Vodafone waits as Ono weighs up takeover bid February 10, 2014 VODAFONE could secure a €7bn (£5.4bn) deal to buy Spain’s largest cable operator Ono as soon as today. Ono’s owners had been planning an initial public offering (IPO) this year to capitalise on a wave of investor interest in the increasingly successful cable sector. Vodafone is reported to have tabled a €7bn takeover bid – [...]
Bottom Line: Spanish assets are too rich for British blood February 10, 2014 FORGET foreplay – in the telecoms world, getting on top and staying there is all about quad-play. The idea is that one provider supplies customers with all their fixed-line and mobile needs, bundling television, broadband, mobile and landline services into a single package. To do that, the provider needs access to a vast array of [...]
Land Rovers drive revenues at Tata Motors February 10, 2014 RESURGENT car maker Jaguar Land Rover generated 85 per cent of its Indian parent company’s revenues and almost all of its profits in the last nine months of 2013. Revenues at JLR rose 30.8 per cent to £14bn while profits before tax rose 65 per cent to £1.9bn. This rapid growth compares to a 23.6 [...]
Chelsea chair Bruce Buck steps down from Skadden leadership February 10, 2014 BRUCE Buck, the Chelsea football club chairman who is also a partner at law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, is to step down as head of the firm’s London office. Former Skadden Moscow head Pranav Trivedi, who also specialises in corporate finance, will step into Buck’s shoes, and spend most of his time in [...]
First fleet of electric minicabs starts work on London’s streets February 10, 2014 A FLEET of electric minicabs will start operating in London today, two months after the capital got its first fully electric buses. Chinese firm BYD manufactured the 20 vehicles which have been bought by chauffer service Thriev. The new cars – the e6 model – come four years ahead of mayor Boris Johnson’s deadline for [...]
Bitcoin prices dive as concern over security flaw spooks investors February 10, 2014 BITCOIN prices plummeted as much as 22 per cent during trading yesterday after top Bitcoin exchange MtGox said a flaw with the crypto currency had led it to stop withdrawals last week over security concerns. MtGox described the issue: “A bug in the Bitcoin software that makes it possible for someone to… alter transaction details [...]
Fortnum & Mason owners take home windfall £91m dividend February 10, 2014 THE CANADIAN owners of Fortnum & Mason and Associated British Foods took home £91m in dividends last year after a strong performance across its investments. Accounts filed recently on Companies House reveal that Wittington Investments, one of the main investment vehicles of the Weston Family, paid out £53m in the year to 14 September compared [...]
Wages left far behind as house prices rocket February 10, 2014 THE AVERAGE salary in England would have grown by £29,000 in the past decade and a half if wages kept up with house price inflation, according to shocking new figures. Research by housing charity Shelter shows that average earnings would have been over £55,000, rather than just below £26,000, if pay had risen at the [...]
Pay will not recover to pre-crash level until 2022 February 10, 2014 PRICE rises have outstripped wages to such an extent that real incomes will only recover to pre-crash levels in 2022, according to a report out today from the Resolution Foundation. Wages should start rising by more than prices this year, the think tank forecasts, but even so by 2018 less than half of the gap [...]
Euro investors say sentiment up in January February 10, 2014 EUROZONE investor sentiment is now at its strongest since the first half of 2011, before the European Central Bank’s (ECB) aborted attempt to lift interest rates. Investor sentiment reached 13.3 in January, according to research firm Sentix’s index, with any number over zero indicating a positive outlook. The figure was last higher in April 2011. [...]
