E&Y tops gay-friendly survey January 11, 2012 BIG four accountancy firm Ernst & Young was yesterday named as the most gay-friendly employer in the UK, topping the annual index of the best firms for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff. Ernst & Young moved up from third position last year to take the top spot in Stonewall’s workplace equality index, which considers criteria [...]
City jobs vacancies down 43 per cent on 2006 peak January 11, 2012 JOB OPPORTUNITIES in financial services collapsed in December thanks to the Eurozone crisis, according to Morgan McKinley’s London employment monitor, published today. Vacancies in the sector fell by 36 per cent on the month – a more severe drop than the usual Christmas holiday fall, because of worries over the economy. For the year as [...]
CITY A.M. | SHADOW MPC VOTES TO HOLD POLICY January 11, 2012 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “I vote to hold both rates and QE. The economy is stronger than some feared, with survey data pointing to a slight rise in activity, but inflation remains well above target.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Stop gilt purchases but offer ECB-style liquidity support to banks to ease upward pressure on [...]
MARIO’S BEMUSING MUSINGS ON BEAUTY January 11, 2012 THE GREAT Pyramids of Giza? An ugly pile of weirdly-angled rocks. The Statue of Liberty? Just a rusty shard of copper wearing a silly hat. The Colosseum in Rome is still far too paltry a landmark, but at least we’re getting warmer geographically. No, for the human race’s biggest achievement, one must go to Brussels. [...]
SABMiller in $7bn funding January 11, 2012 GLOBAL brewer SABMiller yesterday said it had issued and successfully priced a $7bn (£4.5bn) bond, with the proceeds used to repay part of the bank borrowing taken on for the purchase of Australian brewer Foster’s late last year. The FTSE 100-listed brewer of Miller Lite, Peroni and Grolsch beer finalised the cash takeover of Foster’s [...]
BAA passenger numbers up as Heathrow booms January 11, 2012 TRAFFIC at airports operated by BAA rose last month, with Heathrow enjoying its busiest December ever in terms of both passenger numbers and cargo. BAA, which is Britain’s main airport operator and majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial said yesterday that its airports carried just under 8.1m passengers in December. That is an annual [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD PRIORITISE HIGH SPEED RAIL OR MORE AIRPORT CAPACITY? January 11, 2012 JOE BATTLE | ANTARES “Personally I think the high-speed rail, because there has never been a real problem with airport capacity, only a bit of hustle and bustle. A decent rail network around the UK would be fantastic.” DAN SILVEY | AXA “I think the government should favour high speed rail because it is a [...]
Amec and Babcock win new £650m National Grid work January 11, 2012 AMEC and Babcock’s five-year contract with National Grid to upgrade power lines has been extended by a further five years, the pair announced yesterday. The contract was awarded to the joint venture between the two engineering firms and Mott MacDonald Group. The firms will upgrade of overhead power lines and underground cables in west England [...]
PAI Partners sells off its £460m ingredients firm January 11, 2012 THE MORIBUND European private equity market showed some signs of life yesterday when PAI Partners agreed to sell its share in a Danish food ingredients firm for about €560m (£462m). PAI will sell its a 25.7 per cent stake in Chr. Hansen to Novo, which is the main owner of drugmaker Novo Nordisk and industrial enzymes producer [...]
HUNTER ATTRACTS MORE PRIVATE EQUITY January 11, 2012 HUNTER’S celebrity profile has helped the upmarket wellington boot maker attract more private equity funding. Hutton Collins said yesterday it was providing £32m to support Searchlight’s acquisition of the company. In the year to 31 December 2010 Hunter reported a turnover of £56m and profits of £16m. The company’s profile has been dramatically raised in [...]
