Insurance groups try to assess the cost of recent flood damage June 24, 2012 INSURANCE companies are expected to calculate within days the cost of this week’s flooding in the UK, a spokesperson from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) told City A.M. yesterday. The rainfall on Saturday was equal to a whole month’s normal rainfall, weather experts said. Insurance companies have been trying to provide immediate services to [...]
End of strike deal in sight for Lockheed June 24, 2012 LOCKHEED Martin, the Pentagon’s number one supplier by sales, said it had reached a tentative deal with a union that has been on strike for eight weeks at a Fort Worth, Texas, assembly plant for its F-16 and F-35 fighter aircraft. A bargaining committee of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will recommend [...]
RWE seeks compensation over delay to Nordsee Ost wind farm June 24, 2012 GERMANY’S second-biggest utility, is seeking compensation from the federal government as its offshore wind farm project faces “further massive delays,” Der Spiegel reported yesterday, citing the company’s new chief executive. Efforts to link RWE’s so-called Nordsee Ost wind farm in northwestern Germany to the main electricity network keep running behind schedule, Peter Terium told the [...]
Inflation relief helps some struggling Brits June 24, 2012 ONE IN three households reported worsening finances in June, but there was some relief from inflation’s upward march and a slightly sunnier economic outlook for the next year. Just seven per cent of households reported improving finances in the last month, according to figures out today from Markit. The data provider’s current finances index gained [...]
Turmoil hits growth and exit options for private equity firms June 24, 2012 BUSINESS confidence among finance chiefs at firms backed by private equity has slumped to its lowest recorded level on the back of increased market uncertainty, a survey released today shows. The study from business advisory firm Deloitte, which polled 70 finance heads at to private equity-backed businesses, found optimism about future revenue growth had fallen [...]
Retailers try to tempt shoppers with early bargains in the sales June 24, 2012 RETAILERS keen to cash in on a summer of sporting and Jubilee celebrations are offering big discounts in early summer sales. A survey of 100 high street stores by PwC showed that nearly three quarters of shops have started sales or advertising promotions in shop windows, up from 70 per cent a year ago and [...]
Smaller firms are feeling the pinch more June 24, 2012 NEARLY 2,000 British businesses collapsed in May, according to figures from Experian. The rate of insolvencies was stable compared to a year ago at around 0.09 per cent of the overall business population, but the stats showed that firms with between six and 10 staff saw the biggest rise in failures. Experian’s Max Firth said: [...]
UK restrained by one of the highest tax burdens in G8 June 24, 2012 BRITAIN’S tax burden is too high, driving tax avoidance and inhibiting economic growth, according to research published today. Accounting firm UHY Hacker Young warns that the UK is in danger of “losing jobs and investment to overseas competitors” with its total tax burden of 34 per cent of GDP. This compares to reported burdens of [...]
Lib Dem urges tax crackdown June 24, 2012 TREASURY minister Danny Alexander yesterday claimed that the basic rate of tax could be cut by 2p in the pound through a crackdown on tax avoidance. The Liberal Democrat said cutting the amount of uncollected tax by a quarter could enable the saving. It is important that “everybody, especially the rich and famous, are paying [...]
Acquiring firms outperform the rest of market June 24, 2012 EUROPEAN firms that make acquisitions tend to outperform the rest of the market, according to new research released today. Second-quarter figures from Towers Watson’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor (QDPM), which records data on all deals with a value of at least $100m (£64m), demonstrates that acquirers within both European and Asia-Pacific markets continue to outperform [...]
