IMF slashes UK growth forecasts July 16, 2012 THE UK ECONOMY will grow much more slowly than was forecast just three months ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned yesterday, hampering efforts to bring down the huge budget deficit. The rapid worsening of the debt crisis in the Eurozone was largely to blame, although the IMF also warned in its global update that [...]
PTT to take over Cove as Shell pulls out of auction July 16, 2012 SHELL dramatically pulled out of the bidding war for Cove Energy yesterday, leaving the path clear for Thailand’s PTT to buy the British explorer for £1.2bn. Shell, which initially had the blessing of Cove’s board for its takeover advances, said yesterday it would not improve its latest £1.12bn offer for the Mozambique-focused energy firm. Cove’s [...]
Britain’s booming population has reinforced London’s power July 16, 2012 NO other trend is as important as the population explosion since the Industrial Revolution: there are now more human beings than ever before. This holds true also for the UK: yesterday’s 2011 UK census results showed another huge rise. The population of England and Wales surged by 3.7m in the last decade – 7.1 per [...]
Yahoo taps up Google’s Mayer July 16, 2012 YAHOO unveiled Marissa Mayer as president, chief executive, and board member last night, its fifth boss in four years – not counting caretaker heads. She joins the ailing web giant with 13 years of experience at Google, having started as its 20th employee in 1999. She said she was “honoured and delighted” to start in her [...]
Moody’s cuts Italian lenders July 16, 2012 RATINGS agency Moody’s downgraded eight Italian banks yesterday, due to worsened feelings about Italian government debt, following Italy’s sovereign downgrade on Friday. The UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo groups saw their members’ long-term ratings cut across the board, to Baa2 or Baa3. Smaller banks Instituto Servizi Mercato Agricolo Alimentare, GE Capital, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Credito [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 16, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Greece cuts executive rewards Greece’s coalition government has stripped the executives of loss-making state electricity producer of a monthly €3,500 allowance paid on top of their salaries, in a move signalling their intention to cut wasteful public sector spending. Delancey bids to use park media centre as a data store Delancey, the property [...]
Pension pots to be more portable July 16, 2012 Pension pots will follow workers as they change jobs, according to new plans announced by pensions czar Steve Webb today. Many employees’ pensions are tied to their employer under current rules, meaning that when they move job they can lose access. But the new plans will consolidate the small individual funds built up at different [...]
Hedge fund pioneer dies at 79 July 16, 2012 Barton Biggs, a former chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley who predicted that the internet bubble would burst a year before it did, has died, the bank said yesterday. Biggs also played a significant role in the hedge fund industry where he co-founded one of its first firms, Fairfield Partners, in 1965. Nearly four decades [...]
Banks’ state support halved July 16, 2012 The taxpayer was still supporting the banking sector to the tune of £228bn in March, said the National Audit Office yesterday. This is down from last year’s figure of £456bn and an earlier peak of £1.2 trillion. The Treasury estimates that accounting for all economic costs, the support schemes have represented a transfer of £5bn [...]
Glaxo clinches HGS with new $3bn cash offer July 16, 2012 PHARMACEUTICAL mammoth GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has acquired Human Genome Sciences (HGS) in a friendly $3bn (£1.9bn) cash offer, following months of hostile pursuit. The sweetened offer of $14.25 per share is a premium of 99 per cent over HGS’s undisturbed share price. HGS had previously rejected as insufficient an offer of $13 per share, which valued [...]
