L&G blocks Sky’s plan for buyback October 31, 2005 BSkyB is set for a stormy Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday after major shareholder Legal & General (L&G) came out publicly over the weekend against the company’s share buyback plan. There is a history of acrimony between BSkyB and L&G — the fund manager voted against a buyback plan last year. Shareholder News Corp, [...]
Hitting Heights: Richard Downs October 31, 2005 He started the company as a theoretical case study for part of his MBA — then hired a staff of dedicated skiers to ensure a real-life peak performance. As stars of the dotcom era crashed and burned, one travel company bucked the trend to become one of Britain’s biggest online success stories. Founded seven years [...]
Doorstep credit ‘costing too much’ October 28, 2005 The Competition Commission has said that consumers are paying too high a price for home credit. An investigation into the doorstep lending market has found that although consumers were generally happy with home credit, there was a lack of competition in the market. Acting Competition Commission chairman Peter Freeman said: “From the evidence so far [...]
Eutelsat’s IPO abandoned October 28, 2005 Eutelsat, the world’s third largest satellite operator, dramatically abandoned its planned initial public offering (IPO) on the Paris Euronext late last night, citing volatile European stock markets. The news comes after Eutelsat was forced to slash its IPO valuation by 20 per cent to around €2.7bn (£1.83bn) on Tuesday, because investors thought its price was [...]
Boots deal is ‘looking up’ October 28, 2005 Boots chief executive Richard Baker claimed yesterday that investors are warming to the idea of the proposed merger with Alliance UniChem. The proposed £7bn “merger of equals” was met with a lukewarm response by shareholders and ratings agencies when it was announced at the start of this month. However, in the intervening weeks, Baker, chairman [...]
It’s a record for Exxon and Shell October 28, 2005 Big oil got bigger yesterday as Exxon Mobile and Shell reported the largest third-quarter profits in corporate history — a combined $18.9bn (£10.6bn) — within hours of each other yesterday. Anglo-Dutch company Shell set the tone of the day for the oil business when it reported that its three-month net profit leapt 68 per cent [...]
Global growth to slow, says WTO October 28, 2005 A report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has warned that the world faces a long-term trend of lower growth. Although global goods trade is predicted to grow slightly more than usual next year, the organisation’s director director general Pascal Lamy has warned that the world badly needs the successful resolution of the Doha world [...]
Sales boost for drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline October 28, 2005 Drugs giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca unveiled big rises in sales yesterday with demand for key drugs soaring. GlaxoSmithKline, the larger of the two, said sales of its asthma product Advair and Avandia for diabetes increased 20 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. The British company, whose market capitalisation is £83bn, has seen sales in [...]
Investigation into GM’s pension fund October 28, 2005 Loss-making General Motors, the world’s largest carmaker, is being investigated by regulators over its pension accounting and the insurance regime at its finance arm. The powerful American regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued subpoenas against GM which centre on its pension liabilities with car parts maker Delphi, which declared bankruptcy earlier this [...]
A week in the life: Jacqueline Kerr October 28, 2005 Head of mutual funds and life funds investment at Standard Life Over the last two years we have been bullish about equities. They have been on a good run and that reflects the amount of equities we hold in comparison to our other assets. One of my roles is to divide up the asset allocation [...]