Balfour Beatty share price falls despite sale of Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospital stake October 2, 2014 Balfour Beatty’s £61.5m sale of its stake in Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospital will not be enough to buoy shareholder confidence following the firm’s profit warning on Monday, analysts have said. The company disposed of its 50 per cent interest in the public-private partnership (PPP) yesterday, selling to an HCIL subsidiary, and also announced three new [...]
Brent crude oil price drops to two-year low October 2, 2014 BRENT crude oil fell to a two-year low yesterday, dropping 1.2 per cent to $92.93 a barrel, with analysts blaming a lack of demand for the decline. Daniel Sugarman, market strategist at ETX Capital, said any turnaround in the market would depend on the political situation in the Middle East. He told City A.M.: “Islamists are [...]
Boris Johnson’s deputy Kit Malthouse slams support for electric cars October 1, 2014 Boris Johnson’s deputy Kit Malthouse is battling against fellow politicians to drive hydrogen as the clean fuel source of the future, describing battery-powered vehicles as “a temporary technology”. Speaking at Canaccord Genuity’s Hydrogen – The New Energy Landscape conference in London yesterday, Malthouse, deputy mayor for business and enterprise, told attendees that uptake of hydrogen-fuelled [...]
Regulator slaps £10,000 fine on Ageas for phantom phone calls October 1, 2014 OFCOM has handed a £10,000 fine to Ageas Retail for making abandoned calls to its UK customers. The watchdog found that the insurer made 148 of these calls, where consumers answer the phone to find there is no one on the line, on three separate days within a seven-week period. A spokeswoman for Ageas said the [...]
Five-in-one joy as firms scoop £3.2bn MoD deal October 1, 2014 BABCOCK, the UK engineering firm which manages naval bases at Devonport and Clyde, has been awarded a contract worth £2.6bn by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Meanwhile, BAE Systems, which manages Portsmouth Naval Base, has struck a £600m deal. Both new contracts will run until 2019. The MoD said the new arrangement, which brought five [...]
Crude oil prices finally on the up after slumping to two-year low October 1, 2014 BRENT crude oil futures stabilised yesterday, rising by $1 after falling to a two-year low earlier in the week. Brent, the international benchmark, fell to $94.67 (£58.52) per barrel on Tuesday. The drop marked a 16 per cent loss for the quarter, the biggest in two years. US crude also fell to a two-year low. Analysts [...]
Hong Kong protests: UK companies defiant in face of continued unrest September 30, 2014 UK companies are not putting restrictions on travel to Hong Kong, despite continuing protests in the city, according to market sources. Although several London-based banks declined to comment on the situation in the region, insiders said there were no immediate plans to follow the example of French cosmetics company L’Oreal, which yesterday banned all staff [...]
Intertek share price up as Andre Lacroix takes reins September 30, 2014 Intertek, the London-based inspection and certification firm, saw its share price jump by more than two per cent yesterday following the appointment of Inchcape’s Andre Lacroix as chief executive. Meanwhile, Inchcape’s share price plummeted by almost five per cent. Lacroix will take up his new role and join the Intertek board in May 2015. He [...]
African Minerals turns to banks in face of weak iron ore market September 30, 2014 African Minerals has brought in Standard Chartered to look at the possibility of refinancing the debt structure of its Tonkolili iron ore project in the face of a “depressed iron ore environment”. Executive chairman Frank Timis said the business had been “slow to react” to market circumstances and warned that if the business did not [...]
Melrose-owned Elster Gas pays $158m for US company Eclipse September 30, 2014 BRITISH investment company Melrose Industries has bulked up its portfolio with Elster Gas’ purchase of US manufacturer Eclipse for $158m (£97m). Eclipse recorded sales of $126m for the year ended March 31, and Elster said the company’s “long established expertise in low-temperature industrial gas combustion complements [its] expertise in high-temperature industrial gas combustion applicatioens in [...]
