Duncan Smith admits hike in benefits will discourage work December 4, 2011 IAIN Duncan Smith, the welfare secretary, yesterday admitted that the Treasury had discouraged people from working, after it increased out-of-work benefits in line with inflation while freezing various tax credits for those in employment. Duncan Smith’s comments came after George Osborne used his Autumn Statement to freeze the working tax credit and to cancel plans [...]
IEA: Plan B would result in extra debts but no growth December 4, 2011 MORE government spending would create extra government debt and not more growth, according to research published today by the Institute for Economic Affairs. Comparisons to the Great Depression are ill-founded, the report argues, as current levels of government spending are now far higher than in the 1930s meaning “looser fiscal policy would have even less [...]
Goodwin set to be spared in FSA report December 4, 2011 THE City regulator’s report into the collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland is set to spare Sir Fred Goodwin and Sir Tom McKillop any detailed criticism when it is published next week. The results of the Financial Services Authority probe, due to be published next Monday after a series of delays, are expected to avoid [...]
JC Flowers eyes up £1.5bn of deals for UK mortgage books December 4, 2011 PRIVATE equity house JC Flowers has built a £1.5bn cash pile to spend on British banks’ mortgage books after failing in its attempt to buy part of Northern Rock. The US buyout giant, which focuses on financial services, is believed to have changed its strategy after losing out to Virgin Money in the bidding war [...]
Australia’s UGL acquires DTZ Holdings for £77.5m December 4, 2011 AUSTRALIAN engineering firm UGL said overnight it had acquired all the trading operations of real estate services company DTZ Holdings for £77.5m. DTZ was placed into administration in the UK immediately prior to the acquisition. In a statement, UGL said that, after the buyout, it will have combined annual revenues of A$5.1bn (£3.4bn) and 53,000 [...]
Daniels’ bonus could be slashed December 4, 2011 Lloyds Banking Group could withhold up to half the 2010 bonus awarded to former chief executive Eric Daniels. Lawyers for Lloyds’ remuneration committee have told Daniels and other senior executives that the bank plans to withhold some of the bonuses announced in February. The “claw back” comes after Lloyds made a £3.2bn provision against complaints [...]
SFO boss calls for prosecutions December 4, 2011 Financial institutions and individuals should be subject to criminal prosecution for the kind of “reckless” behaviour that contributed to the financial crisis, the outgoing director of the Serious Fraud Office told the Sunday Telegraph. Richard Alderman said: “What I am thinking of is some kind of offence of being involved with recklessly running or being [...]
SAP snaps up cloud expert in £2bn deal December 4, 2011 SAP, the largest business-management software provider, on Saturday announced a $3.4bn (£2.18bn) deal to buy SuccessFactors in a move to extend its reach in the cloud computing market. The cash deal will see the US web-based software company, which has more than 15m subscribers across 168 countries, sold for $40 per share – a premium [...]
Zodiak circles Twilight vendor December 4, 2011 Entertainment One, the distributor of the Twilight films (pictured, right) in the UK and Canada, has been approached by Zodiak Media Group about a £400m reverse takeover approach, according to reports. Discussions are understood to be at an early stage between the two television production and distribution businesses, whose merger would create a media group [...]
David Lloyd Leisure prepares to hire investment bank to assess its options December 4, 2011 GYM chain David Lloyd Leisure is preparing to appoint an investment bank to advise on its strategy, according to reports. The company, which is owned jointly by Caird Capital, the private equity firm whose investors include Lloyds Banking Group, and London & Regional, the property firm owned by the billionaire Livingstone brothers, held a board [...]
