Anglo chairman slams merger July 20, 2009 Anglo American chairman Sir John Parker yesterday slammed rival Xstrata’s plan to force a £40bn merger. Parker, who will succeed Mark Moody-Stuart as chairman of London-based Anglo on 1 August, said the merger proposed by rival mining company Xstrata Plc has a “clear value gap” and is a “great distraction” to management. “What looks good [...]
Profits dive at jobs firm SThree July 20, 2009 Recruiter SThree yesterday posted a 53 per cent fall in first-half pre-tax profits after the staffing firm’s revenue was hit by a collapse in job markets, especially in the UK. But the IT jobs company – which maintained its interim dividend at 4p per share – said it continued to invest for the future, expanding [...]
City’s most successful accountant still has plenty of fire in his belly July 20, 2009 IT IS EASY to tell when you are nearing , Deloitte boss John Connolly’s office because an awful lot of people you bump into in the firm’s corridors begin to ask about his welfare. “Is John in?” asks one, a tad nervously. “What mood is he in today?” asks another. There is a feeling of [...]
CITY EYE July 20, 2009 Who said the City has lost its sense of humour?This eye-catching advert was spotted outside Green Door steakhouse on Cornhill, opposite the Royal Exchange.
TORIES PLEDGE TO ABOLISH THE FSA July 19, 2009 A CONSERVATIVE government would abolish the “failed” tripartite system of financial regulation and hand chief responsibility for supervision back to the Bank of England, shadow chancellor George Osborne will confirm today. Osborne will outline plans to dismantle the regulatory architecture designed by Gordon Brown in today’s response to chancellor Alistair Darling’s white paper on financial [...]
Watchdog staff set for exodus July 19, 2009 SENIOR staff at the City’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) have complained that shadow chancellor George Osborne’s determination to downgrade the organisation if a Conservative government is elected next year has seriously affected its ability to hire key people and has damaged morale. “External people have withdrawn suddenly from job applications,” said one FSA staffer, citing [...]
VW poised to buy Porsche July 19, 2009 PORSCHE’S controlling families are this week set to agree the sale of its sports car business to Volkswagen for roughly €8bn (£6.9bn), according to reports in Germany. The rival Porsche and Piech clans, which together own 100 per cent of Porsche, are understood to be about to approve the two-stage takeover at a a supervisory [...]
Tories are right to want to scrap the FSA July 19, 2009 SO the Tories are going to bite the bullet and abolish the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Most of its banking and financial stability powers will be handed over to the Bank of England; the rump, focussing on consumer protection, will be relabelled as the Consumer Protection Agency. The Bank will become home to a new [...]
GSK to get flu injection July 19, 2009 DRUGS giant GlaxoSmithKline is gearing up to make almost £1.3bn from sales of its swine flu drug treatments. In May the UK’s largest drug firm said that it had already taken 128m orders for a vaccine, in deals worth approximately £600m, including those from the UK. But with around 50,000 cases in the UK diagnosed [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 19, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphENGINE IN DRIVE FOR EXPANSIONThe advertising agency that created the 118 directory enquiries runners is seeking £50m to fund an international expansion drive that will take it to the US and the Far East. The Engine Group has appointed advisers at Jefferies and the corporate finance arm of Ingenious Media to secure [...]