BAA losses narrow after record Heathrow passenger numbers February 22, 2012 Heathrow airport passenger numbers rose five per cent to a record 69.4m last year, helping BAA to narrow its losses. The airport operator made a loss of £255.8m in the year to 31 December, compared with£316.6m the year before. Passengers at its Stansted airport dropped by by 2.8 per cent to 18m. The company said [...]
China new export orders fall February 22, 2012 China’s new export orders shrank in February the most in eight months, a preliminary HSBC business survey shows, defying expectations of a pick up after Lunar New Year holidays and a worrying sign of the impact of the euro area debt crisis. Many analysts had expected some rebound in February after imports and exports fell [...]
Dow hits 13,000 February 21, 2012 But European traders are sceptical as Greek bailout rally fades US MARKETS ignored the shakiness of the Greek bailout deal yesterday, with bullish investors pushing the Dow Jones through the symbolically important 13,000 mark for the first time since before the financial crisis. But Europe’s markets slipped as worries mounted that politicians had comprehensively failed [...]
BC’s new fund pulls in €6.5bn February 21, 2012 PRIVATE equity house BC Partners has shone a ray of light on the troubled buyout industry by raising €6.5bn (£5.45bn), in the largest European fundraising since the onset of the financial crisis. The owner of gyms chain Fitness First and Swedish cable group Com Hem raised more than it expected despite many of the world’s [...]
Osborne’s lucky escape on the deficit February 21, 2012 FOR once, and I can barely believe that I’m writing this, George Osborne has reason to be happy. The budget deficit for this fiscal year to date (April 2011-January 2012) was a still horrendous, Greek-style £93.5bn, but this was down £15.6bn from a year earlier, a very non-Greek development. This is a much better performance [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 21, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES OSBORNE URGED TO CUT TAXES ON BUSINESS George Osborne has come under renewed pressure from the Conservative right to cut business taxes and simplify labour laws in next month’s Budget. Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, called for urgent action to deal with the “true horror” of the government’s economic inheritance. PANDORA PLUNGES [...]
HSBC overhauls bonuses February 21, 2012 HSBC is to adopt a complicated new way of paying the cash part of its staff’s bonuses after pressure from the Bank of England and FSA. The bank is set to unveil a system to pay for the up-front cash chunk of bonuses (20 per cent of the total) for senior UK staff by issuing [...]
J&J names new chief executive February 21, 2012 Johnson & Johnson chief executive William Weldon will step down from his post in April after a series of recalls called into question the quality of the healthcare giant’s products, from artificial hips to infant Tylenol. Weldon, 63, will remain chairman, the company said yesterday. He has held both roles for nearly 10 years, after [...]
Obama to lay out tax strategy February 21, 2012 The US Treasury Department will today roll out a corporate tax reform plan from President Barack Obama. The Obama plan will follow such principles as ”fairness” that the president laid out in his State of the Union address last month, officials said last night. Analysts said a cut in the corporate tax rate, which presently [...]
Trader fired amid fraud plan probe February 21, 2012 ASSET manager Threadneedle has sacked a trader over a suspected attempt to carry out a $150m (£95.03m) rogue trade. The American-owned firm made a complaint to the City of London Police after discovering the planned trade in August last year. It was stopped before it was completed. The deal would have been worth around $150m [...]
