All aboard the oil price merry-go-round January 11, 2012 SO EDF has taken the first step among the Big Six, and not only sparked rumours of a price war but also sent its competitors’ shares crashing in the meantime. The five per cent drop in gas prices only goes some way to recouping the 15.4 per increase it implemented back in November, but talk [...]
CBI: Comms sector is key for UK January 11, 2012 The government must ensure that Britain’s communications sector continues to expand both at home and abroad, the CBI will urge today. Ofcom should “promote the UK communications sector in international markets”, the CBI will state, while suggesting that BBC Worldwide becomes “a key facilitator and partner of smaller content providers seeking opportunities abroad.” The communications [...]
Virgin ups broadband speeds January 11, 2012 Cable operator Virgin Media has embarked on an 18-month programme to upgrade for free the speeds of all its broadband customers at a cost of around £110m, it said yesterday. Virgin, which has around 4m broadband customers, said the programme would on average double the broadband speeds for its subscribers. The upgrade will be largely [...]
EU launches card fee crackdown January 11, 2012 The European Commission plans to lower retailers’ costs for accepting debit and credit card payments in a renewed challenge to dominant players such as Visa and MasterCard, a green paper revealed yesterday. Retailers typically pay a fee to card issuers to cover costs, such as authorisation for transactions. The EU paper stated the high processing [...]
Miliband and PM lock horns over rail fares January 11, 2012 A TIT-FOR-TAT exchange between David Cameron and Ed Miliband erupted in parliament yesterday, after the Labour leader hit out at some 11 per cent hikes in rail fares. Miliband blamed the coalition for exorbitant fare increases, yet Prime Minister Cameron said the power to raise prices was given to train companies “by the last Labour [...]
WHO IS RIGHT ON RAIL FARES? January 11, 2012 RAIL fares for commuters jumped by an average of six per cent at the start of the year – but Labour leader Ed Miliband was furious yesterday that some prices increased by up to 11 per cent, demanding to know why Cameron had reversed Labour’s decision to stop the huge rises. David Cameron responded that [...]
Shard could signal crisis, claims BarCap January 11, 2012 THE DEVELOPERS of the Shard skyscraper could be forgiven for having pre-completion nerves yesterday, after a pair of gloomy research papers cast a pall over the tower. The Shard will be entering a rough rental market when it completes in May, according to research by BNP Paribas Real Estate. Last year, take-up of office space [...]
Michael Page looks abroad January 11, 2012 RECRUITMENT company Michael Page is to go ahead with plans to enter more emerging markets where it sees long-term growth opportunities, it said yesterday as it reported that growth slowed further in the fourth quarter. Michael Page said that, while being mindful of a tough global economy that has rapidly stunted growth levels over the [...]
The proof is in the pudding at Sainsbury’s January 11, 2012 J SAINSBURY has reported a record Christmas despite the gloomy economic backdrop, as cash-strapped customers treated themselves during the festive season. Britain’s third largest supermarket said like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT and rose 1.2 per cent in the third quarter to 7 January, above analysts’ consensus of 0.9 per cent. The grocer reported 26m [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW DID SAINSBURY’S FARE AGAINST RIVALS? January 11, 2012 PHILIP DORGAN | PANMURE GORDON A continued strong performance from Sainsbury… we believe that it continues to be underestimated by the market. True, its reported sales growth period is longer than for Morrison… but we believe that it had a good Christmas. KEITH BOWMAN | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN In all, Sainsbury has again surprised on the [...]
