Virgin Atlantic ups BA rivalry as Delta buys $360m stake December 11, 2012 VIRGIN Atlantic executives said yesterday that the airline’s new partnership with US giant Delta will help it take on rival British Airways. Delta revealed that it has spent $360m (£223m) to buy Singapore Airlines’ 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic – a holding that cost Singapore £600m in 1999. Julie Southern, Virgin Atlantic’s chief [...]
Rules against aggressive tax avoidance delayed December 11, 2012 NEW rules that will ban companies and individuals from engaging in aggressive tax avoidance schemes will not be implemented until at least summer 2013, according to draft legislation released yesterday. The General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR), which will give HMRC the power to identify and act against legal tax arrangements that are “abusive”, was due to be enforced [...]
Decline in homeownership is the result of bonkers red tape December 11, 2012 AS ever, the census is chock-a-block with fascinating statistics, including about the major demographic shifts that this country is undergoing. London has become a European version of New York, a cosmopolitan, global melting pot. It also reveals a number of worrying trends. Just 64 per cent (14.9m) of households owned their own home in 2011, [...]
Investors escape tax hike on £2m London homes December 11, 2012 OFFSHORE companies that buy prime London homes for investment purposes will be exempt from forthcoming property tax hikes, the government announced yesterday. Many wealthy foreign individuals have avoided stamp duty by setting up a company for the sole purpose of buying a high-end property. They will still be hit by a 15 per cent stamp [...]
What the other papers say this Morning December 11, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Call for cleaner succession strategies Companies must improve their succession planning and make sure they have strong candidates ready to take the helm as chief executive, or risk undermining shareholder value and damaging market performance. The Association of British Insurers (ABI), which represents some of the UK’s biggest investors, gave the warning as [...]
WPP vote seals homecoming after tax cuts December 11, 2012 ADVERTISING giant WPP will move its tax base back to the UK after shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the relocation yesterday. Sir Martin Sorrell’s company moved its operations to Dublin in 2008, with the chief executive hitting out at the “double taxation” of overseas profits. However, new legislation led the boss of the world’s [...]
TripAdvisor’s chair Barry Diller sells stake to Liberty Interactive December 11, 2012 TRIPADVISOR chairman Barry Diller is stepping down from the role after selling his stake in the travel website to Liberty Interactive. Liberty Interactive, which runs digital businesses including the shopping channel QVC, bought 4.8m shares of TripAdvisor’s common stock from Diller and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation for a total of about $300m (£186m), making [...]
Incoming Bank boss at odds with Treasury December 11, 2012 INCOMING Bank of England governor Mark Carney yesterday put himself at odds with current Treasury policy by extolling the benefits of throwing out inflation targeting. Making the inflation target flexible – giving a central bank latitude to attempt to boost output or unemployment in hard times – or even abandoning the target altogether, and moving [...]
City watchdog slaps HSBC after $1.9bn US fine December 11, 2012 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) yesterday announced a clampdown on HSBC, following the news that the British bank will pay $1.9bn (£1.2bn) to US authorities over money laundering. The City watchdog said it had told the bank to introduce a number of measures “to ensure that all parts of the HSBC Group are in compliance [...]
Greek debt buyback attracts €31.8bn bids December 11, 2012 GREECE’S debt buyback attracted bids totalling €31.8bn (£25.7bn), a senior Eurozone official said yesterday, but the average price paid for the bonds was slightly above expectations meaning the total debt reduction will be less than planned. A banker involved in the operation confirmed the figures, saying that the average price paid for the bonds purchased [...]
