Retail sales slide March 22, 2012 Retail sales suffered their biggest monthly fall in nine months in February and were revised sharply downwards for January, official data showed on Thursday, dampening hopes for a consumer revival this year. The Office for National Statistics said retail sales volumes dipped 0.8 per cent on the month to give an annual rise of one [...]
GSK in £500m manufacturing investment March 22, 2012 GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drugmaker, confirmed plans to invest more than £500m in manufacturing in Britain as it selected a north of England location for a previously announced biotech plant. The news – though expected – is a boost for Prime Minister David Cameron, who has made wooing the pharmaceuticals industry a priority in the wake [...]
Shell signs first China shale gas deal March 22, 2012 Global oil major Royal Dutch Shell said it signed a production sharing contract with China National Petroleum Corporation to develop a shale gas block in China, the first deal of its kind in the country. China is in the very early stages of tapping its potentially large shale gas resources and the government wants to [...]
Kingfisher unveils growth plan as profits top forecasts March 22, 2012 Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer, said new stores and a drive to improve profit margins would help it to cope against a tough economic backdrop, as it beat forecasts with a 20 percent rise in annual profit. The British group, detailing its new “Creating the Leader” growth programme, said on Thursday it would open [...]
Lloyds to sell buyout loans to Bain March 22, 2012 Part-nationalised British bank Lloyds has agreed to sell a £500m portfolio of mostly UK leveraged loans to private equity firm Bain Capital’s Sankaty Advisors unit, according to Reuters sources. Lloyds Banking Group declined to comment on the situation, while officials at Bain Capital’s London office could not be immediately reached for comment. The deal was [...]
50P tax rate goes at last March 22, 2012 GEORGE Osborne yesterday announced he was scrapping the 50p rate as he unveiled a raft of tax cuts for individuals and businesses – but he decided to stage a raid on pensioners, banks, buyers of £2m properties and other groups to fund his headline grabbing measures. In what he described as a Budget that “unashamedly [...]
What was in Osborne’s red box: our quick summary March 22, 2012 THE ECONOMY/PUBLIC FINANCES The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that UK GDP will grow by around 0.8 per cent this year, the same rate as in 2011, up from its earlier forecast of 0.7 per cent. The beneficial effects of falling inflation are expected to be offset by uncertainty over the Eurozone and tighter [...]
Handbags at dawn: George declares war March 21, 2012 AT SOME point during his Budget response yesterday, Ed Miliband inquired as to “what planet the chancellor is on”. It turns out that George is on a planet where it’s surprising when the mob goes crazy over policies that cut taxes on rich people, steal candy from babies and go to war with Gillian Duffies. [...]
Politicking Osborne falls into a granny trap March 21, 2012 AS always with George Osborne, yesterday’s Budget was first and foremost about politics. Having spent years on the wrong side of Gordon Brown’s famous dividing lines, the current chancellor has become pretty adept at drawing his own. First, there was the business-friendly cut in the headline rate of corporation tax. Labour, you see, has a huge [...]
Game over as group calls in administrator March 21, 2012 GAME Group is set to go into administration after the crisis-hit retailer admitted talks with stakeholders had stalled and that equity in the group was worthless. The video games retailer, which employs 10,000 staff, requested that its shares be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange yesterday before filing its intention to appoint an [...]