What the other papers say this morning – 19 August 2013 August 18, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES House of Fraser eyes London listing House of Fraser, the British department store chain, has considered a return to the public markets to help simplify its ownership structure. The group is mulling a listing in London, although this is being considered alongside other options to allow shareholders to exit the group, said one [...]
HS2 rubbishes claim that costs could hit £80bn August 18, 2013 THE COMPANY developing the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway last night hit out at claims that the cost of the route will eventually hit £80bn, insisting the figure is based on ideology rather than reality. A report released today by the free market Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) think tank concludes that local lobbying campaigns [...]
KPMG warns banks may never recover to pre-crisis profitability August 18, 2013 BRITAIN’S biggest banks may never again achieve the same level of profitability that they enjoyed before the financial crisis, consultants at KPMG warned in a major report out this morning. Although all five of the largest lenders are now making money, the rising tide of regulations and increased caution since the crisis mean they will [...]
Spanish fishermen protest in latest Gibraltar row August 18, 2013 SPANISH fishermen protested against the creation of an artificial reef in the Bay of Gibraltar yesterday. Some 30 fishing boats circled the area where 70 three-tonne concrete blocks were dropped in July to form a reef that the Spanish authorities said was not legal, prompting tougher checks on the border between Spain and the British [...]
Edwards up for sale just a year after $1bn float August 18, 2013 BRITISH technology firm Edwards, which listed in the US after struggling to float in London, is in talks about a potential sale to Swedish group Atlas Copco, it was reported this weekend. A $1bn (£640m) sale of the company would end a brief spell as a public firm for the Crawley-based vacuum pump manufacturer, [...]
Bottom Line: When making a brand new start of it doesn’t work August 18, 2013 WHEN Edwards’ planned London flotation was cancelled in April 2011, the markets barely even feigned surprise. The vacuum technology firm’s pulled initial public offering (IPO) came amid a period of market volatility and – Glencore aside – little appetite for new listings. It was hardly surprising that investors didn’t clamber over each other to [...]
Chief of Greek privatisation firm dismissed over holiday flight August 18, 2013 GREECE dismissed the chairman of its privatisation agency yesterday after a newspaper exposed how he used the private plane of a businessman who had just bought a state company to go on holiday. Stelios Stavridis is the second head of HRADF to leave in less than six months, reigniting controversy around Greece’s ailing privatisation programme, [...]
Profits plummet one third for top UK businesses August 18, 2013 DESPITE a rise in revenues, some of the UK’s top companies saw profits plunge in the year to March, slumping by a total of 33.8 per cent in comparison to 2012. In the 12 months up to the end of the first quarter, 62 of the country’s biggest firms earned £16.6bn in profit after tax, [...]
£100bn more of assets up for sale at Lloyds August 18, 2013 LLOYDS Banking Group is expected to announce the sale of its German insurance unit this week, taking its disposals so far close to the £200bn mark. The sale means the state-backed lender is roughly two-thirds of the way through its plan to sell off non-core assets, with around £100bn of assets left to sell. The [...]
RBS delays branch bidding to heighten competition in sale August 18, 2013 BIDDING to take over 316 branches of RBS has been delayed to allow all the competing buyers to get their finances in order, sources close to the negotiations told City A.M. Bids from a group led by Corsair Capital, a consortium headed by AnaCap and Blackstone as well as the W&G Investments Group all submitted [...]
