City views: Would you use a tablet PC at work? January 12, 2011 DAVID HARPER | LEISURE PROPERTY SERVICES “I don’t own an iPad – I don’t know what they offer me that improves on a laptop at the moment. They are still seen as something of a toy, and quite an expensive one at that. JAMES INGRAM | FIDESSA GROUP “I don’t have a tablet, although the [...]
Do as we say, not as we do, says the Mirror January 12, 2011 EDITORS at the Daily Mirror could barely contain their excitement at the coming of bonus season yesterday, splashing their front page on the beleaguered chief executive of RBS, Stephen Hester under the headline “Do the right thing: give up your obscene £3m bonus”. “The Mirror calls on Mr Hester and all the other fatcat bankers [...]
Technology trends in 2011 January 12, 2011 TABLETS Until now, it was assumed that tablet computers would be snapped up by consumers. But Deloitte says a quarter of sales will be corporate. NETBOOKS Cheap, relatively unsophisticated and ultra-portable netbooks will continue to eat away at the dominance of the desktop PC. APPLE Steve Jobs’ runaway success is likely to continue into 2011, [...]
Airport snow chaos costs BAA £24m January 12, 2011 AIPORTS operator BAA said yesterday its handling of the heavy snowfall in December will cost the firm at least £24m in lost revenues and added costs. This figure could rise as airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa and BMI pressure the company to compensate them for cancelled flights and widespread disruption, mainly at Heathrow. “Anyone who [...]
Airbus seals $15bn Indian plane order January 12, 2011 AIRBUS basked in the world’s biggest commercial plane order yesterday, with shares in parent EADS lifted by news of its $15.6bn (£9.9bn), 180-aircraft deal with Indian airline IndiGo. The agreed purchase underlines India’s development as a major aviation market and provides a welcome boost to EADS chief executive Louis Gallois, who has been pushing expansion [...]
Barratt sales hurt by lack of mortgages January 12, 2011 HOUSEBUILDER Barratt Develop-ments said sales fell 4.4 per cent in the last six months of the year, a loss the company pinned partly on the lack of mortgage lending. Chief executive Mark Clare said house sales during autumn were disappointing, as potential customers were also deterred by the government’s spending review and later by the [...]
Analyst views: How can Barratt build on yesterday’s trading update? January 12, 2011 CHRIS MILLINGTON | NUMIS SECURITIES We are expecting a much better six months ahead, with more points of sale and improved margins. Barratt isn’t massively out of step with other property firms. LUCIAN COOK | SAVILLS Barratt is right to be cautious, as we continue to see a lower transaction market. Its efforts with Hitachi [...]
Credit Suisse lights up equity markets January 12, 2011 CREDIT Suisse is testing an innovative Light Pool trading platform in the US, and wants to create a new market for long-term institutional investors when it launches fully in March. The platform offers an alternative to both traditional exchanges and to dark pools, where large trades can be executed anonymously. Credit Suisse is responding to [...]
Light pool explained January 12, 2011 Q.Who is light pool aimed at? A.Light Pool is aimed at long-term investors who want to post visible trade queries without falling prey to opportunistic traders that can operate on the traditional exchanges. Q.Who can trade on Light Pool? A.Anybody will be able to trade on Light Pool, but every client will be scored by [...]
Asda to sell 47 of Netto UK shops to rivals January 12, 2011 ASDA, owned by Wal-Mart, has agreed to sell 47 of the stores it plans to buy from Netto UK to rivals including Morrisons and Iceland in order to win regulatory clearance for the deal. Asda has already lined up buyers for 25 of the stores, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said yesterday. The OFT [...]