Not convinced? April 22, 2014 CHECK OUT THESE ALTERNATIVES… NISSAN LEAF PRICE: £21,490 (after grant) 0-62MPH: 11.5 secs TOP SPEED: 87mph CO2 G/KM: 0g/km MPG COMBINED: N/A THE VERDICT: DESIGN One Star PERFORMANCE Two Stars PRACTICALITY Two Stars VALUE FOR MONEY Two Stars TOYOTA PRIUS PLUG-IN PRICE: £28,395 (after grant) 0-62MPH: 11.3 secs TOP SPEED: 112mph CO2 G/KM: 49g/km MPG COMBINED: 134.5mpg THE VERDICT: [...]
Hate meetings? There are solutions April 22, 2014 You can’t escape the corporate meeting boom, but you can stop wasting so much time OVER a third start late, we lose the equivalent of 31 hours a month each because they’re unproductive, and many people hate them anyway. Meetings are the bête noire of corporate life and, according to one survey, 39 per cent [...]
City abuzz as Pfizer eyes up Astrazeneca April 22, 2014 BRITISH investors get their first chance this morning to react to the prospect of a pharmaceuticals mega-merger that could amount to the largest ever foreign takeover of a UK company. In New York last night, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) in AstraZeneca closed up 8.8 per cent as traders reacted to interest in the British drugs [...]
Pro-union CBI loses more members in Scotland April 22, 2014 BUSINESS organisations in Scotland are voting with their feet after the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) came out against Scottish independence. In a further blow to the organisation after a number of members resigned over the weekend, both Glasgow and Aberdeen universities quit yesterday amid concerns about impartiality. Edinburgh University is also understood to have [...]
Shoppers stay away from UK high streets over Easter April 22, 2014 BRITISH shoppers did not hit the high streets in their expected numbers over the first days of the Easter bank holiday weekend, but there were signs that more people had headed to the shops yesterday. Retail data firm Springboard says that average footfall across high streets, shopping centres and retail parks was down 7.6 per [...]
Hurrah – British companies are finally starting to invest again April 22, 2014 SLOWLY but surely, companies are starting to spend again, buying machines, computers and software and thus gradually beginning to rebalance the recovery. As a result, my worst fears – that the entirety of this recovery would be consumer-driven – haven’t so far materialised. Fortunately, the nightmare that was 2012 – when consumer spending rose by [...]
Japan’s trade deficit reaches record level April 22, 2014 THE JAPANESE trade deficit is now larger than ever, with figures released this weekend showing the complete reversal of the country’s once-reliable surpluses. Japan has not recorded a trade surplus in any month for nearly two years, and at ¥1.45 trillion (£8.41bn) in March, the deficit is now more than four times as large as [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 22 April 2014 April 22, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Anglo eyes SA platinum shift Anglo American is preparing the ground for an exit from part of its South African platinum business, in what would be one of the miner’s most decisive shifts away from troublesome assets since Mark Cutifani became chief executive last year. The country’s platinum sector has been crippled for [...]
Netflix to hike prices as it gains clout in market April 22, 2014 NETFLIX will hike its prices to new customers by up to $2 (£1.19) per month, the firm announced yesterday as it revealed record profits of $53m for the first quarter. Profits are up 10.4 per cent on the quarter from $48m in the last three months of 2013. The TV and film streaming firm’s incomes [...]
Bottom Line: Mega-mergers can give a shot in the arm for ailing pharma giants April 22, 2014 BACK in 2010, around the time that Jeffrey Kindler suddenly quit his job as Pfizer’s chief exec, I had a chat with a (somewhat less senior) employee at the company who was pleasingly relaxed about discussing its prospects – or a lack thereof. “We have no idea what the plan is,” they confided, happily treating [...]
