Strong order book at Costain June 25, 2009 Construction firm Costain said yesterday its forward order book rose to a record high in the first half of the year, thanks to significant new contract wins. The firm’s forward order book currently stands at £2.4bn, 20 per cent above this time last year. Costain won a number of new contracts over the period, including [...]
Goldshield reports profit spike June 25, 2009 Generic drugs supplier Goldshield Group posted a 72 per cent leap in profits yesterday after announcing on Wednesday it had received a bid approach from an unnamed party. Pre-tax profit for the year rose to £21.3m, while sales were up 16 per cent to £98.4m. Goldshield said it had seen an encouraging start to the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 25, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES TOYOTA WANTS MORE NIMBLE FIRMAkio Toyoda, the new chief executive of Toyota Motor, yesterday pledged to bring a looser, more nimble management style to the carmaker, which is facing its biggest crisis since Sakichi Toyoda – his grandfather and Toyota’s founder – ran the company six decades ago. Mr Toyoda promised “to do [...]
Spain to offer banks bailout, Russia might June 25, 2009 THE SPANISH government is to establish a €90bn (£77bn) fund for its financial institutions, while Russia is pondering a similar rescue package for its own banks. Spain’s cabinet meets today and is likely to approve a proposal which will see lenders, including those who are not deemed to have capital shortfalls, given access to a [...]
UBS to raise 2.1bn as it warns of loss June 25, 2009 SWISS bank UBS, one of the world’s hardest-hit banks in the financial crisis, said yesterday it would raise about Sfr3.8bn (£2.1bn) of equity capital and warned it would fall to a net loss in the second quarter of 2009. UBS is offering about 293.3m new shares at a price of Sfr13.00 per share, a 6.9 [...]
NOT GUILTY, YOUR HONOUR June 25, 2009 TEXAS financier Allen Stanford pleaded “not guilty” to a $7bn (£4.3bn) fraud last night in a Texas court. Stanford could face life in prison if he is convicted of the alleged fraud, relating to his Antigua bank. A judge set the bail bond at $500,000.
Barclays’ Lehman deal probed June 25, 2009 A US bankruptcy judge has ruled that Lehman Brothers Holdings has the right to investigate the details of the sale of its broker-dealer unit to Barclays, to determine whether the UK bank got “too good of a deal”. Barclays snapped up the brokerage last year after Lehman filed for bankruptcy, but the company’s lawyers now [...]
Bernanke defiant over BoA deal June 25, 2009 Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last night denied that he had strongarmed Bank of America (BoA) into buying Merrill Lynch in a $50bn (£30.5bn) deal, in testimony before a congressional committee. BoA chief executive Kenneth Lewis has claimed that he was pressured into the deal by former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson, at Bernanke’s request. The [...]
BBC boss in expenses row June 25, 2009 Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, claimed £2,000 in expenses when he cut short a family holiday in the US to fly back to the UK and deal with the Andrew Sachs telephone furore, it emerged yesterday. The claim was published among hundreds released under the Freedom of Information Act. Thompson said the release [...]
FESTIVAL ATMOSPHERE June 25, 2009 City workers gathered yesterday in Paternoster Square as a musically-gifted one of their number performed an impromptu recital on one of the pianos dotted about London by mayor Boris Johnson. The piano initiative was put in place as part of this year’s City of London Festival, running until 7 August, which involves a number of [...]