Greene King’s £723m gets it into the Spirit October 20, 2014 BREWING giant Greene King has raised its bid for pub chain Spirit Pubs after its previous offer was rebuffed. Spirit said its board is likely to recommend Greene King’s higher £723.3m bid, which values Spirit at 109.5p per share – a 20 per cent premium to the stock’s closing price on Friday. “The board of Spirit [...]
Homeowners in property worth over £3m to be hit with £10k mansion tax October 20, 2014 Labour would tax homeowners in properties worth above £3m over £10,000 on average per year, in some cases much more, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Under the party’s mansion tax proposals, those in homes worth between £2m to £3m would pay £3000 per year, but those in properties worth over £3m [...]
Gonzalo to blast rush hour and hit flights October 20, 2014 Gusts of up to 70mph are predicted to hit Britain today as the last of Hurricane Gonzalo sweeps through. The Met Office issued a gale warning, as the winds hit Blackpool (above), predicting difficult conditions during today’s morning rush hour and damage to trees. It may be very disruptive and several of today’s British Airways [...]
New West Ham stadium roof problems may have forced Balfour Beatty to seek more cash October 20, 2014 Problems with the new roof planned for the West Ham stadium may have led beleaguered construction company Balfour Beatty back to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) to ask for extra cash. A spokesman for LLDC, which was established in 2012 by the Greater London Authority to regenerate the area in and around the Olympic [...]
Primark strikes deal with Sears to open seven stores in the US October 20, 2014 PRIMARK has struck a deal to open seven stores in the US, including its first in New York, through a leasing deal with retailer Sears. The value retailer revealed yesterday it has agreed to take around 520,000 square feet of unwanted retail space from Sears in shopping malls in the north east of the US. [...]
Former JJB chief will not testify at trial October 20, 2014 Former chief executive of JJB Sports, Christopher Ronnie, 52, accused of a £1m fraud, will not give evidence in his own defence. He was expected to testify yesterday at Southwark Crown Court. He denies three counts of fraud and two of furnishing false information. Ronnie, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, is accused of receiving three payments from [...]
Mortgage loan growth slows October 20, 2014 THE HOUSING market continues to lose steam with the amount of mortgage lending falling for the second consecutive month. The Council of Mortgage Lenders yesterday estimated that gross mortgage lending reached £17.8bn in September – one per cent less than in August. However, this is 10 per cent higher than last year. “There is growing [...]
Hesitant firms not borrowing October 20, 2014 Lending to businesses continues to fall despite efforts to incentivise banks to lend, a Bank of England report said yesterday. Net lending to all firms fell by £3.9bn in the second quarter of 2014. This comes in spite of an extension of the Bank’s Funding for Lending scheme to January 2015. Lending to small and [...]
Libor overhaul in bid to stop manipulation by bad banker and brokers October 20, 2014 Key interest rate Libor will be based on huge numbers of transactions in future, as part of its new administrator’s plan to stop bad bankers and brokers trying to fiddle the rate. It is now being run by Intercontinental Exchange’s Benchmark Administration (IBA) unit, which has come up with a wide-ranging plan in an effort [...]
Bank of England to investigate crucial CHAPS payments system crash October 20, 2014 Bank of England governor Mark Carney last night announced an independent probe into the fault which yesterday crashed the CHAPS payment system, used to channel large payments around UK accounts. The Bank of England described it as a “technical issue related to some routine maintenance of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payment system”, [...]