NatExpress in new approach July 22, 2009 NATIONAL Express was thrown into fresh turmoil yesterday when the transport group said it received a second approach for the business less than an hour after rival FirstGroup walked away from a potential bid. The new suitor for the troubled bus and rail group is likely to be another trade buyer like Stagecoach, Go-Ahead or [...]
Lord Myners unfair to Bank of England July 22, 2009 SO Lord Myners, the City minister, believes the Bank of England to be too bookish, too rarefied almost, to take on the regulatory functions currently controlled by the Financial Services Authority. As he told us in an interview yesterday, he sees it as an academic institution imbued with a culture at odds with that required [...]
Magna looks set to win GM July 22, 2009 THE GERMAN government has swung behind a bid from Canadian firm Magna for GM Europe, the owner of Opel and Vauxhall, which is up for sale as its parent company GM looks to sell the division. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the offer from auto parts supplier Magna was the best solution, disappointing rival bidders RHJ [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 22, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES PORSCHE CHIEF AT RISK IN RESCUEPorsche’s feuding family owners were last night locked in a board meeting trying to hammer out the terms of a rescue of the debt-ridden sports car maker and debating the future of Wendelin Wiedeking, the company’s chief executive. One person close to Porsche said that the prospect of [...]
FTSE director pensions soar July 22, 2009 The UK’s largest companies are paying an average 70 per cent of executives’ pay to fund the final salary pensions of their top directors, making them much more expensive than the pensions of ordinary employees, said a new study published today. The report, from actuarial consultants Lane Clark & Peacock, is the first to look [...]
Iron ore pushes towards $100 July 22, 2009 The market price of iron ore is approaching $100 a tonne, above the levels at which miners and steelmakers have struck supply deals, as demand outside China recovers.The surge in spot prices has spurred several banks to forecast that annually set benchmark prices will rise next year, reversing their previous expectations of a fall in [...]
Ofwat to rule on water firms July 22, 2009 Water company investors are today bracing themselves for fresh pressure on dividends as the industry regulator Ofwat prepares to set caps on water bills paid by 26m households for the next five years starting from 2010.
FSA fines HSBC 3.2m July 22, 2009 BANKING giant HSBC has been slapped with a £3.2m fine for losing a floppy disk and CD containing customer details in the post and leaving client files out on desks. The bank now features in the top-ten biggest fines handed out by City watchdog Financial Services Authority (FSA), after the regulator said it made repeated [...]
Select Committee launches probe into sexist City culture July 22, 2009 THE Treasury Select Committee plans to grill senior business figures over the treatment of women in the City as part of its ongoing investigation into the banking crisis, the government said yesterday. The committee’s new inquiry will look at the proportion of women occupying senior positions in financial services, as well as probing pay inequalities, [...]
Online auctioneer eBay slows its decline as PayPal pays off July 22, 2009 AUCTION website eBay reported a 29 per cent fall in second-quarter profit yesterday, but saw its shares rise as it beat analysts’ expectations. Net profit was $327.3m (£199m), or $0.25 a share, down from $460m, $0.35 a share, in the equivalent quarter of 2008, while revenues fell marginally, down to $2.1bn from $2.2bn. Excluding one-off [...]