New directors nominated for Holcim Lafarge April 14, 2015 HOLCIM and Lafarge have confirmed the list of 14 candidates they have nominated to make up the board of directors at the combined company after the two firms merge. Wolfgang Reitzle, current chairman of Swiss firm Holcim, and Bruno Lafont, chairman and chief executive of French company Lafarge will become co-chairs of the new group. [...]
Gulfsands chief exec removed from top role April 14, 2015 OIL FIRM Gulfsands Petroleum has removed Mahdi Sajjad as chief executive after shareholder Waterford Finance and Investment alleged that the management had failed to build a viable business outside Syria. The company said Sajjad will remain as a director of the firm, and has also appointed Alastair Beardsall as executive chairman. Waterford, which owns around [...]
UK’s economic weak spot: IMF says build more homes April 14, 2015 BRITAIN is growing faster than any other major European economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday, but needs to build more homes to address the supply crisis in the sector. GDP is set to grow by 2.7 per cent this year and 2.3 per cent next year, well ahead of the 1.5 per cent [...]
House prices on the rise as lending slows April 14, 2015 HOUSE price growth cooled in February but remains elevated, while pre-election jitters may have caused a slowdown in mortgage borrowing. House prices climbed by 7.2 per cent in the year to February, down from 8.4 per cent in the year to January, according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. Meanwhile, the [...]
Flipkart backs off from Airtel deal amid social media backlash over net neutrality threat April 14, 2015 India’s biggest online retailer Flipkart succumbed to social media protesters yesterday after announcing it was backing away from a controversial deal with phone network Airtel. Flipkart had faced an increasingly hostile social media backlash after announcing plans to allow its customers to freely browse Airtel’s network while picking up their data costs. Critics had slammed [...]
British icon Tesco rebounds but will it ever attain its past glory? – Brand Index April 14, 2015 Are there now real signs of recovery for Tesco? Its battle – not just against its traditional big four rivals but the German discounters too – has a long way to run, but the YouGov BrandIndex points towards areas in which it is succeeding. Tesco’s nadir was reached prior to Christmas, its brand image damaged [...]
Hot tickets for General Election fever: From Finsbury’s 2am Villandry breakfast to LSE’s private party April 14, 2015 Just over three weeks to go before the big day and party planners are sending out invitations to celebrate the result of what is predicted to be the closest General Election in decades. Among the top exclusive executive party crop (at £60 a head) is the bash at the Institute of Directors whose plush HQ [...]
Smile! You’re on my bodycam April 14, 2015 THE CITY’S traffic wardens are to get a new weapon in the war on illegal Square Mile parking. From next month the wardens – civil enforcement officers in the jargon – are to be armed with the latest in body-worn camera surveillance (Bodycams). The move follows a rise in the number and ferocity of abuse being [...]
Ashmore assets slump again as markets drag April 14, 2015 ASHMORE Group continued to feel the heat from emerging markets yesterday after funds under management fell for the third quarter in a row. The company, led by reclusive billionaire founder Mark Coombs, saw total assets fall 4.1 per cent to $61.1bn (£41.3bn) in the three months ending March. Investors delivered the biggest blow, pulling $2bn [...]
Nokia confims €40bn Alcatel mega merger is going ahead April 14, 2015 SHARES in Alcatel-Lucent leapt almost 15 per cent yesterday after Nokia confirmed it was in talks to merge with its French rival. The Finnish telecommunications firm and its smaller French counterpart have struggled to adapt to the age of the smartphone, leading Nokia to sell off its handset business to Microsoft last year. Both firms [...]
