Both parents can now take parental leave from work April 7, 2015 Both parents can now request equal paid time off work when they have a new baby, under laws that came into force this weekend. The laws, which will apply to all babies whose due date was on 5 April 2015 or later, allows parents to split up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks [...]
MTV owner Viacom takes $758m hit from write-down as pay-TV falters April 7, 2015 US media giant Viacom – which owns Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon – will take a $758m (£509m) pre-tax charge as part of a strategic realignment. Much of the charge is due to “write-downs of underperforming programming, including the abandonment of select acquired titles”, as well as costs associated with workforce reductions. “This strategic realignment, [...]
Tesco pays £9m for abandoning Somerset store April 7, 2015 Tesco has been forced to pay out a £9m settlement to two local councils after shelving plans for a new store in Somerset, with the retailer likely to face further charges over other store closures. In January, Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis announced plans to close 43 existing stores and pull out of building 49 [...]
Does Good Friday spell bad times ahead? – Bottom Line April 7, 2015 At first glance, Springboard’s footfall figures for the Bank Holiday weekend seem frightening enough to scare away the Easter bunny – especially on the high street where footfall declined as much as 10 per cent on Good Friday. It is as though Britons received the wrong memo – believing that shops in fact weren’t open, [...]
Stamp duty and mansion taxes: Which taxes apply to you? April 7, 2015 Money is tight in Whitehall. Both Labour and the Conservatives are promising to cut the deficit to varying degrees if they win the General Election. And Westminster is surrounded by some of the most valuable real estate in the world. House prices in London have boomed since 2013, so an obvious solution presents [...]
Miner Glencore free to bid for rival Rio again April 7, 2015 Mining firms Glencore and Rio Tinto declined to comment yesterday on the question of whether a deal between the two could be back on the table. Switzerland-based Glencore originally made an estimated £60bn offer for its larger British-Australian rival last August, but in October Rio Tinto revealed that it had rejected the bid. [...]
Oil prices rally despite fears over Iran nuclear deal consequences April 7, 2015 Brent crude oil rallied to climb by over $3 yesterday, after being hit by the effects of the preliminary nuclear deal reached by Iran and six world powers last week. The global benchmark price was also helped by the fact that major producer Saudi Arabia upped its prices for sales to Asia, signalling an improvement [...]
Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman in telecoms move with Letter One Technology April 7, 2015 Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman is preparing to expand his holdings in the telecoms market with investment vehicle Letter One. The billionaire businessman will operate the Letter One Technology platform as a private equity-style fund to invest in telecoms assets across Europe, with initial funding of $16bn (£11bn). The technology offshoot of the Letter One group [...]
Extended 10-minute parking fine grace period comes into effect April 7, 2015 Drivers celebrated yesterday as new parking laws, which give them an extended grace period in which to return to their car before being fined, came into force. Under the new rules, brought in by local government secretary Eric Pickles, English local councils will have to allow people 10 minutes after the paid-for time to return [...]
Fundraising and dealmaking help to boost profits at stockbroker N+1 Singer April 7, 2015 N+1 Singer yesterday became the latest City stockbroker to report a boost in profits last year as fundraising and dealmaking activity picked up. However, the group warned there was still too much capacity in the small- and mid-cap market because of falling secondary commissions. N+1 Singer’s revenue increased five per cent to £30.9m [...]
