Lloyds of London takes £1.4bn hit from Thai floods February 14, 2012 Severe flooding in Thailand last year is set to cost the Lloyd’s of London insurance market $2.2bn (£1.3bn), with claims for the industry as a whole likely to reach $15-20bn. The final bill from the Thai floods may vary, but Lloyd’s is financially strong enough to cope, chief executive Richard Ward said. “Paying these claims [...]
BHP and Rio Tinto in $4.5bn copper expansion February 14, 2012 BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have raised their bets on global copper demand, approving plans for a $4.5bn expansion of the massive Escondida mine in Chile, while BHP plans to reopen a US copper mine idled three years ago. The two miners are already spending billions of dollars expanding output at their Australian iron ore [...]
Samsung weighs up future of LCD business February 14, 2012 Samsung Electronics it is considering various options to improve competitiveness of its loss-making LCD flat-screen business but declined to comment on a media report that it may spin off the operation. The potential restructuring comes after it ended its liquid crystal display (LCD) venture with Sony Corp recently and as demand growth for flat-screens weakened [...]
First time buyers rise ahead of stamp duty increase February 13, 2012 The number of first-time buyers purchasing property increased by seven per cent at the end of 2011, fuelled by the impending increase in stamp duty. There were 18,700 mortgages – worth a total of £2.3bn – issued to new purchasers in December, an increase of seven per cent by volume and ten per cent by value [...]
FTSE hits six-month high fuelled by Greek deal February 13, 2012 The FTSE 100 climbed 0.9 per cent to a six-month high of 5,905.7 as investors’ confidence was buoyed by Greek politicians finally approving a new set of austerity measures. However, the move triggered civil unrest on the streets of Athens with the most violent clashes since the country’s disastrous financial situation was laid bare. The [...]
OECD says economic recovery broadening February 13, 2012 The international economic outlook is showing tentative signs of improvement, with the momentum shift spreading from the United States and Japan to other developed countries, the OECD’s December survey of growth prospects showed. The survey picture was mixed in the Eurozone, where seven countries were now “pointing towards a positive change in momentum” while the [...]
BAA China traffic hit by capacity constraints February 13, 2012 British airport operator BAA said capacity constraints at London’s Heathrow airport led to a fall in passenger traffic to China last month with competing European hubs picking up the slack. The owner of Heathrow – Europe’s busiest hub – on said passenger traffic at its airports edged up last month with Heathrow enjoying its busiest [...]
Banks miss SME lending targets February 13, 2012 Britain’s top banks fell short of their government targets to lend to small businesses last year, Bank of England data showed on Monday, dealing a blow to the Conservative-led coalition’s hopes to get credit flowing through the economy to boost growth. However, banks exceeded their target for lending to all businesses, making a total of [...]
Dairy Crest warns of £4m hit as customer calls in administrators February 13, 2012 Dairy Crest said it had made a £4m provision for bad debt after one of its customers, Quadra Foods called in administrators. In a statement the foods group said: “This is the total debt owed to us by Quadra, although we are looking at several options to reduce the amount involved.” “Dairy Crest has annual [...]
CBI tips UK recovery February 13, 2012 Economic growth will gather pace in the second half of this year, making it unlikely the Bank of England will give the economy another cash injection, a leading business lobby said. Quarter-on-quarter GDP growth will accelerate from 0.2 per cent in the first two quarters of this year to 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per [...]
