MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009 June 25, 2009 MICHAEL Jackson, the troubled King of Pop, died at the age of 50, after collapsing at his Los Angeles home with a suspected heart attack yesterday. The singer, who dominated the world of pop music for four decades, was found not breathing and immediately rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead after efforts to [...]
BA STAFF AGREE TO WORK FOR FREE June 25, 2009 EIGHT HUNDRED British Airways (BA) staff will work for nothing next month, after the struggling airline convinced 7,000 employees, or 17 per cent of its workforce, to take a pay cut. Chief executive Willie Walsh, who earns £735,000 a year, said the staff would save the airline around £10m. Walsh has already agreed to work [...]
Adviser fees to be revised June 25, 2009 FINANCIAL advisers could be barred from charging commission on the products they sell, under proposals unveiled by the Financial Services Authority yesterday. The City watchdog, led by chief executive Hector Sants, said in its Retail Distribution Review (RDR) that financial advisers should charge customers an up-front fee, rather than taking commission from the companies whose [...]
Tanstaafl: the new buzzword for finance June 25, 2009 THERE are few things I hate more than banning things. But one advantage of the FSA’s decision to prevent Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) from taking commissions for the sale of investment products, pensions and life assurance is that their costs will become much more obvious. From 2012, anybody who uses an IFA will have to [...]
LSE axing 120 in restructure June 25, 2009 THE LONDON Stock Exchange Group (LSE) is negotiating the redundancy of up to 120 staff, with at least 60 London-based employees to be affected, as the new chief executive Xavier Rolet acts on his promise to make the group operate more cost effectively. The cuts, which began on Wednesday, will mostly involve marketing and customer [...]
ABN Amro man vanishes with a pair of shotguns June 25, 2009 THE FORMER chief financial officer of ABN Amro has gone missing and is believed to have taken two shotguns with him. Police have issued an urgent call for information as to the whereabouts of Huibert Boumeester, who was reported missing after failing to show up for a meeting with headhunters on Monday. Boumeester was at [...]
Darling plans strong FSA June 25, 2009 CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling is set to unveil a new Banking Act which will strengthen the Financial Services Authority (FSA), in a move that flies in the face of Bank of England governor Mervyn King’s calls for the central bank to be given greater powers. Darling wants the FSA to assume the role of overseeing financial [...]
AIG to float two units to pay back Fed June 25, 2009 AMERICAN International Group (AIG) is to float two of its international life insurance divisions to fund the repayment of $25bn (£15.3bn) in loans it took from the Federal Reserve. The insurance giant, which has received $173.3bn in government bailouts since the onset of the financial crisis, said it would launch initial public offerings for both [...]
Eurotunnel looks at high speed rail bid June 25, 2009 GROUPE Eurotunnel, the firm that runs the Channel tunnel is “looking carefully” at bidding for the UK’s only dedicated high-speed rail line. Executive chairman Jacques Gounon said he was interested in bidding for the High Speed 1 line, which carries trains at 300kph on the 108km between the tunnel and London’s St Pancras station. High [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 25, 2009 TUI TRAVELCitigroup upgraded TUI Travel to “buy” to take into account improved booking trend data and the economic outlook. It raised its earnings per share estimates by 12.5 per cent to 23.5p. But the broker sees downside risk as the shares are likely to be driven by rival Thomas Cook, which is the subject of [...]