Unite Group launches retail bond November 21, 2012 Unite Group, the UK’s biggest student accommodation provider, yesterday become the latest firm to launch a retail bond. With £2,000 as the minimum investment, the bond pays a coupon rate of 6.125 per cent and matures on 12 June 2020. The group aims to raise £50 to £75m from the bond to fund expansion. Investec [...]
Sainsbury’s adds 10,000 new jobs November 21, 2012 Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s yesterday announced it would create 10,000 new jobs in its convenience business over the next three years. The new roles, come on top of a further 20,000 temporary roles created to serve increased customer demand over the Christmas period. Sainsbury’s plans to open one to two convenience stores a week going forward [...]
Remortgaging still depressed despite pick-up November 21, 2012 REMORTGAGE lending soared between September and October, according to data out yesterday, cementing a solid annual increase. Gross remortgage lending climbed from £3.3bn in September to £4.1bn in October, LMS estimated this morning, but the improvements could not erase a significant portion of the losses since before the financial crisis, when loans typically totalled around [...]
Growth still slow across OECD group of developed economies November 21, 2012 DEVELOPED economies continued to struggle to find growth in the third quarter of the year, data out yesterday suggested. GDP grew just 0.2 per cent across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a whole, in the third quarter, as Japan and troubled Eurozone economies weighed on modest expansion in the US and [...]
US factory activity rebounds improving hopes over economy November 21, 2012 US MANUFACTURING surprised onlookers with its strength in November, as data out yesterday suggested the pace of its recovery was rebounding. Other data out yesterday showed new unemployment insurance claims were retreating back towards the levels seen before superstorm Sandy. The US yesterday hit 52.4 on Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a prominent business survey, [...]
MPs: Slow down benefit reform to help jobless learn to budget November 21, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT is pushing ahead with its benefit reforms too quickly to properly assess the costs and benefits, according to a new report out today from the Work and Pensions Select Committee. The universal benefits system is designed to simplify the current array of six different out of work benefits, link benefits more closely with [...]
Taxman missing out on billions because of avoidance schemes November 21, 2012 A CRACKDOWN on tax avoidance schemes raked in an additional £200m for the government in the last year, according to estimates published yesterday by the National Audit Office (NAO). But HM Revenue and Customs is still missing out on £5bn from continued tax avoidance – that is, “using the tax law to get a tax [...]
Service price inflation slides November 21, 2012 Price rises on services remained slow in the third quarter, according to official data out yesterday, reaching their slowest pace of increase since the end of 2009. Services cost 1.1 per cent more in the third quarter of 2012 than in the same period of 2011, according to the service producer prices index from the [...]
Finances still tight as slump ends November 21, 2012 Millions of households are still struggling with their finances, a survey out yesterday suggested, despite an official end to recession. Some 2.5m homes said they were unable to pay all their bills, according to estimates from Legal & General, stable compared to a year ago, but some 300,000 more than seen in 2010, before the [...]
Japan exports drop for fifth time November 21, 2012 Japan’s exports fell in annual terms for a fifth month in October, hurt by the fallout from a diplomatic row with China and feeble global demand, a further sign the economy may be slipping into recession and adding weight to calls for policy easing. Shipments to China, Japan’s top export market, dropped an annual 11.6 [...]