Capco’s Earls Court scheme moves closer January 23, 2013 PROPERTY developer Capital & Counties (Capco) moved a step closer to realising its £8bn Earls Court scheme after signing a conditional land sale agreement (CLSA) yesterday with Hammersmith & Fulham council. The agreement gives Capco the go-ahead to use land – including the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates – in the wider redevelopment of [...]
Ian Marchant resigns after a decade at SSE January 23, 2013 THE CHIEF executive of utility firm SSE resigned yesterday after a decade at the helm. Outgoing chief executive Ian Marchant, who will step down at the start of July, said yesterday that the “time is right for a change for both SSE and me”. He gave no detail as to what his future plans are, [...]
Healthcare Locums on the hunt for funds to meet covenants January 23, 2013 HEALTHCARE Locums, the troubled staffing provider for the health and social care sectors, yesterday warned that poor trading conditions meant it might not meet its banking covenants in March and June. The group, led by chief executive Stephen Burke, has approached its two largest shareholders, Tosca Fund and Ares Capital, which between them own around 72 [...]
EnQuest buys 8pc stake in Alba January 23, 2013 North-Sea focused EnQuest has snagged an eight per cent holding in the Alba oil field for £19.25m. EnQuest will acquire two of CIECO Energy’s companies, which together hold a total of eight per cent in the field. The oil producer will pay £18.75m in cash, plus a further £0.5m for the completion of certain project [...]
Iron ore output jumps at BHP January 23, 2013 Australian miner BHP Billiton posted a three per cent annual uptick in iron ore production in the last three months of the year, as it kept pace with Chinese demand. The FTSE 100 mining giant produced 42m tonnes of iron ore in the fourth quarter, from 41.1m over the same period in 2011. BHP reiterated its [...]
Output falls at Hochschild Mining January 23, 2013 Gold and silver output edged down during 2012 for South America-focused silver miner Hochschild Mining, although it said it hit all of its targets. Attributable silver production fell to 20.3m ounces over the year from 22.6m ounces for 2011. Gold output sank to 337,660 ounces over last year, from 377,000 ounces the previous year. Hochschild [...]
Close Brothers weighed down by slow market January 23, 2013 FINANCIAL services group Close Brothers yesterday delivered a good set of results for its lending and money management divisions but its market making side continued to disappoint. The 134 year old independent bank, listed on the FTSE 250, grew its loan book by boosting lending to small businesses. It increased its assets under management three [...]
Activist investors spend $12bn and push for change on boards January 23, 2013 THE WORLD’S biggest activist investors spent a third more building up disclosable shareholders last year, and used their influence mostly to gain boardoom seats, according to industry research. In a year that saw FTSE firms Xstrata, Intercontinenal Hotels and Alliance Trust attract activist interest, the biggest spent $12bn (£7.6bn) on disclosable stakes in 2012, from [...]
Court says accountants cannot use privilege to protect advice January 23, 2013 CHARTERED accountants are not protected by the same rules on client secrecy as lawyers, the UK’s highest court decided yesterday. The Supreme Court said it could not extend legal professional privilege to cover tax advice given by non-lawyers. Prudential had claimed that the privilege rules meant it did not need to hand over documents to [...]
Netflix trounces expectations January 23, 2013 Netflix reported a spectacular rise in user numbers last night, sending shares in the video streaming company up by more than 40 per cent in after hours trading. The company, which set up in the UK this time last year, said it now has 33m subscribers, 10m more than at this time last year, following [...]
