Travelodge books a £71m loss as new owners plan king-size refit October 6, 2013 TRAVELODGE, the first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, made a pre-tax loss of £71.1m last year, but managed to halve its losses as new investors seized control. The low cost chain’s losses slumped from £148.1m in 2011 to £71.1m in the year to 31 December 2012, Companies House accounts show. [...]
VTB Bank in talks to sell stake in Rosbank to Societe Generale October 6, 2013 RUSSIA’S second-largest bank VTB has agreed to sell its stake of around 10 per cent in Societe Generale’s Russian unit Rosbank to the French bank, while SocGen will sell VTB a number of Russian assets, a source close to the deal told Reuters yesterday. State-controlled VTB, which bought into Rosbank in 2010, said in May [...]
Advisory work lifts revenue at Grant Thornton October 6, 2013 GRANT Thornton has posted a 13 per cent surge in annual revenues to £471m as the accountancy firm picks up more advisory work from large-cap firms and mid-cap audit contracts. The firm said turnover in its advisory business rose by more than a fifth in the year to the end of June, helped by an [...]
Bottom Line: There’s growth to be had away from big audits October 6, 2013 GRANT Thornton, like its mid-market rival BDO, has not pinned all its hopes on winning blue-chip audit work any time soon, despite the huge amount of noise generated by the Competition Commission’s plans to open up the market. And with a double-digit rise in revenues, the company doesn’t need to worry at the moment. Advisory [...]
Amazon’s German operations threatened by Christmas strikes October 6, 2013 WORKERS at Amazon.com’s German operations could strike during the Christmas holiday season in a dispute over pay that has been raging for months, a union has warned. “If I were Amazon I would not rely on being able to make all deliveries to customers on time before Christmas,” Heiner Reimann of services trade union Verdi [...]
Tesco hopes to win back sales with new items October 6, 2013 TESCO will today unveil a revamped version of its Finest range, which Britain’s biggest supermarket hopes will win over shoppers and shareholders following grim half-year results. The FTSE 100 firm, whose market share is dipping as the discount supermarkets grow, is expected to lay out 1,500 new or redesigned products ahead of the Christmas rush. [...]
Serco tight-lipped on rumours of UK and Europe chief’s exit October 6, 2013 TROUBLED outsourcing firm Serco was thrown into further turmoil after it emerged yesterday that its UK and Europe chief executive is expected to leave. The company – which dropped out of the FTSE 100 at the latest quarterly reshuffle – would not confirm Jeremy Stafford’s imminent departure, which was reported by the Sunday Times citing [...]
Food industry groups aim for £500m UK boost with new plan October 6, 2013 FOOD and drink firms could serve up a £500m boost to the UK economy, with a campaign to promote local businesses internationally. The UK food and drink industry, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), and the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said they have spent a year developing a plan to grow exports [...]
UK mobile firms join meeting on broadband plan October 6, 2013 TELECOMS groups including the UK’s largest mobile operators will today meet with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) over ongoing plans for the rural broadband rollout. Executives from EE, Vodafone and Three will all attend a meeting to explore ways of expanding coverage using mobile technologies, according to a report from the Financial [...]
City office lets reach three-year high but value still tops wish list October 6, 2013 LETTINGS of prime “grade A” office space in the City hit their highest level in three and a half years in the third quarter at 470,640 square feet. Research out today by Colliers International showed that most deals were for second-hand offices as cautious companies continue to put value at the top of their lists. [...]
