HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS June 17, 2009 THOUSANDS of racegoers braved the wind and the rain yesterday for day two of Royal Ascot. Vision D’Etat, the winner of last year’s French Derby, beat the favourite Tartan Bearer into second place in the day’s biggest race, the Prince of Wales Stakes. The event, which goes on until Saturday, attracts runners from all around [...]
CRACKDOWN June 17, 2009 BANK OF ENGLAND (BoE) governor Mervyn King last night launched his most outspoken call yet for a regulatory revolution and a crackdown on excessive risk-taking in the City. In his annual Mansion House dinner speech, King called for “instruments to prevent the size, leverage, fragility and risk of the financial system from becoming too great”. [...]
CRACKDOWN June 17, 2009 THE US financial system is headed for a groundbreaking period of reform, after President Obama unveiled his vision of a regulatory regime designed to avert new financial crises. Outlining a raft of measures he termed a “transformation on a scale not seen since the reforms that followed the Great Depression”, Obama blamed a “culture of [...]
Jilted China slates BHP’s Rio marriage June 17, 2009 CHINA slammed the proposed tie-up between mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton yesterday, saying it had “a strong monopolistic flavour,” and threatened to use its new antitrust laws to derail the venture. “The deal between Rio and BHP should be subject to Chinese anti-monopoly law,” the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said. [...]
Treasury minister quits over expenses June 17, 2009 TREASURY minister Kitty Ussher resigned from the government last night after it emerged she avoided paying £17,000 capital gains tax on her Burnley constituency home when she sold it in 2007. Ussher denied she did anything wrong, but said she was stepping aside to prevent causing the “government any embarrassment.” Ussher, a former City Minister, [...]
BAT snaps up Indonesian firm June 17, 2009 BRITISH American Tobacco has bought an 85 per cent stake in Indonesia’s fourth-largest cigarette maker by volume for $494m (£301m). BAT, maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike, said the decision to acquire an 85 per cent stake in Bentoel Internasional Investama will give it a foothold in Indonesia’s lucrative kretek, or clove-flavoured cigarette market, which [...]
US rejects Iran meddling June 17, 2009 The US rejected claims it was interfering with the post-election tumult in Iran yesterday, saying President Barack Obama would raise concerns about, but not meddle in, Iranian politics. “As the president has said, we are not interfering with the debate that Iranians are having about their election and its aftermath,” said a State Department spokesman. [...]
King crushes Darling at Mansion House June 17, 2009 ON the face of it, last night’s Mansion House dinner was a typical, formal City occasion, with the black tie-clad great and good of the business community turning up in their usual numbers. But there was little of the good-humour and wry amusement that usually accompanies such occasions; many of last year’s guests hadn’t been [...]
Microsoft and Google clash June 17, 2009 Microsoft and Google clashed yesterday, after Microsoft said a new offering from Google disables search capabilities of Microsoft’s popular Outlook software. Google acknowledged an issue with its new Apps Sync software, which synchronises data between Google’s email and calendar service and Outlook.
BA pilots to swap shares for a pay cut June 17, 2009 BRITISH Airways pilots have voted to accept shares worth £13m in exchange for taking a pay cut, as part of a deal to cut costs at the struggling airline by £26m a year. The arrangement is part of a draft agreement with all of BA’s 3,235 pilots, which will see them swap shares for a [...]