Pinsents warns of cuts June 11, 2009 PINSENT Masons, the UK legal giant, has joined the ranks of law firms cutting jobs by laying out a seven-point plan to staff which proposes part-time work, a pay freeze and redundancies. Managing partner David Ryan has told employees he has worked to avoid job cuts but “minimal” redundancies are going to be necessary. He [...]
The writing was always on the wall for Setanta June 11, 2009 YOU have to admire the sheer tenacity of Setanta’s founding pair, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan. A lesser team would have let the floundering business die peacefully by now; these two are determined to keep it on life support until the bitter end. Yesterday, I spoke to several analysts to canvass opinion on the broadcaster’s [...]
London & Stamford Property in raising to snap up assets on cheap June 11, 2009 LONDON & Stamford Property, the vehicle launched to exploit Britain’s property bust, yesterday said it was planning to raise new equity to take advantage of the slump in prices. The Aim-listed firm said it is looking to raise an unspecified sum to bolster its remaining £90m of equity and £150m undrawn credit facility to bankroll [...]
Chinalco says Rio to blame for failed deal June 11, 2009 CHINESE metals conglomerate Chinalco yesterday said Rio Tinto was to blame for the failure of the pair’s mega-deal – not the Australian government. Australia had an “open and welcoming” attitude to its failed $19.5bn (£11.7bn) bid to invest in Rio Tinto, Chinalco President Xiong Weiping said yesterday. The deal collapsed last week because of factors [...]
Saad credit lines shut down June 11, 2009 FEARS were growing yesterday that Saad Group’s holdings in a raft of companies could be sold-off, as western banks began to shut down credit lines to the company and its billionaire chairman, Maan al-Sanea. Concerns escalated after the central bank in the United Arab Emirates instructed local banks to suspend lending to the troubled Saudi [...]
BLOCKBUSTER YEAR June 11, 2009 BOLLYWOOD investment firm The Indian Film Company (IFC) saw profits double over the past year, despite the economic slowdown and the terror attacks in Mumbai. IFC said full year net profit increased by 98.5 per cent to £3.89m, on revenue which rose 257 per cent to £40.9m. The group released eight films over the year, [...]
US retail sales rose in May, driven by surging cost of petrol at the pumps June 11, 2009 US RETAIL sales rose for the first time in three months in May and the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week hit the lowest level since January, suggesting the recession was abating. The Commerce Department said that sales at U.S. retailers rose 0.5 per cent last month, lifted by strong [...]
Crude rises to an eight-month high on hopes the global downturn is easing June 11, 2009 OIL climbed above $72 a barrel yesterday, an eight-month high, after research body the International Energy Agency (IEA) raised its global forecast on rising hopes the economic recession is easing. Paris-based IEA, which advises 28 nations, boosted its global estimate for daily oil demand by 120,000 barrels to 83.3 million barrels in its monthly report. [...]
Brits rated most gloomy in retail June 11, 2009 The British are the most pessimistic about the future retail environment according to a survey out today on the recession by Datamonitor. Results from the survey conducted on-line between 30-31 May 2009 and based on a sample of 1,200 respondents across Australia, Canada, the UK and the US, reveal 78 per cent of respondents across [...]
The man from Del Monte June 11, 2009 Del Monte Foods yesterday posted a far higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by price increases, volume growth and cost cuts, and offered a strong fiscal-year forecast, sending its shares up 9.3 per cent. The maker of Meow Mix pet food and Del Monte canned fruits and vegetables said that net income jumped 42 per cent to [...]