MAKING A SPLASH | Chinese duo strike gold in London February 20, 2012 LONDON’S magnificent new Olympic Aquatics Centre hosted its first day of competitive action yesterday with China’s divers taking gold in a World Cup event chosen to test the venue. World champions Qin Kai and Luo Yutong won the men’s synchronised 3-metres springboard ahead of Russia’s Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov, while Malaysia’s Brian Nickson Lomas [...]
Kauto star avoids illness February 20, 2012 HORSE RACING: Champion trainer Paul Nicholls has revealed some of his horses are coughing – but not stable stars Kauto Star and Big Buck’s. Nicholls confirmed the duo avoided the illness which has struck at his Ditcheat stables less than a month before the Cheltenham Festival
Bennett to miss England clash February 20, 2012 RUGBY UNION: Wales hooker Huw Bennett looks likely to miss Saturday’s Six Nations clash with England because of a calf injury.
Surprise loss for Ageas on write-downs February 20, 2012 BELGIAN insurer Ageas announced an unexpected fourth quarter loss of €44.5m (£37m) yesterday as it wrote down the value of its Hong Kong operation and took a €124m hit on the value of its Greek bond holdings. Without these impairments its insurance division would have turned a full year profit of €595m, the firm said. [...]
Desperate buyers pay huge premium on top properties February 20, 2012 THE RESTRICTED supply of property in the most popular areas in London has led to buyers paying premiums of up to £100,000 above the asking price, according to a report published yesterday by estate agents Cluttons. Domestic and foreign buyers have enthusiastically invested in London, causing the stock of houses on the market to fall [...]
House-hunters look to UAE to avoid Eurozone February 20, 2012 BRITISH house-buyers looking to invest abroad are increasingly willing to move outside of Europe, according to research from PrimeLocation.com. Searches on the website for Spanish properties plummeted 15 per cent in the final quarter of 2011, compared with the previous quarter, the website said in figures out today. Italy and France were close behind, with [...]
Mortgage loans up as recovery stays on track February 20, 2012 UK MORTGAGE lending rose in January, compared with the same month of 2011 – the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year growth, according to data out yesterday from the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML). The CML figures showed lending was up 10 per cent, and the Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) corroborated the jump this morning, publishing [...]
CPP says FSA probe risks firm’s future February 20, 2012 CREDIT CARD insurance firm CPP says the Financial Services Authority (FSA) could force it out of business, after the regulator asked for a retrospective review of sales tactics. The company suspended its shares on the London Stock Exchange yesterday after declaring that the new demands “are disproportionate and threaten the viability of the business”. The [...]
Lenders opposed to easing target February 20, 2012 BANKS are urging the Treasury not to set a rigid target for its credit easing scheme because it risks “setting it up to fail”, a source involved in the discussions told City A.M.. In December, chancellor George Osborne laid out his plan to get credit flowing to small businesses by offering £20bn in debt guarantees [...]
HSBC launches £4bn fund to lend to exporting SMEs February 20, 2012 HSBC is to launch a £4bn fund that will lend to small and medium-sized businesses that trade internationally. The aim is to capture the benefit of increasing global trade conducted by British SMEs with a turnover of up to £25m. The bank also published research today forecasting that the UK’s international business activity will increase [...]
