Holcim and Lafarge share prices rise as shareholders give warm welcome to new boss Eric Olsen April 9, 2015 Shares in Holcim and Lafarge climbed yesterday after they confirmed the appointment of Eric Olsen to lead the combined company after their proposed merger of equals completes. Olsen, who is currently executive vice-president, operations, at French cement maker Lafarge, was put forward for the top job after Holcim objected to the appointment of Lafarge chief [...]
Broker warns UK house price rise could accelerate April 9, 2015 House price growth has cooled since last year’s boom, but price growth remains high and could pick up again, a mortgage broker has warned. The average UK house price was £192,970 in March, 8.1 per cent higher than a year ago, according to figures released by Halifax yesterday. A boom in house prices last year [...]
Middle Eastern visitors to London splash out the most on the city’s luxury hotels April 9, 2015 Hotel prices paid by international visitors to the UK jumped last year thanks to tourists from the Middle East paying 67 per cent more for a room than the average rate. The hotels price index (HPI), a survey by online accommodation provider Hotels.com, revealed that travellers to the UK from the region paid an average [...]
Rothschild hired to advise on financing Heathrow or Gatwick airport runway expansion April 9, 2015 Investment bankers at Rothschild are working for the Department for Transport, it emerged yesterday, as officials want to work out how the Heathrow or Gatwick runway expansion could be financed. Sir Howard Davies is leading a commission looking at the different proposals to increase capacity at the airports, which each come with varying price tags. [...]
Manchester Airport cashing in on turbulence at London rivals April 9, 2015 Manchester Airport is aiming to rival London’s airports after a record number of passengers passed through its doors last year. The UK’s third largest airport dealt with 22.32m people in the last financial year, which represents growth of 7.5 per cent year-on-year and beats the previous record of 22.26m passengers in a 12-month period, set [...]
UK Gas and Oil Investments’ share price exploded today after Horse Hill oil discovery April 9, 2015 Shares in exploration company UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) exploded after the discovery of up to 100bn barrels in its oil field in Sussex. UKOG's Aim-listed shares gushed higher than an oil well – up more than 300 per cent at its highest in early trading and closing 164 per cent up for the day. [...]
IMF’s Christine Lagarde on the three big risks to the global economy April 9, 2015 Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, has said that the global economy risks slipping into a "new mediocre" which implies a prolonged period of low economic growth. "[The] global recovery continues, but it is moderate, and uneven," she said ahead of the release of the IMF's economic forecasts next week. The last forecasts released in [...]
Poundland-99p Stores tie-up threatened by Competition and Markets Authority April 9, 2015 Poundland's offer to buy rival 99p Stores for £55m is facing an in-depth investigation by the competition watchdog, amid concerns reduced competition will lead to reduced quality, fewer promotions and store closures. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it believes the tie-up could create "a realistic prospect of less competition" in 80 local areas – [...]
Ed Miliband’s non-dom policy “ignores all evidence” and could backfire, says Adam Smith Institute April 9, 2015 Ed Miliband's reform to the non-dom system ignores all the evidence, risks costing the country money and could make the UK less attractive to entrepreneurs. That's the verdict of a new briefing paper from the Adam Smith Institute that aims to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the political rhetoric surrounding non-doms. In [...]
Living standards are finally rising – but only in the North April 9, 2015 Is the North-South divide about to flip on its head? A new report suggests living standards are finally beginning to rise – but only up North. According to the research, by think tank the Resolution Foundation, although typical weekly incomes rose after the financial crisis, after 2009-10 they began to fall again, hitting a low [...]