WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 23, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BOSTOCK IN TALKS TO QUIT M&S FOR ASOS Kate Bostock, the head of Marks and Spencer’s clothing and homewares business, is in advanced talks to take up a senior role at Asos. People familiar with the situation said Bostock was talking to the online fashion retailer about becoming its managing director. Losing Bostock, [...]
Poor airports could be fined November 23, 2011 Britain’s aviation authority will soon have the power to fine airports that let down their passengers, if a new law put forward by transport secretary Justine Greening is accepted. The proposed law to “put passengers first” would give the Civil Aviation Authority power to impose penalties of up to 10 per cent of an airport’s [...]
Clegg: bank lending is racist November 23, 2011 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will today suggest that banks are racially discriminating against certain ethnic minorities in their lending decisions and will demand an inquiry into the matter. In a lecture to be give later today, Clegg will claim: “Firms owned by individuals of black African origin have been four times more likely than [...]
Lloyds gets rid of half its holding in Thomas Cook November 23, 2011 THOMAS COOK’S largest stakeholder has ditched almost half of its shares, a day after the crisis-hit tour operator asked its bank lenders to come to its rescue for the second time in five weeks. Lloyds Banking Group sold around £4m worth of shares, shrinking its stake in the company from 8.96 to 4.67 per cent, [...]
Tata names Mistry as its new chairman November 23, 2011 LONDON-educated Cyrus Mistry has been named as the new boss of Tata Sons, the Indian owners of Jaguar Landrover. The 43-year-old construction tycoon will become chairman of the Indian conglomerate when Ratan Tata retires next December. His appointment is likely to cheer Tata’s 50,000 UK workers – in firms including Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Steel [...]
Dexia rescue fears spark stocks slump November 23, 2011 EUROPEAN banking stocks were spooked yesterday over fears the €90bn (£77bn) deal to rescue Franco-Belgian bank Dexia could be about to unravel. Financial stocks fell in Britain, France and Belgium after a report that Paris and Brussels were at loggerheads over short-term funding guarantees designed to allow Dexia’s “bad bank” to come off emergency liquidity [...]
Eurobonds would ease crisis: EC November 23, 2011 “STABILITY bonds” backed by the Eurozone as a whole could be one solution to the sovereign debt crises, European Commission (EC) president Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday. Such a commitment from member states would show that “we are serious about stronger governance in the euro area, both in discipline and in convergence”, he said. German [...]
CITY VIEWS: HOW IMPORTANT IS TOURISM TO THE LONDON ECONOMY? November 23, 2011 DAVID WHITE | MIZUHO “It’s very important, because everything else in the economy is a bit of a state. I think it should be interesting enough to attract people without the government promoting it, though.” MICHAEL PORTER | DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS “There is big money there, billions. It may get crowded, and public transport may [...]
NBNK and Co-op in final round of Lloyds auction November 23, 2011 NEW British bank venture NBNK and the mutually owned Co-operative Group have been short-listed by Lloyds as prospective buyers of the 630 retail bank branches which it has been told to sell, sources with knowledge of the situation said. Lloyds said yesterday that it had received three formal offers for the assets and had decided [...]
Nigel Lawson contradicts chancellor by calling for a break up of Eurozone November 23, 2011 FORMER Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson has clashed with current Number 11 inhabitant George Osborne, by labelling plans to preserve the Eurozone as “mad”. Osborne has encouraged the 17 member states of the Eurozone to push forward with plans for greater fiscal integration, yet his predecessor has slammed the idea. “It was the Eurozone that caused [...]