Marston’s sells over 200 pubs as profits rise November 28, 2013 Marston's brewery has sold 202 pubs to NewRiver Retail for £90m.158 pubs will come from Marston's Taverns estate while 44 are leased pubs. The world's largest brewer of cask ale made the announcement in its preliminary results for 2013. For the year ended 5 October, pre-tax profits for the company rose by one per cent [...]
Funding for Lending Scheme to be scrapped for mortgages as UK house prices soar November 28, 2013 The Bank of England is to end Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) mortgage incentives as the UK housing market strengthens. UK house prices grew by 13.4 per cent in the two years from October 2011. So FLS is just available for business from next year. There's a strange juxtaposition here – The Bank is taking [...]
ECB’s Asmussen compares women in finance to unruly children November 28, 2013 European Central Bank (ECB) board member Jorg Asmussen has let attendees of a panel discussion on women in finance into insights of his own. Discussing whether women are more risk averse than their male peers, Asmussen said that as a father of two girls, six and five, he has seen "that female do behave hazardously [...]
John Laing Infrastructure Fund completes acquisition of Kelowna & Vernon Hospitals project November 28, 2013 John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) has completed its acquisition of a 50 per cent shareholding in the Kelowna & Vernon Hospitals P3 project. In October the company successfully raised £242m of capital, the largest in the fund's history. The Kelowna & Vernon Hospitals project is JLIF's third investment in the Canadian secondary P3 market to [...]
French group Suez takes on west London’s waste with 25-year contract November 28, 2013 Suez Environnement subsidiary Sita UK is leading a consortium that has just signed a £760m, 25-year residual waste contract with the West London Waste Authority (WLWA). Over its duration, the contract is worth £1.4bn, and will see £244m invested into new infrastructure. Sita UK, along with partners Scottish Widows Investment Partners and Itochu Corporation, will [...]
Eurozone economic sentiment beats expectations in November November 28, 2013 Eurozone economic sentiment has come in at 98.5 from 97.7 (revised from 97.8) to November. Analysts had expected a rise to 98.0. IHS Global Insight's Howard Archer says that this news supports "hopes that the Eurozone can gradually establish economic recovery". Consumer confidence however, has dropped for the same period – down from -14.5 to [...]
RSA Insurance Ireland CEO Philip Smith quits November 28, 2013 The chief executive of the Irish arm of RSA Insurance, Philip Smith, has resigned from the company after saying he has become the scapegoat for allegations of serious financial irregularities. In a statement Smith said he and his family have been traumatised by recent events. He also claims the ongoing probe by RSA has a [...]
Capita selected as preferred bidder for Npower customer service – as Npower confirms 1,460 job cuts November 28, 2013 Outsourcing company Capita has been selected as the preferred bidder for a partnership with Npower, to provide front office customer management and back office services. Apparently finance negotiations are still ongoing, and the contract is expected to be worth around £120m over seven years, beginning on 1 February 2014. Capita will take responsibility for part [...]
German unemployment sees unexpected jump in November November 28, 2013 German unemployment has risen by 10,000 in November, and October's increase of 2,000 has been revised up to 3,000 by statisticians. That's higher than the increase of 1,000 forecast by analysts for this month. The unemployment rate remains unchanged at 6.9 per cent, as expected.
Sunny prospects for Thomas Cook as it delivers a profit November 28, 2013 Things are starting to look up for Thomas Cook as the travel company saw an operating profit for the first time since 2010, as the first year of its turnaround plan starts to take off. Shares have rocketed this morning on the news, up over 11 per cent, putting it at the top of the [...]