Woman receives Economics Nobel Prize for first time October 12, 2009 ELINOR OSTROM yesterday became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics for her work on the use of common resources. A professor at Indiana University in the US, her work showed that user-managed properties such as woodlands or communal water sources were usually better managed than standard economic theories predicted. The received [...]
Returning consumer confidence gives UK retail sales a much-needed boost October 12, 2009 BRITISH retailers will breathe a sigh of relief today following the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which showed a healthy improvement in like-for-like retail sales last month. The data showed that UK retail sales values rose 2.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis in September compared to the previous year when turmoil [...]
House prices rise as new October 12, 2009 NEW demand for houses is outstripping supply coming onto the market and pushing house prices up, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) will say today. The net balance of surveyors reporting rising rather than falling prices jumped to 22 per cent in September, the highest net balance since May 2007. New demand growth has [...]
Let’s unleash the human spirit to create and build October 12, 2009 Whatever else you may want to say about Barack Obama’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize, it is clearly a nod to the enormous power of language as a healer of divisions. Time will tell whether he stops the fighting in Israel, discourages Iran from bomb plans, engages effectively with the Muslim world, heals the [...]
Tax warning for Lloyd’s of London firms October 12, 2009 CITY broker Collins Stewart has sounded alarm bells over insurers Brit and Beazley, after it emerged that the tax man will watch like a hawk companies moving abroad for tax reasons. Ben Cohen, an analyst at the brokerage, has labelled the stocks as “higher risk” because HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is expected to subject [...]
Speedy Hire slows down as a bearish outlook causes its shares to nose dive October 12, 2009 TOOL hire company Speedy Hire yesterday saw its shares nosedive after it warned investors its revenue was running below forecasts. The group’s shares slumped by 11.5 per cent to 38.25p. Speedy Hire said first-half turnover was likely to be around 29 per cent below the same period last year. The group said that with no [...]
YouGov slips into the red as clients rein in spending October 12, 2009 POLLING and research firm YouGov dipped into the red last year and said it expects trading to remain challenging as its clients continue to rein in expenditure in the downturn. YouGov posted a pre-tax loss of £0.7m for the year to the end of July, compared with a pre-tax profit of £4m last year. Turnover [...]
CPE heads for AIM listing October 12, 2009 China Private Equity Investment (CPE) yesterday announced its intention to seek an admission on AIM in order to pursue its strategy of investing in small to medium-sized high growth companies operating principally in China. On admission, CPE will be capitalised at £14.5m. First day dealings in the group’s shares are expected in mid October.
Latvia to meet IMF conditions October 12, 2009 Latvia’s ruling coalition said on Monday it would meet 2010 budget pledges to international lenders. Latvia, facing an contraction of 18 per cent this year and soaring unemployment, is dependent on funds from a €7.5bn (£7bn) rescue programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund and European Union last year. But to keep the funds flowing [...]
Coventry bond issue nets 350m October 12, 2009 Coventry Building Society said yesterday that it had raised £350m in a heavily-oversubscribed issue of 10-year bonds. Finance director Rob Green said: “I am delighted that there was such demand for this bond – we actually had orders for £600m in just two hours. It shows that investors recognise the strength of the Coventry’s financial [...]