Ministers on alert over age bias wrangle January 17, 2012 THE COALITION’S new rules on the retirement age could be plunged into confusion after a long-running discrimination case opened in the Supreme Court yesterday. Leslie Seldon, who was a partner at London law firm Clarkson Wright and Jakes, is taking his former employer to the highest court in the land after he was forced to [...]
Amazon is catching up to Britain’s top brand January 17, 2012 GOOGLE, Amazon and Marks & Spencer’s remain the healthiest brands in the UK in the eyes of consumers for the third year running, according to the annual YouGov BrandIndex league table of brands. They lead the way on the Index score, which is a composite of consumers’ perception of brands terms of quality, value, customer [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD EMPLOYERS RETIRE WORKERS BASED ON AGE? January 17, 2012 CARLOS LEWIS | MOIP CONSULTANCY “It isn’t right that employees can be forced out, especially as pensions are getting lower. The government should be on the side of employees.” SYED HASSAN | ALLIANCE & LEICESTER “The government should enact strong policy to protect older employees. It isn’t fair that someone can lose a job based [...]
BIRLEY CAPS NUMBERS AT HIS DELAYED £20M CLUB January 17, 2012 THE DEVELOPMENT of 5 Hertford Street is progressing “more or less” on track. That’s more or less as in originally scheduled for last November, before being pushed back to this month and now – final answer – March. “Except that’s Easter,” says a spokesman for Robin Birley, the leisure entrepreneur developing the £20m Shepherd Market [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 17, 2012 Ernst & Young Mark Weinberger has been named as Ernst & Young’s next global chairman and chief executive, succeeding Jim Turley, who will retire on 30 June after leading the firm since 2001. Weinberger currently sits on Ernst & Young’s highest governing body, the global executive, and runs the global tax practice. He previously served [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 17, 2012 IMPERIAL TOBACCO JP Morgan Cazenove rates the tobacco firm “overweight” and has introduced a target price of £31.27. The broker thinks the tobacco sector as a whole could be in for a rough start to the year, as reluctant investors stay away from the sector. But it points to a strong 2011, where even weaker [...]
Miners rise on China stats despite lingering euro fear January 17, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares rose yesterday, aided by mining stocks after data from top metals consumer China eased worries over the demand picture, although fears of a Greek default kept a lid on the gains. The UK benchmark closed up 36.51 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 5,693.95, having earlier baulked just above the near-term 5,720 [...]
Wall Street’s rally leaves Citi behind January 17, 2012 US stocks advanced yesterday, pushing the S&P 500 to its highest since early August, but sharply pared gains late in the session as Citigroup’s steep drop in profit gave investors a reason to unload bank shares. The financial sector, which has outperformed the broader market so far this year, took a hit on investors’ disappointment [...]
Rio Tinto output is hit by China fears January 17, 2012 LONDON-LISTED miner Rio Tinto yesterday reported almost flat iron ore production growth for the fourth quarter, weaker than some market expectations amid concerns that Chinese demand is softening. The company reported a three per cent rise in output between the third and fourth quarters of 2011, down from growth of nearly double that at the [...]
Afren finds oil in offshore Nigeria well discovery January 17, 2012 BRITISH energy explorer Afren found oil at one of its wells off the coast of Nigeria, and said it planned to drill another well in offshore Ghana later this month. Afren, whose main producing fields are in Nigeria but owns assets across Africa, said it found 549 feet of net oil pay – the zone [...]
