US house starts in healthy rise June 16, 2009 US HOUSEBUILDERS were heartened yesterday as a Commerce Department report showed new builds rose 17.2 per cent in May, the biggest gain in three months. Homes built for single families rose 7.5 per cent – the largest gain since January 2006. But a report from central bank the Federal Reserve said US industrial production slid [...]
MySpace to axe 400 in cost cut June 16, 2009 MYSPACE, the social network owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, yesterday unveiled plans to axe 30 per cent of its staff to lower costs as it struggles to stay popular in the face of rising competition. MySpace will be left with about 1,000 employees, the group said, suggesting around 400 staff will lose their jobs. [...]
Headline UK inflation still above target June 16, 2009 BRITISH headline inflation fell by much less than had been expected in May, raising speculation that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) may decide not to extend its quantitative easing programme beyond the current £125bn. Official data yesterday showed that consumer prices rose 0.6 per cent last month, taking the annual rate of [...]
Posen adds US voice to MPC June 16, 2009 THE Bank of England announced yesterday that US economist Adam Posen will succeed policy “hawk” Tim Besley as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Posen is deputy director at the Peterson Institute for Economics in Washington and a visiting scholar at the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. The appointment of [...]
Deutsche Telekom prices bond June 16, 2009 Deutsche Telekom is selling a $1.5bn (£912m) two-part global benchmark bond, one of the banks managing the sale confirmed yesterday. The offering includes $750m in five year notes expected to yield 225 basis points over comparable US Treasuries and $750m in 10 year notes expected to yield 237.5 basis points over Treauries. Barclays Capital and [...]
Eni mulls North Sea asset sale June 16, 2009 Italian oil company Eni is examining the sale of some of its assets in the North Sea worth around $1bn (£610m), its chief executive Paolo Scaroni said yesterday. “We will see if there are opportunities to make sales. From time to time we clean up our portfolio,” he said. Eni’s North Sea fields produce 20,000 [...]
Owner managers eye expansion June 16, 2009 Almost three quarters of entrepreneurs in owner-managed businesses are planning to make an acquisition or begin a joint venture with former competitiors in the next three years, a survey has revealed. Accountancy firm Baker Tilly questioned 300 board directors of companies with a turnover between £5m and £50m.
Hanson Westhouse trading on Aim June 16, 2009 Shares in corporate finance and broking group Hanson Westhouse yesterday commenced trading on Aim following its acquisition by emerging market equity finance house SovGEM. The combined group, which has been renamed Hanson Westhouse Holdings, also successfully raised £850,000 via a placing of new shares at 59.5p a share, to fund the costs of the acquisition. [...]
FSCP urges FSA consumer role June 16, 2009 The Financial Services Consumer Panel (FSCP) yesterday urged the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the government to focus on regulation for consumers and the supervision of wholesale markets. In its response to FSA chairman Lord Adair Turner’s report on the future of regulation, the FSCP said the City watchdog should be given responsibility for issues [...]
Quality brands are becoming more popular again June 16, 2009 FOR a while we saw the march of the “value” brands, as the recession helped Aldi and co make advances on their more expensive rivals. The graph shows what actually happened to brand values. We have created two baskets of brands – seven associated with lower-end or “value-for-money’ (Aldi, Morrisons, Primark, Matalan, RyanAir, Walls, Subway), [...]