WISH YOU WERE HERE November 17, 2009 LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday said investment in a campaign to boost tourism in London had brought a £50m boost to the capital’s coffers. The Mayor, who spent £2m on the “Only in London” campaign, wants to pour a further £400,000 into the project. “We are working on a strong, recognisable and iconic identity to [...]
EasyJet warns of a tough winter ahead November 17, 2009 BUDGET airline easyJet yesterday warned the aviation industry is in for a tough winter as it revealed its pre-tax profit halved over the past year despite customers trading down to cheaper transport options. Reported pre-tax profit at the airline fell 50.4 per cent to £54.7m in the year to September, down from £110.2m in 2007, [...]
Small firms are revving Britain’s economic engine November 16, 2009 LAST week I found myself at a dinner with some leading businessmen, and a few journalists. It was held under Chatham House rules, so I’ll have to keep their identities to myself. There was, of course, the usual gloom over Gordon Brown, and a lack of confidence in his policies for the economy. On a [...]
Interserve gives a bullish outlook and builds hopes for future contract wins November 16, 2009 Building and maintenance group Interserve said yesterday that trading had been in-line with expectations since the end of June and that it had been included in a scheme that will allow it to bid for £4m-worth of new contracts. The group said that in the first half it had benefited from a “strong performance” in [...]
IBM aims high with new cloud computing service November 16, 2009 IBM has launched a new cloud computing service, in a bid to take on companies such as Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft. Cloud computing allows firms to run software and store information in remote data centers that can be accessed over the internet. IBM’s Smart Analytics Cloud will first be adopted internally. IBM, the world’s biggest [...]
Rights approval at Unicredit November 16, 2009 SHAREHOLDERS in UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank, yesterday approved a rights issue of up to €4bn (£3.56bn) aimed at shoring up lagging capital ratios. The clearance by shareholders was widely expected. The capital increase is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2010, the bank said. UniCredit , Europe’s fourth-biggest bank [...]
ECB wants banks to get set for a slow, steady exit November 16, 2009 THE European Central Bank will not drop all of its extra liquidity support until it becomes concerned about risks on inflation, governing council member Athanasios Orphanides said yesterday. Orphanides said inflation expectations over the ECB’s policy horizon were on the low side and the ECB’s current “very accommodative” stance with record low interest rates and [...]
Planemakers cheer signs of turnaround November 16, 2009 AIRBUS and Boeing yesterday hailed signs of a pick-up in the battered aerospace industry and predicted that the Middle East would lead the fight-back. Airbus said figures last month showed falls in passenger numbers had bottomed out and that talks with airlines at this week’s Dubai air show suggested evidence of recovery. While western airlines [...]
SVG Capital eyes the sale or float of its investments as the market improves November 16, 2009 PRIVATE EQUITY investor SVG Capital said yesterday that prospects for selling on or floating parts of its investment portfolio had improved thanks to stronger financial markets. “We believe that the prospects for realisation activity, particularly for the more mature and defensive investments, are improving,” SVG said, adding that market conditions has “clearly been improving in [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 16, 2009 TULLETT PREBONNoble downgraded its stance on Tullett Prebon to “neutral” following its interim management statement, in which it said that 81 brokers had been poached by BGC Partners and that foreign exchange rates have started working against it. Noble estimates that these two factors could negatively impact its 2010 operating profit. LANCASHIREKBC Peel Hunt switched [...]
