Long schedule is taking its toll October 6, 2009 THIS is the week England players have been looking forward to all summer. Aside from an Ashes decider or a Champions Trophy semi-final, this, at last, is their reward for the longest summer of their careers – the week off. As the only cricket nation in the Northern Hemisphere, England are the only team who [...]
GSK boosted by flu vaccines October 6, 2009 SHARES in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) got a lift yesterday after the pharmaceuticals firm said it had won a further 22 government orders for its swine flu vaccine in the last two months. The new contracts take the number of doses of the H1N1 vaccine ordered from GSK to 440m, worth some $3.5bn (£2.2bn), a considerable sales [...]
Finsbury spins another healthy profits increase October 6, 2009 CADBURY’S financial public relations adviser Finsbury has increased profits despite the downturn in the economy, according to documents filed at Companies House. Profits have reached £8.8m against £8.75m last year and founder Roland Rudd has seen his pay package reach £2.9m against £2.25m the year before. Rudd, a former financial journalist with the Financial Times, [...]
Tories detail plans for later retirement October 6, 2009 THE TORY party softened its stance on bringing forward planned rises to the state retirement age yesterday, while the City attacked the cost-cutting plan as insufficient. Shadow chancellor George Osborne addressed the party faithful in Manchester, setting out his proposed measures to tackle what he calls “Labour’s debt crisis”. He confirmed plans, leaked on Monday [...]
SPORT IN BRIEF October 6, 2009 Khan faces Salita in title defenceBOXING: Amir Khan will make the first defence of his WBA light-welterweight title against Dmitriy Salita at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, on Saturday 5 December. Khan, who won the title after out-pointing Andreas Kotelnik in July, takes on the American, who has won 30 and drawn one of his [...]
Blackstone in windfall from oil field stake October 6, 2009 BLACKSTONE shares rose by more than 4.5 per cent yesterday as the firm came in line for a giant windfall, after energy giant Exxon Mobil agreed to buy a stake in an oil field the private equity firm jointly controls. Exxon has snapped up a large interest in the Jubilee field in Ghana, which is [...]
Hodges to head Aviva UK as insurer announces management reshuffle October 6, 2009 Aviva yesterday announced that its head of UK life insurance Mark Hodges is to become chief executive of its entire domestic business, bringing all its UK life and non-life operations under one leader. The move is part of a management shake-up which has been prompted by the retirement of Aviva’s chief executive of North America, [...]
DENG INSPIRES BULLS AT O2 October 6, 2009 LONDON-raised Luol Deng enjoyed the perfect homecoming last night as his Chicago Bulls edged out the Utah Jazz in a thrilling finale to their NBA pre-season game at the O2 Arena. Deng, the Team GB star, finished joint top scorer with 18 points and added five assists to help the Bulls to a 102-101 victory [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 6, 2009 ThreadneedleThe asset management firm has appointed Kris Haber as global head of hedge funds and head of the North American business. Haber, who will report directly to the firm’s chief executive Crispin Henderson, joins after a 13-year spell working for Lazard Asset Management, where he was most recently a managing director for global alternative investments. [...]
BY TORY CUTS MUST GO FURTHER, SAYS CITY October 6, 2009 ECONOMISTS yesterday welcomed Tory plans to cut public spending by £23bn over the next parliament, but warned that the party would need to make much deeper cuts to plug the massive budget deficit. Speaking at the Tory party conference in Manchester, shadow chancellor George Osborne set out plans to shave £7bn a year from existing [...]