London retailers get a capital boost while rest of UK drops June 14, 2009 DESPITE recovery in the UK retail sector slowing in May, London continued to outperform the rest of the country, according to fresh data out today from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Like-for-like sales for May were 1.6 per cent higher in London than a year earlier, compared with a 0.8 per cent fall across the [...]
Citi supports IFC trade plan June 14, 2009 CITIGROUP will today unveil a $1.25bn (£760m) funding partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as it pledges to support attempts to unfreeze world trade flows. The tie up is part of the $50bn initiative announced by the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, in April. It is understood that $750m of [...]
Winkworth floats on AIM June 14, 2009 London-based estate agency Winkworth is set to float on the junior Aim market to fund growth. Independent franchisees pay 8 per cent of their turnover for brand and marketing services.
TomTom in share drive June 14, 2009 Satellite navigation maker TomTom is set to raise €430m (£367m) with a new share offer to reduce the company’s net debt to €700. The group is to raise €359 through a rights issue where all four founders of the firm take up their rights and contribute €169m. A further €71m is set to be raised [...]
Merrill Lynch ads go bullish June 14, 2009 Bank of America is spending $10m (£6m) promoting Merrill Lynch’s name and symbol of the bull. The massive print and online ad campaign for Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch division will start in the US this week and head across the globe in July. A print and TV campaign featuring Merrill’s “thundering herd” of financial [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 14, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday Telegraph RBS INVESTORS SAY PAY CHIEF EXEC MORERoyal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton has had to overhaul the planned incentive package for chief executive Stephen Hester after institutional investors raised concerns that it was not generous enough. INEOS DEBT SPARKS WORRIES OVER ITS FUTUREAuditors to Ineos, Britain’s biggest private company, [...]
Paris show’s bumpy ride June 14, 2009 AEROPLANE makers expect to be displaying heavily cut order lists at the Paris air show this week as the recession bites further into the travel industry. With airlines set to lose up to $9bn (£5.5bn) this year, aircraft and engine makers expect many orders to be cancelled or deferred. The recent Air France Airbus crash [...]
Woolies boss will try again June 14, 2009 WOOLWORTHS’ former boss Sir Geoff Mulcahy is working to raise the collapsed retailer from the ashes with a bid to open 200 similar stores. Mulcahy is part of group, headed by former managing director Tony Page, hoping to make another “Woolworths type” high street brand. The group aims to buy the majority of the stores [...]
Lessons for Britain from California’s crisis June 14, 2009 IT was not that long ago that David Cameron, the Tory leader, was holding up California as the economic model he most wanted to emulate. One of his closest aides, Steve Hilton, is based in Silicon Valley, where his wife works for Google; and the more radical Cameroons thought they had discovered the perfect cocktail [...]
London oil firm Addax in deal talk June 14, 2009 CHINESE state-owned refiner Sinopec is making a brazen £4.8bn bid for Addax Petroleum, outbidding competitors including the Korean National Oil Corporation. Sinopec is understood to still be in early talks with London-listed Addax, in the latest move by China to buy into global oil reserves, as it seeks to secure assets to fuel its unprecedented [...]
