UK fraud office ends Autonomy accounts probe January 19, 2015 THE BATTLE between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and the former executives of UK-based software company Autonomy took another turn yesterday as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) closed its probe into the firm saying there wasn’t enough evidence for a conviction. Autonomy, then a darling of the UK’s technology startup community, was sold to HP for $11.7bn (£7.7bn) [...]
Institute of Directors lashes out at “scandal” of big firms delaying payments January 19, 2015 Business leaders have hit out at firms that delay pay for suppliers. The Institute of Directors (IOD) has warned the “scandal” of late payments is undermining the economic recovery and inviting regulation from politicians. It comes after a supplier complaint to AB InBev that the brewing company behind Budweiser and Stella Artois was forcing them [...]
Greece Election 2015: Will a Syriza win lead to a Greek exit? January 19, 2015 Expect a game of chicken between the far-left regime and its lenders. In five days the Greeks go to the polls, and the far-left Syriza party is forecast to win power – if not with an outright majority, then with a little help from like-minded candidates. The party, led by Alexis Tsipras, (above) has wooed [...]
Allied Irish boss poached to run Clydesdale float January 19, 2015 NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB) hired David Duffy yesterday to run its British unit Clydesdale Bank, ahead of its expected stock market flotation later this year. The 53-year-old executive has run Allied Irish Bank (AIB) since December 2011, when he was handed a three-year contract. AIB was bailed out by the Irish government in the wake [...]
Rangers look to scupper Dave King coup as turmoil worsens January 19, 2015 THE BOARD of beleaguered Scottish football club Rangers is looking to thwart attempts by shareholder Dave King to call a general meeting in order to oust four directors. The club released a statement yesterday saying it intends to have King’s notice withdrawn under the Alternative Investment Market rule requiring all individuals appointed to the board of [...]
Christmas sugar rush boosts Thorntons’ high street sales January 19, 2015 HIGH street sales at chocolate retailer Thorntons surged over the Christmas period as consumers tucked into its advent calendars and Snowman-themed treats. The company said like-for-like retail sales rose by five per cent in the 14 weeks to 10 January and by 7.8 per cent in December – a turnaround from the 3.7 per cent [...]
John Laing aims to expand in US after new float January 19, 2015 INFRASTRUCTURE investment firm John Laing Group is floating on the stock market in order to fund further growth overseas. The company, which focuses on infrastructure projects awarded under governmental public-private partnership (PPP) programmes, delisted in 2006 after being bought by fund managers Henderson. Yesterday the firm announced plans to raise £130m ahead of listing again [...]
Societe Generale boss Frederic Oudea loses half his job as bank picks Lorenzo Bini Smaghi as chairman January 19, 2015 French bank Societe Generale hired a new chairman yesterday, splitting Frederic Oudea’s role. The boss had been both chairman and chief executive, but the lender has decided that he and the firm should be subject to oversight by a non-executive board chair. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has been appointed chairman of the bank. He is an [...]
Balfour Beatty wins Scape Group public works contract worth £1.5bn January 19, 2015 Construction firm Balfour Beatty has been appointed sole contractor to a new UK-wide civil engineering and infrastructure framework for public works valued at up to £1.5bn. Individual projects within the framework, which will run until February 2019, are expected to be worth up to £40m each. The framework is operated by public sector-owned Scape Group [...]
Sweet dreams are made of… a new bed-desk January 19, 2015 FOR THOSE of us who’ve been forced to spend hours listening to fitness-obsessed colleagues extol the virtues of the standing-up desk, here comes the ultimate antidote: the lying-down desk. That’s right – while the former caught the public imagination in 2014, this year the working environment is set to be angled towards the less actively-inclined, after [...]
