The Crime Lord: Peter Capaldi on the manosphere, London and rocking out with his band as he approaches 70
Travis Perkins warns of more sector bankruptcies July 30, 2009 TRAVIS Perkins, the builders merchants and owner of DIY chain Wickes, yesterday posted a better-than-expected 27 per cent fall in first-half profit, but warned the sector may see a further slew of bankruptcies before the year is out. The group, which raised £300m in a rights issue in May, reported a pre-tax profit of £90.4m [...]
Alcatel-Lucent sees better days ahead after reporting poor second quarter July 30, 2009 ALCATEL-Lucent expects to burn less cash and improve margins in the second half after reporting deeper quarterly losses, hit by telecoms operators’ cuts in capital spending, the group said yesterday. The French-American telecoms equipment group also said it was monitoring the market to issue convertible bonds but pledged to steer clear of any deal too [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 30, 2009 TARSUSKBC Peel Hunt has moved to a “Hold” recommendation on media group Tarsus after recent interims. It says fundamental trading is modestly better in the current year than expected. Shares have rallied to 114p above their target price of 111p and for this reason recommendations for shareholders switch from “Sell” to “Hold”. BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCOCazenove [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 30, 2009 Cazenove CapitalAsset manager Cazenove Capital has appointed Marcus Gregson as non-executive director. Prior to his retirement, Gregson was the founding chief executive of HSBC Private Bank. He also held the position of managing director of private banking at Royal Trust Bank. He is currently non-executive director of a number of companies, including Sand Aire and [...]
MICROSOFT HITS BACK AT GOOGLE July 29, 2009 SOFTWARE giant Microsoft yesterday sealed a global search advertising deal with internet giant Yahoo, ending a 19-month courtship and launching its next assault on Google’s market dominance. Under the freshly-drafted 10-year agreement, Microsoft’s Bing search engine – launched in June – will power search queries on Yahoo’s sites, while Yahoo will provide the search-advertising sales [...]
Reed share placing to be unveiled July 29, 2009 BUSINESS and scientific magazine publisher Reed Elsevier is today expected to announce plans for a huge rights issue, as it attempts to reduce its $8.3bn (£5.1bn) debt-pile. The Anglo-Dutch company’s new chief executive, Ian Smith, will unveil plans to raise up to 10 per cent of its value through a share placing, as he announces [...]
UK firms pay back debts July 29, 2009 BRITISH companies are paying down bank loans at a record rate, using the proceeds from a surge in capital markets fund-raising, Bank of England data revealed yesterday. In the second quarter, British private non-financial companies paid off a net £15bn, including £3.6bn in June alone. They raised £21bn from the debt and equity markets. So [...]
Poor the great losers from our fiscal folly July 29, 2009 HERE is a disturbing fact you won’t have read anywhere else: the poorest families in Britain today pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than the wealthiest. Such a claim may sound crazy but here are the figures: the bottom fifth of earners pay 38.7 of their gross income in total tax, the [...]
Mortgage approvals rise July 29, 2009 MORTGAGE approvals jumped in June to their highest level in more than a year but consumer lending remained very weak, recording the smallest rise on record, according to Bank of England data released yesterday. The Bank of England said that home loan approvals for new house purchase rose to 47,584 from 44,169 in May, which [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 29, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES CATTLES’ NON-EXECS WIN TEPID SUPPORTLong-suffering investors in cattles, whose shares have been suspended since April, protested yesterday against the re-election of two non-executive directors at the subprime lender’s annual meeting. About a tenth of investors voted against the re-election of David Haxby, senior independent director who has been with the board since 1999, [...]