Telefonica July 18, 2010 WHAT a terrible mess. There is little worth rescuing from the ashes of Telefonica’s failed attempt to buy Portugal Telecom (PT) out of their Brazilian joint venture, after the Portuguese government exercised its “golden share” option to scupper the bid. For both sets of shareholders, the deal would have made perfect sense. Telefonica could have [...]
AIG settles in $725m Ohio fraud lawsuit July 18, 2010 INSURER American International Group (AIG) has been ordered to cough up $725m (£473.7m) in compensation to its Ohio pension fund shareholders, as part of a settlement of a long-running securities class action lawsuit against the firm. AIG was accused by the pension funds and the Ohio attorney general’s office of anti-competitive market practices, including a [...]
Irish minister to stay in his post July 18, 2010 IRISH finance minister Brian Lenihan, who devised of some of Europe’s toughest fiscal reforms, is in robust health and can keep his job despite an earlier cancer diagnosis, he said in remarks aired yesterday. Lenihan, praised by investors for efforts to stem Ireland’s steep budget deficit rise, said in January he would only fulfil essential [...]
Skills still vital to businesses July 18, 2010 IN TODAY’S changing economy vocational skills are vital to business success, according to the latest findings from vocational education group City & Guilds. A survey of 1,200 London employers showed nine out of 10 view their vocationally trained staff as vital to the success of their business, while two thirds think vocationally trained employees make [...]
London shops boom but UK sales stutter July 18, 2010 LONDON shops enjoyed June sales 14.4 per cent higher than a year ago, according to research out today. The shopping boom far outstrips the rest of the UK, where like-for-like growth was just 1.2 per cent, and represents the strongest sales growth in the capital since October 2006. Research by KPMG and the British Retail [...]
West End falls behind rest of capital July 18, 2010 LONDON’S West End has seen an upsurge in high-end purchases, though shops in the area have bounced back at a slower rate than the rest of the capital. June sales in the West End shops rose 10 per cent on last year, compared to a 14.4 per cent rise in London and a 1.2 per [...]
Aerospace giants set to check in at Farnborough July 18, 2010 AEROSPACE firms will gather in Farnborough today to launch the industry’s largest trade show. Boeing kick-started the show yesterday with the highly anticipated arrival of its Dreamliner jet. The 787 carrier, which has suffered from crippling production delays, landed after a nine-hour flight from Seattle to an awaiting crowd just outside of London. Boeing’s Dreamliner [...]
Fight must go on for Five July 18, 2010 SOURCES close to pan-European broadcaster RTL Group yesterday poured cold water on speculation that newspaper tycoon Richard Desmond has sealed a deal to buy its beleaguered UK television channel Five, calling it “wishful thinking”. Desmond, the owner of Express newspapers and OK! magazine, was though to be on the brink of clinching an agreement to [...]
Buckle up for more of the FTSE rollercoaster July 18, 2010 MAYBE you don’t have to be schizophrenic, but it helps. In the last month the FTSE 100 has oscillated madly from optimism, to despair, back to optimism – before finishing Friday once again enveloped in gloom. In that time we’ve had nine consecutive days of gains that took us to 5,300, then a period of [...]
UK exports up 11 per cent on last year but some regions see decline July 18, 2010 THE VALUE of UK exports increased by more than 11 per cent, or £6bn, between January 2009 and 2010, though fortunes were mixed throughout the country. London saw the biggest rise in the value of its exports, up 33.5 per cent to £1.73bn. The West Midlands closely followed with a 26 per cent rise. Northern [...]
