The good, the bad January 10, 2013 THE DIVIDED state of the UK retail sector was brought into sharp focus yesterday as an upbeat Tesco and Shop Direct claimed victory in the Christmas retail wars, while Marks and Spencer suffered the fallout of a worse-than-expected festive period. Following muted performances by rivals Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, a resurgent Tesco revealed its strongest sales [...]
HMV slashes prices ahead of looming bank tests January 10, 2013 TROUBLED retailer HMV yesterday dug in for a last ditch fight to boost its stricken sales figures by slashing 25 per cent off prices, amid mounting pressure on the outlet over looming debt covenant breaches. The retailer, which lost £37.3m in the first half of last year, will ditch its normal January promotional campaign in [...]
UK makes slow progress up economic liberty ranks January 10, 2013 DESPITE David Cameron’s promise to cut through red tape for British buisinesses, UK economic freedom has risen by just 0.7 percentage points over the past year, according to research out yesterday. The UK edged up the Heritage Foundation’s 2013 rankings of economic freedom to hit 14th, despite placing behind 159 countries on the government spending [...]
Our struggling retailers face years of creative destruction January 10, 2013 WE are now reaching a tipping point for British retailers. A combination of historically weak growth in consumer spending and a new phase in the digital revolution is on the verge of destroying many business models. As online sales continue to boom, and those from stores start to slide, rather than merely grow more slowly, [...]
Hedge giant Citadel soars to 25pc return January 10, 2013 HEDGE fund giant Citadel, one of the biggest investors in the world, continued its winning streak last year after revealing a 25 per cent return for its main funds in 2012. Citadel, led by founder and chief executive Ken Griffin, told investors it had been one of the firm’s strongest years of performance, after it [...]
3i sells Norma stake and eyes future sales January 10, 2013 LISTED buyout company 3i yesterday cashed out its final stake in German engineering firm Norma to kick off a string of potential sales by the firm pencilled in for this year. 3i, led by chief executive Simon Borrows, has seen a drastic surge in share price since Borrows appointment, up 40 per cent this year [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 10, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Herbalife hits back at ‘myths’ Herbalife, the nutritional supplement company accused of being a pyramid scheme by short seller Bill Ackman, yesterday lashed out at his Pershing Square hedge fund. Mr Ackman, whose hedge fund has sold short almost a fifth of Herbalife’s stock, in December claimed that the company was operating with [...]
RBS reshuffle looms ahead of Libor fines January 10, 2013 SENIOR RBS bankers are likely to lose their jobs over the Libor-fixing scandal as the state-backed institution looks to satisfy investors, politicians and the public that individuals have been punished, it emerged yesterday. Investment bank boss John Hourican and markets head Peter Nielsen are believed to be potential casualties. Neither was involved in Libor fixing, [...]
Juncker backs French woman for regulator January 10, 2013 OUTGOING Eurozone head Jean Claude Juncker said yesterday that a French woman would head the board of the European Central Bank’s new banking supervision authority that was agreed last year and which is due to be in place in early 2014. Although Juncker offered no names, the secretary general of France’s ACP financial sector regulator, [...]
Hector Sants warns rate-fixing scandal might happen again January 10, 2013 REGULATORS can never have sufficient resources to monitor every bit of banks’ behaviour, and so the Libor crisis could easily happen again, former Financial Services Authority chief Hector Sants warned yesterday. The former top regulator told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards only radical changes throughout banks could prevent a repeat of the scandal. “Unless [...]
