Belgian borrowing costs down January 3, 2012 Short-term Belgian debt issued yesterday was snapped up by investors with yields at 18-month lows, after Belgium’s new government appeared to restore markets’ confidence in its ability to manage its finances. The government sold €2.44bn of three-month and six-month bills, higher than the €2.2bn initially planned. The auction registered an average yield of 0.264 per [...]
Dublin houses down 64 percent January 3, 2012 House prices in the Irish capital fell 16.9 per cent in the last year, according to research out yesterday from property and mortgage advisory firm the Sherry FitzGerald Group. Since their peak in 2006, the average house price in Dublin has fallen 64.2 per cent in real terms, while the average price nationwide has fallen [...]
Factory sector gets help as exports to China rise January 3, 2012 RISING exports held up UK manufacturing output last month, according to Markit’s purchasing managers’ index out yesterday, though output declined over the final quarter of 2011 as a whole. Coming in at 49.6, the monthly PMI figure showed a small decline in output, compared with a larger contraction of 47.7 in both November and October. [...]
ECONOMISTS’ VIEWS: HOW STRONG IS THE UK’S MANUFACTURING SECTOR? January 3, 2012 ANDREW GOODWIN | Ernst and Young Item club The pickup in export demand is a welcome development, but that’s coming from a very low base. Activity is still, at best, stagnating. HOWARD ARCHER | IHS global insight The data suggest domestic demand for manufactured goods contracted significantly, and employment fell for a third month running. [...]
Deadline for Blacks bids draws closer as January 3, 2012 SPORTS DIRECT, the retailer controlled by the billionaire football tycoon Mike Ashley (pictured), is understood to be one of four interested buyers expected to place a bid for the ailing outdoor retailer Blacks Leisure within the next two days. Blacks, which put itself up for sale last month after failing to secure extra funding, is [...]
Hedge funds short M&S shares amid retail gloom January 3, 2012 MARKS & Spencer has become the latest high street retailer to be targeted by hedge funds betting that its share price will fall, new figures from Data Explorers show. M&S has seen demand to borrow its shares – a sign that hedge funds are taking short positions on it – rise from 3.9 per cent [...]
Debt markets falter in second half of 2011 January 3, 2012 DEBT issuance by companies dropped dramatically in the second half of 2011 as the worsening economic climate and Eurozone crisis weighed on the debt market, new data from Dealogic yesterday showed. Companies issued $5.76 trillion (£3.71 trillion) of bonds in 2011, down six per cent from 2010’s level, with 60 per cent issued in the [...]
HOME FROM HOME SOHO LAUNCH FOR IPAD CROWD January 3, 2012 IF THE late Lucian Freud had owned a crash-pad in Soho, what would it have looked like? Such was the starting point for Apartment 58, the first in a new breed of members’ clubs for the iPad generation. “We wanted something that works for a busy executive in a major metropolis,” said Notting Hill Arts [...]
UK firms may face £1trn bill for pensions January 3, 2012 UK COMPANIES could be forced to pay an estimated £1 trillion of extra funds into their pension schemes if EU plans to regulate them in the same way as banks take effect, a leading actuary warned yesterday. Firms may have to push at least £600bn into their schemes under new proposals that aim to make [...]
Labour U-turn over benefits January 3, 2012 LABOUR is set for a U-turn on its social welfare policy after Liam Byrne claimed that the benefits system had “skewed social behaviour”. The shadow work and pensions secretary highlighted the work in the 1940s of William Beveridge – often considered the father of the welfare state – who said long-term unemployment benefits should be conditional upon [...]
