Imperial offers share buyback as sales grow May 1, 2012 IMPERIAL Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest cigarette group, set a £500m share buyback yesterday and said it saw a return to sales growth as the company put last year’s problems behind it. The British firm, which sells over 340bn cigarettes a year, reported that half-year earnings beat forecasts as it gained from the ending of a [...]
Imperial Tobacco takings fall as Spain woes persist February 1, 2012 IMPERIAL TOBACCO said yesterday its cigarette volumes fell seven per cent in the final quarter of 2011 after sales were hit by a tough Spanish market, Syrian sanctions and destocking in Ukraine and the US. The world’s fourth-biggest cigarette maker, whose brands include Davidoff and Gauloises, said sales were down by one per cent in [...]
Why it is time to rename the Bric nations the Bics February 22, 2012 IT HAS been clear for some time that global growth for the foreseeable future will not be driven by Europe and the US, but rather by the so-called Bric countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China. This group of countries, representing around a third of the world’s population, now form a loose but increasingly vocal [...]
Why it is time to rename the Bric nations the Bics February 22, 2012 IT HAS been clear for some time that global growth for the foreseeable future will not be driven by Europe and the US, but rather by the so-called Bric countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China. This group of countries, representing around a third of the world’s population, now form a loose but increasingly vocal [...]
An empire of darkness and crime October 5, 2011 MISHA Glenny is no stranger to investigating violent individuals. As a correspondent for the Guardian and BBC he covered corrupt politicians and megalomaniac generals in Yugoslavia. Following this, Glenny turned his sights on international crime syndicates, producing his findings in his celebrated 2008 work McMafia. In his latest, however, Glenny has swapped machine guns, cocaine [...]
Regal backs Energees bid February 6, 2011 UKRAINIAN investment vehicle Energees Management raised its offer for Regal Petroleum from 24p to 38p per share yesterday, in the latest volley between bidders for the London-listed oil explorer. The Regal board has backed the £85m bid for up to 70 per cent of the firm’s share capital. Hadron Capital and Renaissance Securities, who own [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 31, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph MAUDE DEMANDS SERCO ANSWER Serco is to be ordered to explain to the government why it took the highly unusual step of writing to its leading suppliers to demand that they pay a blanket 2.5 per cent “cash rebate” on their work this year or risk losing future contracts. Serco, [...]
Boeing sells 30 jets to Emirates July 18, 2010 EMIRATES will order 30 new Boeing 777 aircraft in a deal worth more than $7bn (£4.6bn). The contract will be unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show, which starts today. It follows a period of rapid expansion for the Dubai-based airline, which last month ordered 32 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets, worth around $115bn. The deal will [...]
Bullock is Miss Sentimentality in her apple pie Oscar role March 25, 2010 Film THE BLIND SIDE Cert: 12A IT’S certainly a remarkable story. “Big Mike” Oher, a poor black kid from the Tennessee projects abandoned by his junkie mother, became a major star in American football after being rescued by rich housewife, Leigh Anne Tuohy. She and her millionaire husband (Tim McGraw) adopted him as a teenager, [...]
Telenor makes peace with Alfa and plans $23bn merger October 5, 2009 NORWEGIAN Telenor and Russian Alfa Group have agreed to merge their Russian and Ukrainian holdings into a $23bn (£14.4bn) New-York listed telecoms firm, ending one of Russia’s longest corporate wars. Telenor’s stock surged 15 per cent on the news the row had ended. The dispute was seen as a major threat to foreign investment in [...]