Inside Track: Jenkins should settle Barclays’ £50m fine so he can move on February 12, 2014 RAISE £6bn from investors and hand more than half of it back to employees and investors six months later: as a formula for managing a corporate balance sheet, there’s a certain novelty in Barclays’ approach. But for someone who has choreographed efforts to rehabilitate a company’s image as carefully as Antony Jenkins, this has been [...]
Recovery not enough to drive up real wages February 12, 2014 NEW RESEARCH suggests that the current economic recovery will not be enough for most pay packets to rise faster than inflation again, with productivity still damaged. A report released today by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) suggests that real wage growth is likely to stay muted if productivity fails to improve with [...]
UK engineer Fandstan sold to New York’s Wabtec for £130m February 12, 2014 FANDSTAN Electric Group, the London-headquartered engineering group whose subsidiaries have provided parts for London’s DLR and the Eurostar, has been sold to New York-listed Wabtec for £130m. The private company was founded by Lord Tanlaw, a former director of his family firm Inchcape, whose grandfather was the final White Rajah of Sarawak, the dynastic monarchy [...]
Tullow refutes takeover talk after dry spell February 12, 2014 TULLOW Oil’s chief executive yesterday denied that the energy explorer had become a takeover target, after a swathe of exploration write-offs led to a 72 per cent drop in full-year profits. The FTSE 100-quoted firm reported pre-tax profits of $313m (£189.5m), down from $1.12bn the previous year, hit by a $200m increase in exploration write-offs [...]
Hard Rock Hotel drums up more work for Carillion in Abu Dhabi February 12, 2014 CARILLION has been hired to build a 40-storey Hard Rock Hotel in Abu Dhabi in a contract worth £110m. The FTSE 250 firm, which recently finished work on the Oman Parliament building, will start work on the five star hotel later this month. In the latest sign that construction is recovering in the United Arab [...]
Bakries slow progress of Asia Resource Minerals’ separation February 12, 2014 ASIA RESOURCE Minerals – the miner formerly known as Bumi – yesterday said that it has agreed to delay its separation by up to a week after co-founders the Bakrie Group requested an extension to the deadline. The Indonesia-focused coal miner, which counts billionaire financier Nat Rothschild as one of its founders, said in a [...]
Petrofac-led group scores Kuwait contract February 12, 2014 A JOINT venture led by FTSE 100-listed Petrofac yesterday said it has been awarded a $3.7bn (£2.2bn) oil refinery contract in Kuwait. The oil and gas services provider, along with Korea’s Samsung and Netherland’s CB&I, will provide engineering, procurement and construction work for Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC)’s clean fuels project at a refinery in [...]
Babcock and Costain venture wins £900m Network Rail deal February 12, 2014 BRITISH engineering firms Babcock and Costain yesterday confirmed that their joint venture, which also comprises France’s Alstom, has been hired by Network Rail as one of the four suppliers to spark off its £2bn national electrification programme. The joint venture, called ABC Electrification, will rake in £900m from the seven-year contract, which is extendable by [...]
African Barrick soars as raised output guidance deflects losses February 12, 2014 AFRICAN BARRICK Gold’s share price shot up five per cent yesterday, after the FTSE 250-quoted miner pleased investors with raised production guidance and better-than-expected cost cuts. The Tanzania-focused explorer, which has struggled with operational issues and a weak gold price over the past year, said it had beaten guidance with production of 641,931 ounces in [...]
Lewis enjoys his OBE in style at The Villandry February 12, 2014 FRESH from collecting his OBE at Buckingham Palace yesterday, chief executive of The Association for Financial Markets in Europe and Gordon Brown’s former comms man Simon Lewis headed to The Villandry for an after party with old pals including Sir Victor Blank, broadcaster Carole Stone and Villandry stakeholders Roland Rudd (of Finsbury) and Credit Suisse’s [...]
