Tesco delays launch of current account February 6, 2012 TESCO Bank will not launch its current account in 2012 as expected, hitting the government’s attempts to shake up the notoriously uncompetitive retail banking market. The supermarket’s financial services arm had planned to unveil its flagship product this year but is now set to launch at the end of 2013. The delay will allow the [...]
Westerman goes east in Goldman’s reshuffle February 6, 2012 FOLLOWING in the footsteps of Richard Campbell-Breeden (Asia) and Chris Barter (Moscow), Goldman Sachs is moving Matthew Westerman to Hong Kong to become co-head of its investment banking division for Asia outside of Japan. Westerman, whose recent deals include the Prada IPO and the HSBC rights issue, was recently global head of equity capital markets [...]
Smith & Nephew settles bribe case February 6, 2012 Medical device maker Smith & Nephew yesterday agreed to pay $22.2m (£14m) to settle allegations that its subsidiaries paid bribes to win business in Greece. The US Justice Department and SEC said the firm charged a Greek distributor full price for its products, then paid to shell companies the amount of discounts usually given. The [...]
News Int takes to the airwaves February 6, 2012 The Sun and other News International titles have partnered up with Global Radio brands in a wide-ranging advertising deals. The papers will sponsor such programmes as the Capital Breakfast show, LBC 97.3 and Classic FM.
EasyJet passenger numbers take a hit February 6, 2012 EASYJET has seen its first decline in passenger numbers since sales were hit by the eruption of the volcanic ash cloud in April 2010. The budget airline said the numbers of passengers fell by 0.4 per cent to 3.73m in January compared to 3.74m in the same month last year after economic headwinds took their [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK LONDON HAS LEARNED TO COPE WITH SNOW? February 6, 2012 GRAHAM WICKENS | LLOYD’S OF LONDON “It is too early to say. The snow has pretty much gone and luckily it was over the weekend so traveling into work wasn’t affected.” GURDEV LANDA | CITITEC “I think London has coped better, but to be honest there hasn’t been very much. The trains have all been [...]
BRITISH AIRWAYS EXPANDS ITS CITY ROUTES February 6, 2012 BRITISH Airways is expanding its routes from London City Airport this summer, with plans to launch new flights to Menorca, Angers and Quimper in late May.
Phone maker HTC is facing tough future February 6, 2012 TAIWANESE smartphone maker HTC has yet to catch up with market dominators Apple and Samsung, posting expectations of a weak quarter ahead despite strong growth in fiscal 2011. The world’s number five smartphone maker said it expects revenues of 65bn Taiwanese dollars (£1.4bn) in the first three months of this year, down from T$101.42bn in [...]
BT Openreach cost could be capped further by Ofcom February 6, 2012 BT HAS spoken out against regulations suggested to the European Commission by media watchdog Ofcom which would see the wholesale broadband provider’s prices further capped. This marks the third time Ofcom has regulated rental costs for BT Openreach, which dominates the wholesale broadband line rental market. As they currently stand in draft form, the changes [...]
Swedish Kinnevik bids for remaining chunk of Metro February 6, 2012 SWEDISH investment firm Kinnevik has made an all cash offer for the half of Metro International it does not already own, valuing the newspaper group at around 1.15bn Swedish krona (£108m). Kinnevik, which currently owns 46.6 per cent of Metro and controls 42.4 per cent of the votes, has offered a premium of approximately 46 per [...]