Mazars faces accounting tribunal over First Quench pension advice August 5, 2013 THE ACCOUNTANCY watchdog is investigating Mazars and the managing partner of its London office over pension advice given to the now-defunct drinks firm First Quench Retailing. The Financial Reporting Council has made a formal complaint about Mazars and partner Richard Karmel, claiming their conduct “fell significantly short of the standards reasonably to be expected”. The [...]
Insurance firm Hub bought by private equity August 5, 2013 INSURANCE broker Hub International will be sold to funds managed by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman in a deal that values the firm at about $4.4bn (£2.87bn), Hub said yesterday. Hub, which has more than 6,500 employees in the United States, Canada and Brazil, was formed through the merger of 11 privately held Canadian [...]
Flybe loses finance boss as part of reshuffle under its new CEO August 5, 2013 EUROPE’S largest regional airline Flybe, which appointed a new chief executive last month, said yesterday its chief financial officer and three board members had resigned. The group said that Andrew Knuckey, who has been CFO since 2007, would leave the company after his successor is appointed and a suitable handover period is completed. Flybe appointed [...]
Serco confirms new £810m US health contract August 5, 2013 SERVICES company Serco yesterday confirmed that it has been awarded a new contract by the US Department of Health, worth $1.25bn (£810m). The FTSE 100-listed firm will handle applications for a number of insurance affordability programmes including Medicaid services. The contract has a one-year base period valued at around $115m with four further one-year options, [...]
Train operators say traffic rising in tandem with UK jobs market August 5, 2013 BRITAIN’S railways carried 344.4m passengers in the three months to the end of June, up five per cent on last year – and train operators credited some of the rise to an uptick in the jobs market. Trains in London and the south east of England took 235.8m people in the quarter, a rise of [...]
Fastjet rejigs shares to prevent a drop below nominal 1p value August 5, 2013 AFRICAN airline Fastjet is planning to consolidate its shares in order to keep on the right side of UK company law and try to stabilise its share price. Fastjet’s shares, which had fallen from 4p at the start of the year to 1.16p yesterday, will be subject to a one-for-ten consolidation and then split into [...]
Glencore sells Australian malt producer Joe White to Cargill August 5, 2013 GLENCORE Xstrata yesterday said it has agreed to sell Australia’s largest malt producer, Joe White Maltings, to agriculture giant Cargill. The sale is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of 2013. The deal value was undisclosed by Glencore in yesterday’s announcement but is reportedly worth A$420m (£244m). Joe White [...]
French firm Total mulls moving its treasury business to London August 5, 2013 FRENCH oil major Total plans to move its corporate treasury department to London to get closer to analysts covering the company and raise its profile with investors, a spokesman for the group said yesterday. Total is discussing moving 60 staff from the treasury department to London as well as about 10 people in charge of [...]
South Koreans concerned over Samsung ruling August 5, 2013 THE SOUTH Korean government yesterday expressed concerns about the decision by the United States to overrule a sales ban of some Apple models. The Obama administration vetoed a US trade panel’s ban on the import and sale of some older iPhones and iPads, reversing a ruling that had favoured South Korea’s Samsung Electronics over Apple [...]
Gemfields output soars 42pc as auctions achieve record results August 5, 2013 AIM-LISTED Gemfields yesterday posted a 42 per cent increase in year-on-year gemstone production to 29.99m carats for the year ending 30 June. Quarterly production grew to 8.9m carats from 7.3m carats year-on-year. Chief executive Ian Harebottle said that the miner had achieved “record revenues” and “record per carat prices” at recent emerald auctions, which were [...]
