BA calls in Acas to avert strike action July 1, 2009 BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) said it asked the conciliation service Acas to intervene in a bid to reach a deal with unions on jobs and pay yesterday. Talks between BA and the Unite and GMB unions aimed at agreeing a series of cost-cutting measures including a pay freeze and more than 3,500 job losses broke up [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: IS THIS THE START OF A RECOVERY FOR M&S? July 1, 2009 NICK BUBB PALI INTERNATIONALWeak comparatives may well be making like-for-like sales look less bad, but gross margins and profits are still falling and there is no disguising the structural or management problems that M&S faces, so we suspect we are not going to hear “game, set and match to Stuart Rose” in the near future. [...]
UBS predicts Spanish bank woes July 1, 2009 Spanish banks are still to feel the full impact of the financial crisis, UBS said yesterday, warning that asset deterioration would hit the country’s lenders hard. “We expect earnings for Spanish banks to fall by 15 per cent this year and 25 per cent next year and to only start to recover in 2012,” UBS [...]
DSB fined over bad advice July 1, 2009 The Dutch market regulator has fined privately held DSB Bank for excessive lending practices and giving bad client advice during a period when former finance minister Gerrit Zalm was its financial chief. Market regulator AFM said in a statement that it had fined DSB €120,000 (£103,800) for the infractions, which took place in 2008. An [...]
Credit Suisse in funds sale to Aberdeen July 1, 2009 ABERDEEN Asset Management announced the completion of a deal to buy a number of funds from Credit Suisse yesterday and said its assets under management would rise by £36.4bn as a result. The transaction, which will create the UK’s largest listed fund manager, sees Aberdeen hand 207.5m shares to Credit Suisse for its UK, US, [...]
Avanti in 31.5m fundraising July 1, 2009 AVANTI Communications, the Aim-listed satellite operator, yesterday announced a £31.5m share placing as it revealed that its year-end results would beat expectations. The group said the new money will fund the upgrade of the technical hardware for the launch of its HYLAS satellite. HYLAS will be the first superfast broadband satellite to be launched in [...]
Finsbury boss Rudd quits as WH Ireland director July 1, 2009 ROLAND Rudd, the boss of City PR outfit Finsbury, has resigned as a non-executive director of City stockbroker WH Ireland, citing “other work commitments”. Rudd joined the board last year as part of a consortium that bought a 26 per cent stake in WH Ireland. Former Conservative Party treasurer Lord Marland, Carphone Warehouse co-founder David [...]
Cattles axes seven more executives July 1, 2009 DOORSTEP lender Cattles has launched a boardroom bloodbath, axing seven executives linked to a “breakdown in internal controls”. Finance director James Corr, chief operating officer and chairman of credit division Welcome Financial Services Ian Cummine and another unnamed senior executive of Welcome all had their contracts terminated after the review by law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus [...]
JAGUAR LAND ROVER DELAYS PAY DAY July 1, 2009 JAGUAR LAND ROVER, the carmaker, asked workers to delay salary payments yesterday to help its cashflow problems. The firm wants to push payments back two weeks to the end of the month. Last week the carmaker’s owner, Tata Motors, run by chairman Ratan Tata, posted a £280m 10-month loss.
Diageo to axe 900 Scotch whisky jobs July 1, 2009 DRINKS giant Diageo said yesterday that a total of 900 jobs will be axed in Scotland as part of a restructuring drive designed to help the company through the downturn. Diageo will close its packaging plant at Kilmarnock, where around 700 people are employed, as well as shutting down its 200-year-old grain spirit distillery and [...]