Cairn in Greenland exploration deal with Statoil January 23, 2012 British oil explorer Cairn Energy said Norway’s Statoil will partner with it to look for oil and gas in Greenland. Cairn said it signed a deal which will see Statoil acquire a 30.6 per cent stake in one of its exploration licences off the coast of Greenland, part of its long-stated plan to bring in [...]
Asda to invest over £500m and create 5,000 jobs January 23, 2012 Asda, the British arm of US retailer Wal-Mart Stores has said it it will invest over £500m this year, opening 25 new stores and three depots and creating up to 5,000 jobs. Britain’s second-biggest supermarket group behind Tesco also said it would extend and refurbish 43 existing stores. The 25 new stores will add over [...]
MPs: Bank of England needs radical reforms January 22, 2012 MPs WILL today ramp up their push for greater scrutiny of the Bank of England by publishing a stinging critique of the Bank’s own suggestions for reform. The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) says the Bank needs a powerful supervisory board and should hand over more influence to the chancellor in the run up to a [...]
Sir Stelios seeks allies in pay clash January 22, 2012 SIR STELIOS Haji-Ioannou is set to meet three of easyJet’s key shareholders this week in a bid to win backing for his fight against the airline group’s boardroom pay plans. The airline’s billionaire founder, who controls a 37.4 per cent stake, is calling for investors to vote down the company’s remuneration report ahead of the [...]
Cable to tone down pay plan January 22, 2012 THE coalition is set to drop a key part of its controversial plans to reform executive pay when it publishes a review tomorrow. City A.M. understands the Department for Business has cooled on the idea of forcing companies to appoint workers’ representatives to the internal committees which recommend the level of pay for the directors [...]
Why a wealth tax is a very bad idea January 22, 2012 EVERY few months, when the going gets tough for the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable renews his call for a “Mansion Tax.” With the LibDems slumping to a disastrous 9 per cent in a YouGov poll, against 41 per cent for the Tories and 36 per cent for Labour, it was no surprise to see him [...]
Labour: no Hester bonus January 22, 2012 LABOUR leader Ed Miliband yesterday challenged David Cameron to block a bonus for RBS chief executive Stephen Hester which many think will be around £1m. He said the coalition’s treatment of Hester would be a test. He told the BBC: “Taxpayers are still, you know, footing the bill for what’s happening at the Royal Bank [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 22, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES EU PLANS RAISE HOME FORECLOSURE RISK UK homeowners could face higher mortgage costs and find themselves at greater risk of foreclosure as early as next year because of an obscure clause in the bank capital directive being worked on by the European parliament. US FUNDS RETURN TO EUROPEAN BANK PAPER US money market [...]
Ian Powell set to renew PwC chairmanship January 22, 2012 IAN POWELL is expected to be re-elected unopposed as chairman of PwC for a second term, as no rival candidates have emerged nine days before the deadline for candidacies. “At this stage, it is not expected that a challenger will come forward,” a source close to PwC told City A.M., although any of the Big [...]
Greek debt talks could fail on new demands January 22, 2012 NEGOTIATIONS between financial authorities and bondholders may be derailed this week by the increasing demands of the European Commission, ECB and IMF. However, Charles Dallara, head of the Institute for International Finance (IIF), which represents investors holding around €200bn (£165.7bn) of Greek government debt, yesterday announced he “remains hopeful” that a deal will be reached [...]
