Cable delivers the right message at TheCityUK dinner October 8, 2013 WITH Vince Cable delivering the keynote speech, guests at TheCityUK’s annual dinner last night may have been hoping the business secretary would provide the inside track on how the much-anticipated sell-off of Royal Mail was going. But Cable was firmly on message –“I may have something of a reputation for pushing ministerial boundaries, but that [...]
Chesnara buys closed life fund from Direct Line October 8, 2013 INSURANCE-focused takeover specialist Chesnara said it would buy Direct Line’s domestic closed life insurance business for about £39.3m in cash. Chesnara, which has been looking to acquire life insurance funds in Western Europe for the past year, said the deal would be partly financed by a new loan facility of £73.8m from the Royal Bank [...]
Robert Walters is enjoying the recovery in the UK jobs market October 8, 2013 THE JOBS market in Britain is continuing to recover, according to recruiter Robert Walters, which yesterday posted a 21 per cent jump in fees generated in the country. Good growth in the resources sector, as well as signs of an upswing in the regions, were behind the surge in net fee income to £15.8m in [...]
Paragon pays £13.5m for bad HSBC loan book October 8, 2013 SPECIALIST lender Paragon yesterday announced it has bought a portfolio of bad loans from HSBC. The portfolio is made up of personal loans, both secured and unsecured, and were made by HFC Bank, a fully owned subsidiary of HSBC. Paragon paid £13.5m for the portfolio, financed with its own cash. The giant London-listed lender has [...]
Education fails to prepare Brits for jobs market October 8, 2013 PUPILS in England are among the least well prepared in the developed world for the reality of modern labour markets, according to a shocking report released yesterday. Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals that England is the only advanced economy in which the youngest generation leaving education is less literate [...]
Apec vows to boost trade as slump forecast October 8, 2013 LEADERS of countries in the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) group pledged to offset weaker growth in trade yesterday, even as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sliced forecasts for commerce. In a prepared statement, the countries meeting in Indonesia said: “Global growth is too weak, risks remain tilted to the downside, global trade is weakening and [...]
Recovering Ireland to slow pace of tax hikes and spending cuts October 8, 2013 IRELAND’S government yesterday said it has been given permission to slow the pace of its spending cuts by international lenders. The state was bailed out after a promise to rescue its banks tipped the government into bankruptcy. And after years of tough spending cuts the economy is now recovering, improving the state of public finances [...]
Low growth in emerging world as India hit hard in September October 8, 2013 INDIA recorded the sharpest contraction in activity for over four years this September, according to HSBC’s emerging markets index, released this morning. The index suggests that Indian activity declined in every month of the third quarter, seeing the worst period since the middle of 2009. Emerging markets pointed to another month of meagre expansion. The [...]
Researchers say Eurozone crisis unresolved despite new growth October 8, 2013 DESPITE signs of a recovery in the Eurozone, much of the region’s crisis remains unresolved, according to a report released yesterday. According to researchers at Capital Economics, with peripheral Europe still crippled by high unemployment and debt, and Germany still reticent to quicken steps towards banking union, the currency bloc is not out of the [...]
AG Barr hires its first female non-executive October 8, 2013 SCOTTISH soft drinks company AG Barr has appointed its first female non-executive to its all-male board. The Irn-Bru maker announced yesterday that Pam Powell, a UK-based American who also sits on the board of Premier Foods, will join the group on 1 November. The 50-year-old spent nine years at brewing giant SAB Miller as director [...]
