‘Bond market tantrum risks’: Gilt traders brace for Labour leftward pivot as Starmer future uncertain
Theft costs shopkeepers £2.13bn October 19, 2005 Shoplifting and violence against shop workers reached new heights last year as store chiefs picked up a £2.13bn bill for retail crime. According to the British Retail Consortium’s annual crime survey, customer theft alone cost the retail sector £589m, a staggering 44 per cent increase from 2003. The value of losses blamed on staff also [...]
Roche shares bird flu virus October 19, 2005 Roche Pharmaceuticals has said it is willing to let other manufacturers make generic versions of its anti bird flu drug. The United Nations has warned that a bird flu pandemic could kill up to 150m people around the world. The UN’s Dr David Nabarro, who is co-ordinating the organisation’s response, said: “It’s like a combination [...]
More upheavals at Highbury House October 19, 2005 Mike Frey has left troubled magazine publisher Highbury House Communications just 18 days after his appointment as chief operating officer. In a brief statement yesterday the company, headed by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, said Frey, who had at one stage been due to take over as chief executive, had “left the company by mutual [...]
Future for Sporting Index revealed October 19, 2005 Private equity firm HgCapital’s growth plans for new charge Sporting Index include bolt-on acquisitions and gaining a foothold in key cities abroad. HgCapital head of leisure investments Ben Hewetson said: “We will be looking at acquisitions from day one. The (British) spread betting business continues to improve its performance but one of the most exciting [...]
JC Flowers seals Refco futures deal October 19, 2005 American hedge fund Refco has thrashed out a deal to sell its core futures brokerage to a consortium led by JC Flowers and has decided to put the rest of the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The beleaguered company agreed heads of terms for a $768m (£440m) deal to sell the division yesterday. Also [...]
US suffers shock inflation increase October 19, 2005 Inflation trends differed markedly on either side of the Atlantic yesterday, with the American producer prices (PPI) confounding analysts with their biggest gain in 15 years, but Britain got off lightly with a consumer price index (CPI) level of just 2.5 per cent. The American PPI shot up by 1.9 per cent on last month, [...]
Terra Firma bid goes on October 18, 2005 The Takeover Panel told financier Guy Hands yesterday that his investment vehicle Terra Firma could not back out of a £453m bid to buy power business East Surrey Holdings. Kellen Acquisitions, which is wholly owned by Terra Firma, had been trying to back out of an offer that it made on 8 April to buy [...]
Alstom tube contract under threat October 18, 2005 Transport for London, the body responsible for public transport in the capital, will seek legal advice this week in a bid to break the French company Alstom’s 20-year, £429m contract to build and maintain trains on the Northern Line. The Northern Line was suspended last Thursday after unions raised safety concerns about the emergency braking [...]
BSkyB makes its move into broadband October 17, 2005 Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is getting ready to make its play against cable rivals by acquiring high-speed internet provider Easynet this week for around £150m. The purchase will allow the broadcaster to offer what observers call the “triple play” of services into the home: broadband, video-ondemand and telephony, setting it in direct competition against rivals such [...]
Steady jog at Adidas October 13, 2005 German sporting goods company Adidas-Salomon said it was on course to meet its full year targets, despite its proposed €3.1bn (£2.1bn) acquisition of rival Reebok. Adidas chairman and chief executive Herbert Hainer told investors yesterday that the group remains on course to produce a 20 per cent increase in net income, operating margins of 11 [...]
