Tesco share price rises amid talk of more boardroom changes and mounting pressure on chairman Sir Richard Broadbent October 7, 2014 Tesco's share price recovered slightly yesterday, ticking up 2.4 per cent by close, but the talk was of more changes at the top. According to the Financial Times, Tesco shareholders have been meeting with the company's senior non-executive director Patrick Cescau to ascertain if further boardroom reshaping is required. Tesco appointed two new board members yesterday, Richard Cousins and [...]
Rio Tinto rejects Glencore’s £60bn mega-merger bid October 6, 2014 Merger would create world’s biggest mining group Giant mining group Rio Tinto last night revealed it had firmly rejected an approach from Glencore, in the opening salvo of a new mega-merger bid in the sector. The estimated £60bn offer would have created a £100bn titan by market capitalisation, with the combined group leapfrogging BHP Billiton [...]
Activist investor Ed Bramson loses Electra battle October 6, 2014 Activist investor Edward Bramson yesterday lost his battle to wrest control of private equity trust Electra after a crunch shareholder meeting. More than 60 per cent of investors voted against Bramson’s proposal to put himself on the company’s board. It still leaves Bramson with a stake of around 20 per cent in the group.
Tesco share price rises as Richard Cousins and Mikael Ohlsson join board October 6, 2014 Tesco brought some relief to its unhappy investors yesterday after announcing that it had beefed up its board by hiring the chief executive of catering giant Compass and the former boss of Ikea. The embattled retailer said Richard Cousins, a turnaround specialist who had led Compass since 2006, and Mikael Ohlsson, who was chief [...]
Aldermore meets with low-key demand for its £800m flotation October 6, 2014 ADVISERS to the challenger bank Aldermore have found it tough going in the first two days of bookbuilding for its upcoming London flotation, sources said yesterday. Equity capital markets experts said the issue had not yet been covered, suggesting the group was unlikely to make the top of its price range of between 217p and [...]
IMF to make life harder for bond default holdouts October 6, 2014 HOLDOUT investors should not be able to hold back governments’ defaults and debt restructurings without much wider support, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday. Its proposals come as the Argentinian government remains embroiled in a bitter legal battle with hedge funds over the country’s 2002 default. Currently some bonds include collective action clauses (CACs) [...]
Cable: Tories are lying about not hiking tax October 6, 2014 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable came out swinging yesterday, accusing the Conservatives of lying to the electorate by promising not to raise taxes to balance the books. In an on-message speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, Cable said his party would raise taxes and cut spending to deal with the deficit, adding that anything [...]
Libya’s $1bn hangover after Goldman Sachs bankers paid for “lavish trip” to Morocco with “heavy drinking and girls involved” October 6, 2014 Goldman Sachs bankers took Libyan sovereign wealth fund bosses on a boozy weekend to Marrakesh – befriending them before selling them financial products the clients did not understand, the High Court heard yesterday. Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) said it lost $1bn (£622m) on the deals from January to April 2008, and told the court it [...]
Poll bump will put a smile on Cameron’s face as Labour slips October 6, 2014 A NEW poll put the Conservatives ahead of Labour by two percentage points for the second time in as many days last night, following both party’s annual conferences. A survey by Lord Ashcroft put the Tories on 32 per cent with Labour trailing by two points on 30. Nigel Farage’s Ukip polled 17 per cent, [...]
Ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg gets knighted October 6, 2014 The former mayor of New York city, Michael Bloomberg, yesterday became a Knight, when the Queen made him an honorary member of the British empire. Bloomberg said he is “deeply honoured.” The award was given in recognition of his entrepreneurial and philanthropic work. As a foreign citizen Bloomberg will not be free to use the [...]