Top pay under fire at Standard Chartered bank April 29, 2012 STANDARD Chartered is heading for a bust-up over how much it pays its top staff, after investor advisory group Pirc advised its members to vote down the bank’s remuneration report. The bank plans to pay out $92.1m (£56.6m) to its top 13 staff, which includes five board members, for last year. Pirc is thought to [...]
Trinity Mirror shareholders still unimpressed as meeting looms April 29, 2012 SLY Bailey faces an investor rebellion over changes to her pay packet at Trinity Mirror’s annual general meeting next week. Following shareholder unrest, the publisher of the Daily Mirror proposed a £500,000 cut to Bailey’s short-term cash and stock bonuses. But the Trinity Mirror chief executive will be eligible to receive 144 per cent of [...]
AstraZeneca mulls millions for Brennan April 29, 2012 ASTRAZENECA is considering whether to give outgoing chief executive David Brennan a multi-million pound exit package. The pharma firm’s remuneration committee has not met to sign off Brennan’s final pay deal yet, as he only formally told the board of his intention to quit last Wednesday – one day before his shock departure was announced [...]
UK restaurant sector to strike £13bn by 2015 April 29, 2012 WHILE Britons continue to tighten their belts in hard economic times, one luxury that few of us seem to be prepared to give up is eating out. A new report by Allegra Strategies and Barclays forecasts that sales across the UK’s branded restaurants are set to grow by 22 per cent to £13.6bn by 2015 [...]
Dewey & LeBoeuf merger talks end April 29, 2012 Embattled law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf said yesterday it had removed its former chairman from various leadership positions amid a probe by the Manhattan district attorney and said that talks with rival firm Greenberg Traurig about a potential transaction ended with no deal. According to an internal firm memo, Dewey’s executive committee voted to oust [...]
Regulators to vote on Slim penalty April 29, 2012 Regulators will vote today on one of Mexico’s biggest antitrust cases, a $1bn fine for tycoon Carlos Slim, which has been bogged down in court appeals and disputes for a year. Federal competition commission Cofeco slapped Telcel with the record sanction in April 2011 after ruling the company charged excessive prices to connect to its [...]
Ferrero sets aside $3m for law suit April 29, 2012 Italian confectionery group Ferrero has agreed to set aside $3m to settle a class-action lawsuit championed by a Californian mother after she discovered the group’s Nutella chocolate spread packed more calories than jam or syrup. Notices of class action settlements said Ferrero USA, the group’s US division, would pay up to $4 for every jar [...]
Chinese luxury spenders keep UK tills ringing April 29, 2012 BRITAIN’S high street and luxury stores enjoyed record breaking tourist spend in the first quarter of the year driven by a surge in Chinese and south east Asian tourists (SEATs). Global Blue, the tax-free shopping services company, said spend from Chinese shoppers grew by 62 per cent in the three months to March, despite figures [...]
Abu Dhabi ruling family and Li Ka-Shing vie for airports stake April 29, 2012 TWO of the wealthiest investors from Abu Dhabi and China are competing to back Manchester Airports Group’s bid for Stansted Airport. The group, which owns East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports, is looking to raise approximately £1bn to bid for the London airport should BAA place it on the market later this year. Li Ka-Shing, [...]
Boutique hotel firm launches a retail bond April 29, 2012 MR & MRS SMITH, the travel publisher and boutique hotel specialist, has taken a different tack to funding its expansion today by launching its first retail bond, which pays interest to investors in the form of holidays. Husband and wife team James and Tamara Lohan, who founded the business in 2003, are aiming to raise [...]