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), [...]
Airbus, Boeing in Paris slump June 16, 2009 THE PARIS Air Show has seen Airbus and Boeing bag 24 orders between them so far year, compared to over 2,700 by the same point in the show last year, as the global recession continues to take its toll on the battered companies. Airbus pulled out all the stops to sell its new A380 with [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 16, 2009 AIB GroupThe UK-based subsidiary of Allied Irish Bank has appointed Nick Treble to the position of managing director. Treble, 49, has worked at the bank for 27 years, joining in 1982 as a trainee in its treasury department. He subsequently held posts in London as head of treasury and general manager for capital markets, before being appointed group treasurer in 2001. He became chief risk officer in early 2008. Financial Services Authority The City watchdog has appointed Ken [...]
Carter under attack over Digital vision June 16, 2009 CRITICS were yesterday lining up to say that Lord Carter’s Digital Britain Report had failed to prepare the nation for a digital future. The communications minister, who is leaving the government this summer, outlined plans to use part of the BBC’s “switchover surplus” – money earmarked to pay for the digital switchover – and a [...]
Q & A : WHAT DID THE CARTER REPORT DELIVER? June 16, 2009 Q. WHAT DOES THE REPORT MEAN FOR REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS A. Struggling regional newspaper owners like Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror and DMGT had been hoping for a relaxation of merger rules, which would have led to scores of cost-saving mergers across the industry. But the Office of Fair Trading says the rules should stay as they are Q. WILL IT LEAD TO BROADBAND FOR ALL?A. It’s unlikely. It proposes universal access to 2Mbps broadband, which is actually very slow but fast enough to watch [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD PART OF THE BBC LICENCE FEE GO TO COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS? June 16, 2009 DAVID MAYNARD UBS“If the BBC is going to remain competitive it’s going to have to pay enough to keep the best people at the channel. I think it should keep the money. At the end of the day if they don’t pay enough, their best staff will defer to rivals who will.” RISHI PATEL RBS [...]