City Airport gets traffic lift January 3, 2012 London’s City Airport has smashed through the 3m passenger mark in 2011 after growing its traffic by 7.6 per cent over the year. Traffic in December was up a hefty 33 per cent on a year ago. The airport has grown faster than Heathrow, which added 3.7 per cent to its passenger numbers in the [...]
Activists set to leave Old Street January 3, 2012 Protesters who have taken over the disused Old Street Magistrates’ Court have said they will leave by 23 January. The activists, part of Occupy London, claimed they had reached an agreement with owner Mastcraft after a hearing at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court. The group still intends to hold “trials of the one per cent” [...]
Bidders tune in for fire sale of HMV Live January 3, 2012 THE EVENTS group behind the Reading, Leeds and Latitude festivals is set to battle investment group Oakley Capital for the live music arm of ailing retailer HMV. City A.M. understands Festival Republic, run by Melvin Benn, is interested in a deal and could make a move in a matter of days. There is no guarantee, [...]
Fed says it will publish interest rate projections January 3, 2012 THE FEDERAL Reserve will from this month onwards publish quarterly projections of future interest rates, in a move widely seen as a further attempt to stimulate the economy. The policy change “could provide an opportunity for a back door policy easing in January”, said Harm Bandholz of UniCredit last night. “If for example most participants [...]
BP puts spill bill at door of Halliburton January 3, 2012 BP yesterday launched legal action in a bid to make contractor Halliburton cough up the estimated $42bn (£26bn) paid out in compensation and expenses for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Halliburton cemented the failed well that caused the United States’ biggest offshore spill. In a US court filing, BP said it was suing to [...]
Total seals £2.3bn shale gas deal with Chesapeake January 3, 2012 FRENCH oil group Total is ploughing $2.3bn (£1.47bn) into the development of US shale gas reserves in Ohio in the latest example of global energy companies piling into new energy sources made economic by the high price of crude. In a deal with Chesapeake Energy, which the US group announced in November without identifying its [...]
Stakes are high for firms and Obama January 3, 2012 ALMOST exactly a year ago, Barack Obama received his independent report into the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, having called for “whose ass to kick” over the spill a few months earlier. His experts rightly slammed BP, Transocean and Halliburton for mistakes that caused the worst oil spill in US history. They also pointed out that if [...]
Greece says it may exit euro January 3, 2012 GREECE will have to leave the Eurozone if the latest bailout package is not agreed by March, a government spokesman said yesterday. The government is attempting to finalise a €100bn (£83.4bn) voluntary haircut on privately held debt as part of a wider €130bn bailout package. If it cannot make investors agree by mid-March, the government [...]
Fitch slashes Spain growth predictions January 3, 2012 UNEMPLOYMENT rose for the fifth consecutive month in Spain, data published yesterday showed, as ratings agency Fitch cut its economic growth forecasts for the country. However, German unemployment fell to 6.8 per cent, or 2.88m, from 6.9 per cent in November – its lowest level since reunification in 1991, according to the Federal Labour Agency. [...]
$7.6 trillion rollover: top economies’ debt maturity January 3, 2012 GOVERNMENTS of the world’s top economies face $7.6 trillion (£4.9 trillion) of debts maturing in 2012, after a year in which weak countries saw borrowing costs soar. Japan tops the list, with $3 trillion of repayments, while the US follows with $2.8 trillion. However, it is Italy that economists fear may fail to pay. “Investor [...]
