Ladbrokes closes London casino November 12, 2009 Ladbrokes is understood to have closed its loss-making casino in Paddington, West London, with the loss of 100 jobs. The bookmaker is also thought to have agreed a sale of the licence to Quek Leng Chan, the Malaysian tycoon that owns the Thistle and Guoman hotel chains. Quek entered the UK casino market three years [...]
Intel settles up with AMD in $1.25bn deal November 12, 2009 INTEL has agreed to pay rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) $1.25bn (£755m) to settle all outstanding legal disputes. The settlement ends a campaign that AMD has been waging against its larger rival which stretches back 12 years, and will give the firm vital funds to pay down its $3.2bn of debt. AMD took legal action [...]
Watchdog tells US banks to pay $45bn into insurance pot November 12, 2009 US banks are to pay $45bn (£27bn) to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) to cover the rising cost of banking failures. In an unprecedented move, the FDIC board approved the prepayment of three years of premiums at a meeting yesterday. The prepayment has been described as an alternative to imposing another hefty emergency fee [...]
Tesco looks East for growth and plans new Chinese stores November 12, 2009 TESCO yesterday announced a £100m tie-up with Asian investors to build three shopping centres in China as the first stage of a larger building programme. Britain’s biggest supermarket has signed an agreement for a 50-50 venture with investors including HSBC Nan Fung China Real Estate Fund, Singapore’s Metro Holdings and Hong Kong’s Nan Fung Group. [...]
EU delays new asset valuation rule changes November 12, 2009 BRUSSELS has delayed the introduction in the European Union of radical new accounting rules for banks and insurers. The rules came into force across most of the rest of the world, except the US, yesterday. But the European Commission said it would not accept the changes until it had looked into them further and would [...]
MAGICAL KINGDOM November 12, 2009 WALT Disney posted a larger-than-expected rise in quarterly profit and revenue, boosted by strong performance at its theme parks, an improving ad climate and the media giant’s cable operations. Operating income at Disney’s cable networks grew 19 per cent, fuelled by growth at the worldwide Disney Channels. Net income in the fourth quarter rose to [...]
Kroes: I’m no bank slayer November 12, 2009 EU COMPETITION chief Neelie Kroes yesterday hit back at critics who have slammed her decision to enforce punishing break-up rules on Europe’s bailed-out institutions, insisting she is not a “bank destroyer”. Speaking in Amsterdam, Kroes – nicknamed “Steely Neelie” for her ruthless approach – said: “Our goal is not to break up banks. I am [...]
More pain for restaurants as firms cut back on Christmas November 12, 2009 THE number of restaurants falling into insolvency is set to rise again next year after one of the quietest corporate Christmases on record. The industry’s woes over the financial crisis have been well publicised by the difficulties experienced by the UK’s celebrity chefs. Gordon Ramsay revealed earlier this year that his restaurant empire had teetered [...]
CITY VIEWS: DOES SIR PHILIP HAMPTON’S ROLE AT ANGLO AMERICAN HINDER RBS? November 12, 2009 DANIEL FOSTER WILLIS“In theory, Hampton’s acceptance of a role at Anglo American shouldn’t have any effect on his ability to serve RBS. The bank needs to hire people who can help in the crisis, so I trust he can still do that despite taking on a second role.”HARRY MCINDOE BPL GLOBAL“RBS is faced with such [...]
ING insurance tempts buyers November 11, 2009 JAN Hommen, the chief executive of Dutch bancassurer ING, said yesterday that the group’s insurance division has received strong interest from potential buyers, after it was last month forced to carve up its empire to pay the price for its taxpayer bailout at the height of the crisis. Hommen said he would have to use [...]