Mitchells & Butlers sales better than forecast January 26, 2012 Restaurants and pubs group Mitchells & Butlers reported a better than expected first quarter sales rise, benefiting from milder weather over the Christmas and New Year period and strong demand for casual dining. The company, whose chains include Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, said it was confident of further growth in the year [...]
US hedgie fined £7m over City scandal January 25, 2012 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority yesterday fined hedge fund Greenlight Capital and its owner, David Einhorn, £7.2m for alleged insider trading in connection with a £350m equity raising by Punch Taverns in 2009. Einhorn’s £3.6m share of the £7.2m fine is the second-largest ever imposed by the UK regulator on an individual for market abuse. The [...]
Fed: We won’t increase ultra-low interest rates until late 2014 January 25, 2012 THE GLOBAL economy is so weak and US growth so anaemic that interest rates are unlikely to rise until late 2014, the Federal Reserve announced last night. Markets rose on the “highly accommodative” policy announcement, buoyed by the promise of cheap money for years to come. The Dow Jones rose 0.38 per cent, the Standard [...]
Eurozone hit by debt woes January 25, 2012 DEBT crises in Greece and Portugal showed no signs of abating yesterday, yet elsewhere in the Eurozone periphery Ireland successfully accessed bond markets for the first time since its bailout. While Ireland’s government appears to be recovering relatively well since accepting an international rescue package in 2010, Portugal may need a further €30bn in EU [...]
Coalition deeply confused on growth January 25, 2012 IT is hard to understand what the coalition is playing at. Britain’s economy is stagnating, GDP appears to have shrunk in the last three months of 2011 and yet the government exudes no sense of emergency, no impression that it realises that we are in a national crisis and that radical, drastic and unpopular action [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 25, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES NORWEGIAN CARRIER AIMS HIGH WITH 222 AIRCRAFT ORDERS Norwegian Air Shuttle plans to buy 222 new aircraft worth $21.1bn from Boeing and Airbus in a move that heralds its ambition to become one of Europe’s leading low-cost airlines. Boeing secured its largest ever European deal through a firm order by the Oslo-based airline [...]
Senate starts HSBC investigation January 25, 2012 HSBC Holdings is being investigated for money-laundering by a US Senate panel, which could result in a congressional hearing being scheduled within a matter of months. While the focus of the probe is not yet known, this is the latest in a string of banks exposed by US officials for managing transactions on behalf of [...]
Goldman’s London HQ to be sold January 25, 2012 Chinese real estate investor Gaw Capital Partners is in talks to buy Goldman Sachs’ London HQ for about £300m in the latest deal underlining the safe haven appeal of the city’s property market, a source said. Gaw, through its Downtown Properties vehicle, is in the final stages of talks to do the deal for the [...]
Rumours of a Facebook IPO on trade halt January 25, 2012 SPECULATION of an imminent public offering from Facebook has been reignited by the social networking company’s suspension of trading on the private secondary market. While deal-making will operate as normal, Facebook’s lawyers Fenwick & West will not approve transactions for the remainder of the business week. Zuckerberg’s empire has said the move is to perform [...]
Lagarde: UK must cut deficit January 25, 2012 THE BRITISH government has no choice but to continue with plans to reduce its annual deficit, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last night. Former French finance minister Christine Lagarde (right) recently recommended that some governments had scope to slow down austerity measures in the face of strong economic headwinds. But yesterday [...]
