France to show no mercy in tax probe August 31, 2009 FRANCE will not offer an amnesty to 3,000 of its citizens suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to evade tax on around €3bn (£2.64bn) worth of assets, budget minister Eric Woerth said yesterday. Woerth revealed at the weekend that he had obtained the list of suspected tax evaders and warned that those on the list [...]
INVISIBLE LEH-MAN TO HIT BACK AT CRITICS August 31, 2009 NIGH on a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the tales are really starting to come out of the woodwork. I hear that “The Gorilla” wasn’t the only nickname the bank’s former boss Dick Fuld earned for himself during his tenure at the top – employees on the trading floor also called him [...]
Women: Use celebrity to get whatever you want August 31, 2009 ANDY WARHOL said that everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame. The rise of celebrity has been astounding as a phenomenon. The women’s movement, where moderate success has been won through policy and protest, has much to learn from it. The craze with which anybody can become famous has been fuelled by crowd-sourced talent [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK August 31, 2009 THE MORE ostentatious among you may baulk at the idea of a bill totalling under £1,000, but allow The Capitalist to present… a £986.12 cheese tasting session. Yep, this group of accountants popped into South Kensington cheese shop La Cave a Fromage last week for cheese and a couple of glasses of wine. Along with [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 31, 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopersThe accountancy giant has appointed Nick Secrett to its pensions capital management team, which was launched at the end of last year and is headed up by partner Chris Massey. “Secrett has a wealth of capital markets expertise and will work with our clients to model and control their pension financing and investment risks,” said [...]
Toyota axes California plant August 31, 2009 Toyota is stopping production at its carmaking plant in California, leaving 4,500 workers likely to lose their jobs. New United Motor Manufacturing Inc, or NUMMI, was a joint venture in Fremont between Toyota and General Motors, but GM withdrew earlier this year as part of its bankruptcy agreement. Now Toyota has also decided to stop [...]
ANZboosted by slowdown in bad debts August 31, 2009 AUSTRALIAN and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) continued the strong form of Australian lenders yesterday, reporting a rise in profits in the 10 months to the end of the year, as it lent more and saw lower levels of bad debt than expected. The bank said in a trading update that underlying net profit came [...]
Jaguar losses put a dent in Tata results August 31, 2009 TATA Motors, India’s largest vehicle maker, yesterday posted a consolidated loss for the first quarter as dismal trading at Jaguar Landrover (JLR) weighed on the group. The company reported a 3.29bn rupees (£41.3m) consolidated loss for the first quarter period between April and June, compared with a net income of 7.2bn rupees a year ago. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 31, 2009 BRITVICUBS said that Britvic shares are still undervalued and reiterated its “buy” rating. The broker believes that, as the economy and soft drinks market recovers, Britvic can still increase sales. It increased its target price on the stock to 400p, up from 330p. UBS also noted that Britvic’s commitment to innovation is a source of [...]
Euro prices in fresh decline August 31, 2009 EUROZONE consumer prices fell in August for a third consecutive month, though the rate of deflation narrowed significantly from July and economists predicted prices would start to rise again within months. Consumer prices fell by 0.2 per cent year-on-year in August, down from the 0.7 per cent decline the Eurozone countries experienced in July. But [...]