Norwich oil firm Acteon on the market for £1bn April 22, 2012 BRITISH oil services firm Acteon is up for sale for around £1bn as its private equity majority shareholder seeks to cash in, according to reports. American investor First Reserve has reportedly appointed bankers JP Morgan to dispose of the Norwich-based firm. First Reserve, which could not be reached for comment, bought a 52 per cent [...]
Roche looks to alternatives after bid snub April 22, 2012 SWISS drugmaker Roche is looking for alternatives after it dropped a $6.8bn (£4.22bn) hostile offer for genetic specialist Illumina, a German newspaper reported yesterday. Roche is talking to the research centres of three large universities about buying their gene sequencing technology, Der Sonntag newspaper reported, without citing its sources. Roche walked away from its bid [...]
LOSSES WIDEN AT UNIQLO April 22, 2012 Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo widened its UK losses frpm £739,000 to £9.7m in the year to 31 August 2011, according to Companies House filings. The firm, which said turnover fell slightly to £63m, said the loss was partly due to accounting and lease changes. But Uniqlo still aims to expand in the UK and has [...]
Leahy offers Tesco answers at Hay Festival April 22, 2012 INVESTORS seeking to find out what’s going wrong at supermarket chain Tesco might want to indulge their literary side and buy a ticket to this year’s Hay Festival – as the firm’s former chief executive is set to appear at the event. Terry Leahy, who led the firm for 14 years before quitting last spring, [...]
LONDON MARATHON 2012 April 22, 2012 The normally quiet Sunday streets in the City came alive yesterday as more than 37,000 runners ran the 26.2 mile London marathon. Runners included many hundreds of City workers, most of whom raised money for their favourite charities. There was a 101 year-old man running, as well as the shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who clocked [...]
Female accountants see gender as barrier April 22, 2012 HALF of female accountants consider their gender to be a barrier to success despite the fact that the pay gap between men and women is narrowing. According to accountancy recruiting firm Marks Sattin, 51 per cent of women – compared to 12 per cent of men – believe that their gender inhibits career progression. The [...]
Spanish debt auctions revealed little about finances April 22, 2012 WHO ever said that debt auctions from Club Med countries were boring? Certainly nobody who follows the markets closely – these days, they are often the central economic event of a week. Take last week’s Spanish debt auctions, which ended up raising more questions than they answered. On Tuesday the precursor was an auction of 12 [...]
FTSE 100 turns to chiefs who know numbers April 22, 2012 THE NUMBER of chief executives in the FTSE 100 with financial backgrounds has leapt since the recession began four years ago. Fifty-one per cent of chief executives in London’s top stock index come from financial backgrounds, compared to 31 per cent in 2008, showing a jump of 67 per cent. Data from the Robert Half [...]
UBS CHIEF ERMOTTI HITS OUT AT ATTACKS ON SWISS TAX SECRECY April 22, 2012 Attacks on Switzerland as a tax haven constitute an “economic war” by rivals who want to hurt the country’s big banks and its strength as a financial centre, UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in an interview. Ermotti told SonntagsZeitung recent international clampdowns on tax avoidance are intended to hurt his bank.
Stratford skyscraper to get Games ads April 22, 2012 The Stratford Tower, one of Europe’s tallest residential skyscraper at 43 storeys, has been granted planning permission to be wrapped in advertising ahead of this summer’s Games. Located 200m from the Olympic Park, the building’s adverts could be seen by 55m people per day during the Games.
