Sainsbury’s ramps up price war November 17, 2009 J Sainsbury has fired another shot in the supermarket discount war by matching Tesco with a buy one, get one free later offer. The offer, which has been welcomed by food waste campaigners, allows shoppers to pick up their free product when they want it via a voucher system. Sainsbury’s said its offer will also [...]
INM rejigs Irish production unit November 17, 2009 Independent News & Media (INM) has announced the complete reorganisation of its print and production assets in Northern and the Republic of Ireland, meaning that its leading facilities in Dublin, Newry and Belfast are to be managed as a single, combined entity. INM said that the move will deliver “significant efficiencies” and “improved time to [...]
Obama creates fraud taskforce November 17, 2009 The Obama administration created a new task force yesterday to crack down on financial fraud, an increasingly important political issue after a spike in mortgage scams and big Wall Street scandals. President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing the task force, led by the Justice Department, to investigate and prosecute financial crimes connected to [...]
Regal fined 600,000 for rules breach November 17, 2009 OIL explorer Regal Petroleum was yesterday landed with a £600,000 fine from the London Stock Exchange for “numerous, serious breaches” of its rules in relation to the company’s Greek exploration wells. The LSE’s Aim market disciplinary committee said statements released by Regal between 2003 and 2005, claiming oil reserves of up to 227m barrels at [...]
ALLEN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER November 17, 2009 Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been diagnosed with cancer. He has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has begun chemotherapy. Allen left Microsoft in 1983 after being first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, and is said to be optimistic he can survive this time also. He continues to work at his investment firm, Vulcan.
IrishLife tumbles after third quarter stats reveal rising bad loan provisions November 17, 2009 BANCASSURER Irish Life & Permanent saw its shares fall by as much as 15 per cent in morning trading yesterday as it revealed rising impairments in its loan book. In a statement described by analysts as “very weak”, the company said total bad debt provisions for the three years to 2011 had risen from €700m [...]
People still value the personal touch from banks November 17, 2009 LAST week saw the launch of NatWest’s personal banking iPhone app, in line with the banking sector’s efforts to cut costs and improve user experience by moving their operations online. Recent YouGov research undertaken on behalf of Deloitte points to the risks in an online strategy: customers place high value on face-to-face interactions in their [...]
Ofcom backs local media consolidation November 17, 2009 An era of consolidation is on the cards for local media, after the industry watchdog Ofcom proposed a relaxation of ownership rules. The regulator has written to the government recommending that radio operators be allowed to consolidate around a local area, helping independent commercial operators compete with the state-funded BBC. They would also liberalise cross-media [...]
Buffett ups his stake in Wal-Mart November 17, 2009 Billionaire Warren Buffett’s vehicle Berkshire Hathaway has made new investments in Nestlé and Exxon Mobil, and nearly doubled its investment in Wal-Mart. In a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Berkshire said it held 3.4m American depositary receipts of Nestlé, worth $144.7m (£86.2m), at 30 September. It also reported owning 1.28m shares of Exxon [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 17, 2009 Neptune Investment ManagementThe fund management boutique has appointed Robert Pickering, the former chief executive of blue-blooded bank JP Morgan Cazenove, to its board of directors. Pickering qualified as a solicitor with Allen & Overy in 1984 and joined Cazenove the following year. He spent a total of 23 years with the firm and was appointed [...]