Siemens sees green boost to order book June 22, 2009 GERMAN industrial conglomerate Siemens said it expects to win new orders of around €15bn (£12.7bn), mostly green projects, from economic stimulus programmes worldwide in the next three business years. Of that figure, €6bn would come from green technology contracts, “significantly” increasing revenues from the company’s environmental portfolio in the future. Nonetheless, Siemens still expected business [...]
NO SLOANE RANGERS AT LIBERTY June 22, 2009 LIBERTY of London, the iconic department store group, is to close its Sloane Street standalone store in Knightsbridge just 12 months after it opened, having received a “fabulous” offer for the lease. Liberty said an unnamed European fashion brand had offered it a £700,000 cash premium to take over the site.
Gazprom Neft reinstates the chief exec it replaced less than a week ago June 22, 2009 RUSSIAN oil and gas giant Gazprom yesterday did a U-turn over its plans for Aim-listed Sibir Energy, re-appointing Stuard Detmer as chief executive of the firm just days after replacing him with a candidate from its own legal team. Sibir said in a statement it had re-appointed Detmer at the request of the group’s oil [...]
How the Baker Street brigade are taking on the Big Four accountants June 22, 2009 YOU get the impression when you meet him that Simon Michaels, the managing partner of BDO Stoy Hayward, wants a lot of things – and one of the first is a larger slice of the UK accounting pie. Michaels, at 42 the youngest person to lead the UK’s sixth-largest professional services business, was elected to [...]
Virgin seals 1.3bn deal on birthday June 22, 2009 VIRGIN ATLANTIC splashed out on its 25th birthday yesterday with a $2.1bn (£1.28bn) deal, saying it would take delivery of 10 new Airbus A330-300 aircraft between now and 2012. The birthday goodies will allow the airline to expand while it waits for the delivery of Boeing’s troubled 787 Dreamliner. The planes, each seating up to [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 22, 2009 BELLWAYUBS upgraded Bellway to “buy” after its trading update confirms a stabilising market. The broker has factored in write-downs in 2010 of £54m, and has new earnings per shares estimates of 15.27p in 2009 and 1.19p in 2010. GO-AHEAD GROUPGo-Ahead’s pre-close update has shown the company to be on track for Royal Bank of Scotland’s [...]
New interactive strategy pays off for NetPlay TV June 22, 2009 GAMING firm NetPlay TV yesterday said its losses had narrowed over the past year as its strategy of chasing the live gaming market started to pay off. NetPlay posted a £1m pre-tax loss for the year to December, compared with a £4.4m loss the previous year. Revenue soared by 118 per cent to £19.8m. “The [...]
CITY MOVES Who’s switching jobs June 22, 2009 AvivaThe insurance group has appointed Jon Bunn as its new corporate affairs and communications director in Europe. Bunn will report to Andy Moffat, Aviva’s director of human resources in Europe. He was previously group public relations director at Prudential, and before that was director of media relations at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. He began his career [...]
Rose waives 1.1m share award payout June 22, 2009 SIR Stuart Rose, executive chairman of Marks & Spencer, yesterday waived his entitlement to more than £1m in shares in a bid to appease disgruntled shareholders. Under the incentive share plan, M&S’s remuneration committee had awarded Rose 1,184,900 shares. But after a shareholder backlash led by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), Rose said he [...]
INDEPENDENT CONSIDERS CASH CALL June 22, 2009 INDEPENDENT News and Media (INM), publisher of The Independent newspaper, is mulling a deeply-discounted rights issue as part of the refinancing of its €200m (£169m) bond. INM is in talks with shareholders, including former chief executive Sir Tony O’Reilly (left) and Denis O’Brian, who have a combined stake of over 50 per cent.