Carnival sees $90m impact from cruise ship disaster January 16, 2012 Carnival Corp, the owner of the cruise ship that capsized off Italy’s west coast, said on Monday it estimated the impact to 2012 earnings for loss of use alone to be around $90m (£58m). The group, which said it was providing the information due to financial disclosure rules, said it also anticipated further costs to [...]
Bovis forecasts growth in 2012 January 16, 2012 British housebuilder Bovis Homes said it expected to achieve a significant increase in profit in 2012, benefiting from forward bookings rising by more than a third, following strong earnings growth in 2011. The company said it expects to report overall completions up 8 percent to 2,045 homes in 2011, with private legal completions up 18 [...]
Robert Wiseman agrees to Muller’s £279m bid January 16, 2012 Scottish milk producer Robert Wiseman Dairies has agreed to be taken over for about £279.5m by German dairy firm Müller Group, which is looking to increase its scale of operations in Europe. The recommended cash offer of 390 pence per share is at a 60 percent premium to Robert Wiseman shares’ close on Thursday, a [...]
RBS to sell Middle East M&A business January 16, 2012 Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland is in talks to sell its mergers and acquisitions business in the Middle East and cut some jobs as part of a global restructuring at the UK bank, its regional head said on Monday. Simon Penney, RBS’ chief executive for Middle East and Africa, told Reuters the bank would focus [...]
Insurer Phoenix remains in takeover talks with CVC January 16, 2012 British life insurer Phoenix remains in talks with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners over a possible takeover of the company, prolonging discussions which began last November but which have been hampered by debt issues. Phoenix added in a statement on Monday that it would provide a further update on the situation no later than [...]
The Gresham, an art deco palace on the Danube, is Budapest’s finest hotel January 16, 2012 Budapest is sometimes compared to Paris. While very pleasant indeed – especially if you go in the summer and lounge by the vast 19th century public baths in the scorching sun – the city doesn’t really compete with Paris in terms of beauty, architecture or cultural riches. With its history of hardship and decimation, how [...]
City slams high speed rail plans January 15, 2012 THE CITY has rejected the government’s controversial plan to build a £32.7bn high-speed railway linking London to the north. Fifty-one per cent of the City A.M./PoliticsHome.com Voice of the City panel, which represents a cross-section of London’s business and financial community, said they opposed the controversial railway known as High-Speed 2 (HS2). An overwhelming majority [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland pulls plug on Peacocks January 15, 2012 PEACOCKS, the fashion retail chain, is teetering on the brink of administration after Royal Bank of Scotland, one of its senior lenders, pulled the plug on talks to refinance the company. A syndicate of 18 lenders, including Barclays, Goldman Sachs and hedge funds including Och Ziff and Perry Capital, had jointly been working on a [...]
Default is looming for Greece January 15, 2012 GREECE is under pressure to strike a deal with its private debt-holders or face default and a possible exit from the Eurozone. The International Institute for Finance (IIF), which represents investors in Greek sovereign bonds, will return to Athens on Wednesday to thrash out a deal after talks collapsed last Friday. Athens has until March, [...]
Sarkozy suffers downgrade as Spanish PM vows austerity January 15, 2012 FRENCH Minister Francois Fillon declared he would do “everything” to get France’s triple-A rating back after Standard And Poor’s cut it to AA+ on Friday, leading to president Sarkozy losing ground in polls. “It is always better to have the best rating,” Fillon told Le Journal du Dimanche, a Sunday newspaper. His claims could clash [...]
