Directors hit back at Balls’ pensions plan March 12, 2012 THE LABOUR Party has demanded a raid on tax relief that top earners are currently granted on their pension contributions – provoking an angry reaction from business chiefs. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said yesterday that the relief should be slashed from 50 per cent to 26 per cent. “Ed Balls seems to think that this [...]
Budget 2012: what will be in Osborne’s red box? March 12, 2012 ● STAMP DUTY The chancellor appears likely to close a loophole by which people can avoid paying stamp duty on properties by putting expensive properties in off-shore firms. Stephen Herring, a senior tax partner at BDO, said the change is “as close to a dead cert as you can get”. ● MANSION TAX The Conservative [...]
Deutsche loses prime brokerage chief to Lloyds wholesale division March 12, 2012 LLOYDS Banking Group’s wholesale division has poached a Deutsche Bank executive to be its new head of e-commerce and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. Joe Cassidy is leaving his job as head of rates prime brokerage and OTC clearing at Deutsche to go to the state-owned UK lender. It comes less than a week after it emerged that [...]
IAG gives way in an effort to seal BMI deal March 12, 2012 BRITISH Airways owner IAG has offered concessions to EU antitrust regulators in a bid to get regulatory approval for its takeover of BMI, the low-cost British unit of German carrier Lufthansa, the European Commission said yesterday. The Commission, tasked with ensuring a level playing field in the EU, did not provide details of the concessions, [...]
Surge in Brazil flights propels BAA traffic figures skyward March 12, 2012 TRAFFIC at airports operated by BAA rose by 2.5 per cent in February, compared with the same period the previous year, with London’s Heathrow benefiting from a surge in demand for flights to Brazil. BAA, which is Britain’s main airport operator and majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, said yesterday that its airports carried [...]
Cobham withdraws Danish bid March 12, 2012 British aero electronics group Cobham said it was withdrawing its £273m bid for Thrane & Thrane after the Danish communication equipment firm rejected its offer. Cobham said it had been in talks with Thrane & Thrane regarding a potential deal over the last year, and submitted an offer of 420 Krone per share on 8 [...]
Stagecoach bid for Devon buses March 12, 2012 Stagecoach is planning to buy FirstGroup’s North Devon bus operations, the FTSE 250 transport group said yesterday. Stagecoach will buy around 30 vehicles that operate on 10 routes in North Devon in a deal worth £2.8m, which must still be cleared by the Office of Fair Trading.
CPP to cut one in ten workers March 12, 2012 Troubled card insurer CPP is seeking to cut ten per cent of its UK workforce as the firm attempts to restructure its business in the aftermath of a damaging probe by regulators. The firm currently employs over 1,300 people and if not enough take voluntary redundancy by the end of March, the firm will consider [...]
Premier Foods secures lifeline March 12, 2012 Premier Foods, the company behind brands including Hovis and Mr Kipling, was thrown a lifeline by its banks yesterday after it was given more time to repay its £1.2bn of loans. The refinancing deal with its banks including Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland will see Premier’s repayment deadline extended from December 2013 to June [...]
Arena canters to a profit rise March 12, 2012 Racecourse owner Arena Leisure yesterday posted pre-tax profits of £4.2m, up 15 per cent, after the average attendance of its 352 events last year grew by 7.8 per cent to 1,941. The number of hospitality guests increased by 14 per cent to 51,500. But a cutback in the amount collected from bookmakers and distributed by [...]
