William Hill acquires loss-making Australian betting site for £20m August 9, 2013 William Hill, the world’s biggest bookmaker, has announced the acquisition of Australian online betting business Tom Waterhouse (tomwaterhouse.com) for an upfront cash consideration of A$34m (£20m). The bookie will also take on up to A$6m of balance sheet liabilities with the transaction and offered a potential additional earn-out of up to A$70m in cash if [...]
Tesco pulls out of independent Chinese operations amid growing regional competition August 9, 2013 Tesco has announced it will be ending its independent operations in China to embark on a joint venture with China Resources Enterprise (release). Tesco will merge 131 of its stores with 2.986 of CRE’s, taking advantage of the Chinese company’s “deep understanding of local customers, established nationwide infrastructure and proven track record as a partner [...]
HMRC catches just two of 20 most wanted tax evaders in a year of searching August 9, 2013 HM Revenue & Customs has published the names and photographs of the most wanted tax-dodgers in the UK. Ten new names have been added to the list this year (above), although just two of the original 20 (below) have been caught and one prosecuted. The tax authority published the data on its Flickr page. The [...]
Before the open – 09/08 – Asian rollercoasters August 9, 2013 Asian shares moved around a lot last night with most heading down towards the finish as mixed market signals drove prices. The Nikkei initially bounced back after days of losses last night on the back of a weakening yen against the dollar and good news from New York. However, it then fell after consumer confidence [...]
Tesla share price up over 420 per cent in one year August 8, 2013 Shares in Californian motor company Tesla rose over 14 per cent this afternoon to over 153 cents (around 99p) after the company reported forecast-beating second quarter results. This latest increase means share prices in the company are up over 420 per cent in just one year. Tesla said its second quarter revenue was $405m, with [...]
Champagne production expected to jump this year but Bordeaux has less to celebrate August 8, 2013 Champagne production is expected to increase by 56 per cent this year compared to 2012 – some 16 per cent higher than the average yield over the past five years. However, the French agriculture ministry has cut its overall wine production forecast to 11 per cent growth this year following a particularly poor harvest in [...]
UK government sees increase in fuel poverty this year August 8, 2013 Source: DECC The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has said it expects the number of households in fuel poverty will "increase marginally" over the course of this year. Until July 2013, any household spending more than ten per cent of its income on gas and electricity was defined as being fuel poor. The [...]
Fannie Mae hands $10bn profits straight to government August 8, 2013 Fannie Mae, the US government-backed mortgage financier, will have to pay the Treasury Department $10.2bn (£6.6bn) after a sharp rise in home prices pushed second quarter net income up to $10.1bn. This latest payment in the form of dividend on the preferred stock held by the Treasury, will bring total dividend payouts to the government [...]
Serious Fraud Office accidentally sends data from BAE probe to wrong person August 8, 2013 The Serious Fraud Office has mistakenly sent 32,000 document pages, 81 audio tapes and electronic media from a probe into BAE Systems to the wrong person. Around 98 per cent of the material has been recovered and the SFO said it is attempting to recover the remaining material not already destroyed by the recipient. The [...]
US initial jobless claims impress again August 8, 2013 US initial jobless claims increased by less than expected in the week ending 3 August, to 333,000 from an upwardly revised 328,000. Analysts had expected an increase to 336,000 (release). However, continuing jobless claims in the week ending 27 July were higher than expected – at 3.018m rather than the 2.950m expected – and up [...]