Nighthawk makes £2.9m placing January 17, 2012 US-focused oil firm Nighthawk has raised around £2.9m by selling new shares to investors. The 115.7m new shares have been placed with institutional and other investors at 2.5p per share, a 7.5 per cent discount to Monday’s share price. The sale is part of a wider fundraising effort as Nighthawk works on a deal to [...]
Thomas Cook: The company taking visitors to the Olympics since 1896 January 17, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING INVOLVED WITH THE GAMES? A. Thomas Cook actually took customers from Britain to the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, and passengers from all over the UK to the 1908 and 1948 London Olympics, so we’ve got a [...]
Tracking money laundering matters: But don’t cast too wide the webs of suspicion January 17, 2012 I WOULD like to introduce you to Alyssa Thomas, a 6-year old girl from Ohio. She was placed on the terror watch list, causing airport havoc whenever her family would fly. How does a 6-year old end up in the terrorist watch list? When her father was asked by news reporters “What could she possibly [...]
Tech innovations herald a better educated future January 17, 2012 AN EDUCATION technology (edtech) revolution is taking place that’s changing the way the next generation learns. Although some are fearful of the disruption – not least teachers – integrating technology into education has the potential to unleash young people’s talents more effectively than ever before. This isn’t about training children to give PowerPoint presentations – [...]
Why prejudice cannot pay off in the long run January 17, 2012 OVER the last year, the number of executive directors of FTSE 350 firms who are women has decreased from 45 to 43, about 5 per cent of the total. The revelation of this fact on Monday prompted complaints about “under-representation”, “glass ceilings” and “boys’ clubs”. The Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Oakeshott, even claimed that “British [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 17, 2012 The VAT morass On Monday, you mentioned the reduction of VAT were we to join EFTA [With the Eurozone tottering it may be time we signed up for some Norwegian lessons]. VAT is a typical bureaucrat’s way of raising a tax on sales. It is highly complex and applied to almost every transaction. We have [...]
Bringing the renminbi to the City of London January 17, 2012 FOLLOWING a two day visit to China, George Osborne yesterday announced that Britain had agreed to partner with Hong Kong to develop the City of London as an offshore trading centre for the renminbi. Hong Kong is currently the only official offshore renminbi venue, but Osborne hopes to turn London into a second offshore venue [...]
EU WOES WILL WEIGH ON THE EURO-DOLLAR January 17, 2012 UK BRANCH MANAGER, EASY-FOREX STERLING is trading near a 16-month high versus the euro and a new low for the year versus the dollar. Sterling strength versus the euro reflects demand for an alternative to the euro because of the EU debt crisis and the pound also benefits from expectations that the UK will maintain [...]
Accounting for good practices: why effective risk management matters January 17, 2012 HEAD OF ACCA UK THE global attitude towards risk management has changed irrevocably in the last three years. Yet, despite the increasingly stringent regulatory controls and development of sophisticated financial modelling, at the end of the day, risk management must address the human factor. People ultimately make decisions based on the best available information, but [...]
Lean and green but not very mean January 17, 2012 Whenever I see a Toyota Prius, it is travelling in the outside lane on the M6 Toll road at a blistering pace. I have always assumed that the owners are keen to recharge their batteries, or that even worthy eco warriors sometimes like to let loose and cane their cars once in a while, when [...]
