Israel vows to fight hacking January 8, 2012 Israel has promised to hit back after the online publication of thousands of its citizens’ credit card details by a hacker who says he is based in Saudi Arabia. It compared the attack to terrorism. The data theft, which appeared to focus on commercial websites, was one of the worst Israel has said it has [...]
SIR PAUL RUDDOCK DEFENDS HIS HONOUR January 8, 2012 Sir Paul Ruddock, the hedge fund manager caught up in controversy after he was awarded a knighthood, has defended his honour and said his award was for helping revive the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. The Lansdowne Partners co-founder was criticised for also being a Tory donor.
Venezuela ignores World Bank rule on Exxon case January 8, 2012 VENEZUALAN president Hugo Chavez said yesterday that his country would not recognise a ruling by a World Bank tribunal in a multibillion-dollar arbitration case with Exxon Mobil. Exxon took Venezuela to the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, seeking as much as $12bn (£7.8bn) in compensation after Chavez ordered the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 8, 2012 Innis & Gunn Innis & Gunn, the independent brewer, has recruited David Cockburn as chief financial officer and a member of the board. Before moving to Innis & Gunn, David spent 19 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers and, latterly, Grant Thornton, where he was made a partner in 2006. Cockburn specialised in corporate finance and was involved [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 8, 2012 GROUPE EUROTUNNEL Morgan Stanley downgrades the channel tunnel operator to “equal-weight” from over-weight, with a target price of €4.70 (£3.88) after a circa 30 per cent drop in its share price from its peak. The broker cites a weaker macro outlook and change in the market’s approach on valuation for the fall, and says that [...]
US jobless rate falls January 6, 2012 US employment grew solidly last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, offering the strongest evidence yet of an acceleration in economic activity. Nonfarm payrolls increased 200,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, the most in three months and way above economists’ expectations for a 150,000 [...]
FTSE steady as investors eye US jobs data January 6, 2012 The FTSE 100 was steady in early trading with media and telecoms gains offsetting weak financial services and retail sectors. Investors were focusing on US jobs data out later while the Eurozone debt crisis continued to dampen sentiment. Analysts’ fears that Eurozone countries and banks could struggle to tap markets for capital this year continue [...]
House prices fall in December January 6, 2012 House prices fell 0.9 per cent on the month in December, mortgage lender Halifax said, confounding expectations of a modest pick-up. House prices fell 1.3 per cent in the three months to December versus a year ago, a bigger decline than the 0.8 per cent drop forecast by analysts. The average price of a home [...]
Blacks Leisure heads for prepack administration January 6, 2012 Blacks Leisure has it is to temporarily to enter administration ahead of a takeover deal. The prepack arrangement will wipe out the value of existing shares, which have now been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange. The retailer said it was mulling offers for the business and that a deal was likely to [...]
Woodford to sue Olympus for unfair dismissal January 6, 2012 The ousted British CEO of Olympus Corp, who blew the whistle on a $1.7BN accounting fraud, dropped his bid to return to the medical device maker, blaming cozy ties between its scandal-tainted management and big Japanese shareholders and saying the saga had taken its toll on his family. Michael Woodford’s campaign against its management rocked [...]