UK businesses hit by jump in VAT and job tax January 21, 2013 BRITISH businesses are seeing their tax bills stay high despite George Osborne’s pledge to cut corporation tax, as the chancellor has simply increased other charges on the firms, according to a PwC study out today. That means the government is not increasing the UK’s appeal as a competitive place to do business as much as [...]
Ex-Barclays staff lose right to anonymity in Libor court case January 21, 2013 UP TO 106 current and former Barclays staff named in emails relating to Libor fiddling lost their right to anonymity in a legal case yesterday, as a judge ruled in favour of a group of media organisations who wanted them unmasked. The staff, a minority of whom are thought to have been found to have [...]
Republicans table deal on US debt limit January 21, 2013 REPUBLICANS in the US House of Representatives yesterday tabled a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until 19 May. Instead of raising the debt limit it would allow spending of any amount to be funded by selling extra debt – but the cap on total borrowing would kick back in during May. The bill [...]
Crest Nicholson plots return to London market January 21, 2013 UK HOUSEBUILDER Crest Nicholson is to return to the stock market nearly six years after it was taken private at the height of the housing market crash. The 50 year-old company, which builds homes mainly in the south of England, said it plans to raise £50m from the listing of new shares to pay down [...]
Timeline: A journey back to the markets January 21, 2013 1963 Crest Homes founded by Bryan Skinner 1968 The housebuilder floats on the London Stock Exchange 1972 Crest buys Camper & Nicholsons, the leading yacht maker, and changes name to Crest NicholsoN 1983 Skinner retires and the company starts to sell-off its non-housing businesses 2005 Stephen Stone appointed chief executive of the company 2007 Crest [...]
HMV to honour gift vouchers as Hilco deal nears January 21, 2013 CRISIS-HIT music retailer HMV has performed a U-turn on its initial decision to refuse gift vouchers, administrators confirmed yesterday. Deloitte, the business advisory firm which took control of retailer last week, said HMV vouchers can now be redeemed in stores from today. It also said funds raised by HMV from the sale of charity releases, [...]
David Cameron to give delayed speech on EU links tomorrow January 21, 2013 DAVID Cameron will finally deliver his speech on Britain’s future relationship with the EU tomorrow morning, Downing Street confirmed yesterday. The speech was originally due to be delivered in Amsterdam last Friday but was delayed due to the Algerian hostage crisis. Although the Prime Minister’s aides wanted the announcement to take place on the continent for symbolic reasons, [...]
Carpetright eyes Dreams January 21, 2013 FLOOR covering retailer Carpetright is understood to be one of a number of bidders circling beleaguered bed maker Dreams. Accountancy firm Ernst & Young has been hired to handle the sale process for the bed retailer, which was put up for sale before Christmas by main lender Royal Bank of Scotland. Private equity firm Exponent [...]
Tesco in new online push January 21, 2013 TESCO intensified its dotcom push yesterday by opening its fifth “dark store” near Crawley, West Sussex. The dotcom store, which will create 700 jobs, will serve only online shoppers. The supermarket typically offers an instore pick-up service for its online customers, but is ramping up its dotcom store presence thanks to growing demand in and [...]
Pearson warns of tough 2013 as profits falter January 21, 2013 PEARSON, the education and media business behind the Financial Times newspaper, has warned that annual profits will be lower than expected. The company said “tough market conditions and structural industry change” were to blame for an unexpected fall in operating profits, and that these issues were likely to continue into 2013. The announcement sent shares [...]