M&A to dine out next year December 11, 2011 BRITAIN’S restaurants and bars sector is expected to enjoy a resurgence in mergers and acquisitions next year, thanks to a pick-up in private equity demand, a report by the accountancy firm BDO has revealed. While sales across the industry are predicted to remain subdued, top high street chains such as Yo! Sushi, Pizza Express and [...]
Why this week’s oil meeting matters for Opec December 11, 2011 IT was one of the worst Opec meetings ever,” exclaimed the most important man in world oil, Ali al-Naimi, back in June to a gob-smacked press pack in Vienna. Seriously, this was a truly amazing utterance from a man who, despite his enormous power, likes to let others do the talking at Opec meetings. Fast [...]
Samsung mobile sales best ever December 11, 2011 Samsung Electronics said yesterday its annual mobile handset sales this year had exceeded 300m units for the first time in the company’s history. The world’s second largest handset maker by volume said in a statement it had broken its sales record by the end of last month. Sales including 10m of the new Galaxy S [...]
StanChart eyes Islamic banking December 11, 2011 Standard Chartered is in discussions with regulators to offer Islamic banking services in Oman and Nigeria, now that both countries are revamping their regulatory environments to encourage Islamic finance, the bank’s global head of Islamic banking said yesterday. Wasim Saifi said the company may be able to offer the services as early as next year.
US tech firm crosses pond December 11, 2011 AMERICAN online marketing adviser Constant Contact is today opening a London office in a bid to help the UK catch up with the technologically superior US. The company, which helps small and medium businesses use and monitor their online presence from email to Facebook, is backing the trend of American IT firms basing themselves in [...]
Centerra Gold linked to bid talks with European Goldfields December 11, 2011 ADVISERS to European Goldfields remained silent yesterday after reports suggested that Canadian-listed Centerra Gold, had made an approach for the company. “There have been no formal offers for the group,” an adviser said. Last week European Goldfields, which owns the rights to three sites in northern Greece, revealed to the London Stock Exchange that it [...]
Oil group to sell Kazakh stake for $1bn and cancellation of taxes December 11, 2011 AN international oil group led by BG Group and Eni is likely to sign an agreement with Kazakhstan this week in a deal that would cancel a claim for back taxes and see the central Asian state take a 10 per cent stake in the Karachaganak oilfield. Consortium members, also including Chevron and LUKOIL, will [...]
WOMEN ONLY WEBSITE WELCOMES PM December 11, 2011 Her new website Luluvise may be a private forum for female users, but entrepreneur Alexandra Chong, 30, was happy to talk about the social network when prime minister David Cameron visited the tech firm’s Clerkenwell office. The website, which gained £665,000 backing including that of Lastminute tycoon Brent Hoberman, launches this week and offers access [...]
Firms accused of poor ethics plans: report December 11, 2011 FTSE 100 companies have been accused of failing to provide investors with clear measures of how they maintain robust ethical standards in a study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. The Institute has raised concerns that investors and shareholders are left with inadequate information about the methods companies are employing to protect themselves [...]
FTSE 350 chairmen are failing to inspire a governance culture December 11, 2011 ONLY 10 per cent of chairmen provide any meaningful insights into how they implement an appropriate governance culture throughout their organisation, according to Grant Thornton’s FTSE 350 corporate governance review. The report also revealed that only 43 per cent of chairmen use their annual report statement to refer to the company’s governance practice. Simon Lowe, [...]
