UBS offloads employee share ownership business to Montagu December 19, 2013 UBS WEALTH Management yesterday sold its European stock benefit plans business to Montagu Private Equity, the owner of high street retailer Maplin Electronics. The deal, which comes after a spate of sales by Montagu, comes as the Swiss bank seeks to offload its non-core assets from its balance sheet. Terms of the deal were not [...]
Mercedes-Benz snaps up stake in Aston Martin in engine pact December 19, 2013 GERMANY’S Daimler said yesterday it will receive up to a five per cent stake in luxury sports carmaker Aston Martin in exchange for supplying engines and electronic components to the 100-year-old British firm. Aston Martin will team up with the German car maker’s high-performance Mercedes-AMG GmbH division to develop a new generation of bespoke V8 [...]
Banks get time to meet Volcker asset sale rules December 19, 2013 US REGULATORS said yesterday that banks do not need to sell certain securities immediately under the Volcker rule, but instead have until July 2015 to decide if the investments comply with the new rules. Bank regulators last week approved the final Volcker rule, which restricts banks’ ability to make bets with their own money and [...]
Probability plans to enter the US market in 2014 as losses widen December 19, 2013 PROBABILITY reported in its half year results yesterday that gaming revenues fell 20 per cent year-on-year and that the online gambling firm plans to enter the US market next year. Shares in the firm plummeted by 24 per cent after yesterday’s announcement to 36p a share. The company nearly tripled its loss for the period, [...]
Imperial Tobacco makes tax payment after settling dispute December 19, 2013 IMPERIAL Tobacco paid around £170m in UK corporation tax in its 2013 financial year, more than its total UK tax bill for the previous seven years, after settling a dispute with the tax authority. Imperial Tobacco, the world’s fifth-largest tobacco company by market capitalisation, declined to give details of what it described as “a confidential [...]
Aukett snaps up rival architects’ firm for £1.6m December 19, 2013 AIM-LISTED architectural firm Aukett Fitzroy Robinson (AFR) has snapped up the European arm of American rival Swanke Hayden Connell (SHCE) for £1.6m, in a further sign of returning confidence in the market. The new company will be called Aukett Swanke and is expected to generate £16m in annual sales, employing 340 staff across eight countries. [...]
British Gas loses executive who was taken to task by Twitter December 19, 2013 THE BRITISH Gas executive who led the company’s disastrous Twitter Q&A two months ago is leaving the firm to return to the Netherlands, the energy group said yesterday. Bert Pijls, British Gas’s managing director of customer services, decided to depart after his team was restructured and another role he was offered did not “match his [...]
Complaints fall at most of UK’s train operators December 19, 2013 COMPLAINTS about Britain’s trains fell sharply in the three months to the end of September, which the regulator hailed yesterday as part of a long-term decline in passenger grievances. Train operators got 26 complaints for every 100,000 customers in the quarter, down 19 per cent on a year ago, the Office of Rail Regulation said. [...]
London hotel industry set for record revenue growth in 2014 December 19, 2013 LONDON hotels are set to have a record 2014 according to the latest hotels forecast from PwC, after tough comparisons with the 2012 London Olympic Games caused a sluggish start last year. Revenue per available room (revpar), a key industry measure, is expected to rise 2.4 per cent to a record £112.80 thanks to a [...]
Trinity Mirror appoints two new board members starting in 2014 December 19, 2013 TRINITY Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror and more than 100 regional titles, yesterday appointed two new non-executive directors to its board. Helen Stevenson and Lee Ginsberg will join the Trinity Mirror’s board from 1 January 2014. Stevenson was previously marketing chief at Yell and Lloyds TSB, and currently serves as a non-executive director at [...]
