INM extends standstill on debt for a third time as talks continue July 20, 2009 INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is set to announce a third standstill agreement with its creditors as talks continue regarding the debt-laden firm’s financial restructuring. INM, which owns The Independent newspaper, is still locked in talks with banks and investors over the refinancing of a €200m (£178m) bond. Sources close to the company said “constructive [...]
THE RED BARON July 20, 2009 ENTREPRENEUR Sir Alan Sugar yesterday took his seat in the House of Lords as Baron Sugar of Clapton. The businessman and star of BBC TV series The Apprentice was enobled by Gordon Brown last month and asked to fill an advisory post as enterprise tsar. Lord Sugar’s official role is to help guide firms through [...]
Home loans hit six-month high in June July 20, 2009 GROSS mortgage lending hit a six-month high in June according to data released yesterday by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Figures from the CML showed that gross mortgage lending rose 17 per cent in June to £12.3bn from £10.5bn in May, but was still 48.4 per cent lower than in June 2008. Gross lending [...]
Iceland revives broken banking system July 20, 2009 ICELAND is to rebuild its ravaged banking system with a 270bn krona (£1.29bn) capital injection into three new lenders created out of the ashes of the island nation’s former largest lenders. The three new banks, Islandsbanki, New Kaupthing and New Landsbanki, replace Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing, all of which collapsed last year as the banking [...]
Money supply at its weakest in four years July 20, 2009 BRITAIN’S broad money supply (M4) contracted in June by 0.2 per cent, the weakest reading since June 2005, figures from the Bank of England showed yesterday, putting a question mark over the effectiveness of the Bank’s quantitative easing (QE). The data showed the supply of broad money fell by £3.2bn last month and the annual [...]
Jet Republic cuts prices July 20, 2009 Jet Republic, the business airline, yesterday said it will cut the price of its aircraft hire Jet Card by 14 per cent to €99,000 (£85,192). The business, which launched at the height of the financial downturn last September, said it was able to cut prices because it was in a position “to pass on newly [...]
Tom Hunter faces 250m losses July 20, 2009 Sir Tom Hunter faces losses of more than £250m, according to accounts filed at Companies House. Hunter’s two companies, West Coast Capital Trading and West Coast Capital investments made a combined loss of £253m last year after a series of write downs on investments, including troubled retailer USC. He also lost stakes in two property [...]
Swine flu could hit UK economy in 2009 July 20, 2009 INCREASED nervousness about the damaging effects of a swine flu pandemic briefly shook travel stocks yesterday, after the the respected Ernst & Young (E&Y) Item Club warned that the virus could drag Britain’s economy into its worst recession since the early 1930s. The influential think tank said a pandemic reaching 100,000 cases a day by [...]
Nissan to build new electric car battery factory in Britain July 20, 2009 NISSAN, the Japanese carmaker, said yesterday it will invest £200m in a new factory in the North East to produce batteries for electric cars, which is expected to create 350 new jobs. The UK plant, to be based in Sunderland near Nissan’s Wearside car plant, will be its main site for battery production in Europe. [...]
Ameritrade cuts fraud deal, focus shifts to Schwab July 20, 2009 NEW YORK’S attorney general, who is probing illegal marketing and sales of auction rate securities, said yesterday he intends to charge US brokerage Charles Schwab with civil fraud and has reached a settlement with rival TD Ameritrade. Schwab denied the allegations calling them “without merit.” But TD Ameritrade agreed to return $456m (£276m) to investors [...]