Italian finance minister forced to cancel a speech ahead of crunch talks over troubled austerity plan September 5, 2011 A TURBULENT day in Italy saw finance minister Giulio Tremonti pull out of a planned public speech in order to return to Rome for crunch talks on the country’s austerity package. Politicians will today begin debating the plans, which have already been dogged by disputed figures, policy U-turns and cabinet rows. “We’ve known for years [...]
Berkeley to hit its profit target early September 5, 2011 HOUSEBUILDER Berkeley Group performed better than expected in the four months since May and said yesterday it would hit its five-year profit target at least two years early after seeing a pickup in market conditions. The FTSE 250-listed group embarked on a plan in May 2010 to double pre-tax profit within five years as well [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW WAS BERKELEY’S TRADING STATEMENT? September 5, 2011 SIMON BROWN | NORTHLAND CAPITAL Land and an entrepreneurial approach to its defined regional market are core strengths within The Berkeley Group. The rating is a “buy” and we see no reason to remove this stock as our favoured investment in the sector. ROBIN HARDY | PEEL HUNT [The statement] could mean that consensus is [...]
Trial begins for Iceland’s former prime minister September 5, 2011 FORMER Icelandic prime minister Geir Haarde appeared in court yesterday to defend himself against charges that he acted negligently during the country’s 2008 banking crisis. Haarde was indicted last year as part of a push in the country to hold politicians responsible for the Icelandic crash, but his defence lawyers yesterday called the charges “indeterminable and [...]
Sir Stelios calls for yet another board change at easyJet September 5, 2011 SIR STELIOS Haji-Ioannou reignited an ongoing row with easyJet yesterday after calling for yet another director to be ousted from the board, sparking an angry response from the airline. Sir Stelios has written a letter to easyJet calling for a shareholder meeting to vote on the removal of Professor Rigas Doganis after the director backed [...]
IAG traffic up as Air France slashes costs September 5, 2011 INTERNATIONAL Airlines Group, formed by the merger of BA and Iberia, posted a rise in passenger traffic for August thanks to continued growth in first-class and business-class travel. Traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose by 2.2 per cent versus August 2010, while passenger load factor — a measure of how well it fills its [...]
Charter gives Melrose time September 5, 2011 TAKEOVER target Charter International extended the timetable for potential buyer Melrose to make a formal offer yesterday, giving it two and half weeks more for its due diligence. Charter asked the Takeover Panel to approve the extension to the put up or shut up deadline for Melrose to table an offer just a day after [...]
Georgia bank to swap GDRs for LSE listing September 5, 2011 GEORGIA’S biggest bank is to move on to the London Stock Exchange after five years of trading its global depositary receipts (GDRs) successfully on the market, it said yesterday. It will be the first Georgian company to be admitted to the London market, just three years after it became the first Georgian firm to issue [...]
Equiniti snaps up NatWest division September 5, 2011 SHARE registrar and business services group Equiniti has bought the corporate and employee services division of NatWest Stockbrokers. Equiniti declined to disclose the value of the deal, which comes a week after City A.M. reported that the private equity-backed firm was looking to make more acquisitions. Wayne Story, chief executive, yesterday said the deal brings [...]
Manchester United might score in Singapore September 5, 2011 MANCHESTER United’s attempt to float in the far east is being monitored carefully in the City. After all, there are not many IPOs going on in the moribund London market right now. A number of football club boards will be looking on to see if United, led on the financial advisory side by Credit Suisse, [...]
