Sainsbury’s to join price match battle October 9, 2011 SAINSBURY’S will turn up the heat this week in the price war between the UK’s leading supermarkets with a pledge to match thousands of prices at rivals Tesco and Asda. The supermarket announced yesterday that it will start its “brand match” campaign this Wednesday, just two weeks after Tesco launched a £500m “Big Price Drop” [...]
Time for bank bondholders to face the sword October 9, 2011 EUROPE has too many broken banks and the time has come to fix them. With Dexia’s woes laid bare, it must now be apparent to even the most myopic politician that the European Banking Authority’s 2011 stress tests were a failure. The phoney war is over; we need decision making. With sovereign stress showing no [...]
Vodafone weighs into 4G row October 9, 2011 Vodafone yesterday launched a broadside against 3, its smaller rival in the British mobile market, over the increasingly controversial auction of next-generation 4G mobile spectrum. Vodafone’s UK chief executive Guy Lawrence told the Sunday Telegraph 3 was “running around the playground complaining that they’re being bullied by the older boys,” when in fact 3 sold [...]
Blackstone eyes Iceland bid October 9, 2011 Private equity firm Blackstone has held talks with Malcolm Walker over a bid of up to £1.5bn for supermarket Iceland, it was reported yesterday. The US firm, which could not be reached for comment, is believed to have had conversations with Iceland’s chief executive, who has a 23 per cent stake. The remainder is being [...]
German airports face strikes October 9, 2011 Air passengers in Germany may face delays this week due to separate actions by ground handling staff and possibly by air traffic controllers. At 10 German airports, including major hubs Frankfurt and Munich, several thousand ground handling staff will hold meetings on Monday afternoon to discuss European Commission plans to boost competition among ground handling [...]
ROAD BLOCK AGAINST HEALTH REFORMS October 9, 2011 Block the Bridge, a pro-NHS demonstration against the Coalition’s Health and Social Care Bill organised by UK Uncut, took place on Westminster Bridge yesterday. The House of Lords will debate the health reforms – which have prompted a debate about commercialisation within the NHS – tomorrow. Health secretary Andrew Lansley has said he would never [...]
Finance heads cut spend as growth stalls October 9, 2011 THE MAJORITY of finance chiefs in UK companies plan to cut investment and hiring over the next year as they batten down the hatches and prepare for another recession, a new report today shows. More than 40 per cent of CFOs believe the UK economy will start to contract again soon, and are choosing defensive [...]
City jobs down as crisis hits… October 9, 2011 FINANCIAL services vacancies are plummeting as economic turmoil hits hiring intentions, according to the Morgan McKinley London employment monitor. There were 4095 new jobs available in September, down 19 per cent on the same month last year, the study found, and down six per cent compared with August. Fewer professionals are entering the market, too. [...]
… but total London hiring rises as new orders go up October 9, 2011 PRIVATE sector growth is accelerating in London, with the Lloyds TSB London business activity index showing new business inflows rising. The index rose from 53.7 in August to 54.4 in September, though it remains lower than the 59.5 seen in July. Any number above 50 indicates expansion. A small rise in employment was also recorded [...]
Lloyds slashes UK growth forecast as Eurozone woes hit export predictions October 9, 2011 DISLOCATION in the financial markets and a slowing global expansion are hitting the UK hard and the risk of a recession is rising, said Lloyds Capital Markets in its quarterly report. The bank has lowered its GDP growth forecasts from 1.3 per cent to 1.0 per cent for 2011 and from 2.3 per cent to [...]
