers if it is forced to close down profitable businesses. HSBC Expected to be one of the least affected banks. While it has a large US presence, its investment banking business is geographically [...]
Obama shouldn’t break up the banks January 21, 2010 BARACK Obama might be planning to limit the size of investment banks and the risks they can take on, but those who support a newer version of the legislation that emerged in the Great Depression – such as the now-defunct Glass Steagall Act – should take note: If the recent glut of US bank earnings [...]