How a worldwide sponsor captures every dimension of the 2012 Games March 20, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES 128 DAYS TO GO Q.WHAT WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING INVOLVED WITH THE GAMES? A.We’ve been involved with the Games since 1984. When the top sponsor programme started in 1988, we were one of the first to join at that level, but our earliest involvement was [...]
What George Osborne’s Budget could mean for individuals and businesses March 20, 2012 Later today, George Osborne will take to his feet for his third Budget since the coalition took office in 2010. The economy is still shaky and coalition disagreements have had a very public airing. Ahead of the Budget, the papers, blogs and airwaves have played host to suggestions of mansion taxes, tycoon taxes, and plans [...]
Changes to the tax code should be driven by the broader theme of simplification March 20, 2012 HEAD OF TAX, ACCA THE loudest pre-Budget negotiations this year have been over changes to the tax system. Broadly, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have been having public disagreements over which taxes to cut – removing the temporary 50p rate for high earners and/or raising the personal allowance threshold to £10,000 – and how to [...]
It is imperative that the chancellor delivers a budget today for the long term March 20, 2012 SENIOR SME POLICY ADVISER, ACCA ANOTHER year, another Budget, another gloomy picture for British enterprise. If the chancellor was hoping for the private sector to pick up the slack left in the economy by spending cuts then he must be disappointed. Among small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), it’s a story of low demand and flagging [...]
Attempts to boost Britain’s small businesses will fail or succeed on the devilish details March 20, 2012 HEAD OF ACCA UK LOOKING to turn the tide of not-entirely-successful business support schemes, in the run-up to this Budget, the Treasury and the Department of Business, Innovation, and Skills unveiled two new projects aimed at boosting Britain’s small businesses. The first, the National Loan Guarantee Scheme, reduces the interest rates of bank loans taken [...]
Refined, luxurious, even green. We try to find what the catch is March 20, 2012 When you’re looking at buying a car as large and luxurious as the Mercedes-Benz E220 CDI, the last thing you’re expecting it to offer is exceptional fuel-efficiency. A comfortable ride, yes, an interior that you can lounge in, probably, and a decent amount of high-tech bells and whistles, surely. But fuel-economy that will rival a [...]
CAR TALK March 20, 2012 CITROEN REDUCES COST OF EVS Driving EVs is gradually becoming more affordable. Citroen and Peugeot have slashed the prices of their C-Zero and iOn models so that each car now has an on-the-road price of £26,216 (down from £33,155). The government’s £5,000 plug-in car grant reduces the price to just £21,216. Contract hire rental rates [...]
Glencore to buy Viterra for £3.9bn March 20, 2012 Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trader, is buying Canada’s leading grain handler, Viterra, in a cash deal valuing it at C$6.1bn (£3.9bn). Glencore, which is also in the throes of a $36bn takeover of miner Xstrata, already markets and produces crops as well as metals, minerals and oil, but has earmarked agricultural commodities as an [...]
RBC buys Coutts units from Royal Bank of Scotland March 20, 2012 Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) will buy some overseas divisions of the Coutts private banking business from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), giving RBC access to high net worth individuals in fast-growing emerging markets. Canada’s largest bank is buying Coutts’ Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking arms, which managed around £1.5bn of assets, in [...]
Cairn hit by Greenland exploration failures March 20, 2012 British oil explorer Cairn Energy said it will spend some of its $1.2bn (£756.2m) of cash on deals in oil development and production as it seeks new projects to offset its exposure to exploration in Greenland. “We do have that exposure to transformational exploration currently in the portfolio,” chief executive Simon Thomson said. “So naturally, [...]
