Kesa suffers first half loss December 7, 2011 Electricals retailer Kesa swung to an expected first-half loss reflecting a poor performance at its Comet business in Britain, which is being sold, and weaker second-quarter trading in France. Kesa, whose main business is French market leader Darty, said on Wednesday while all markets were becoming more challenging, it was “well prepared” for the peak [...]
OSBORNE TO REVEAL PAY OF 120 TOP UK BANKERS December 6, 2011 SENIOR banking executives face having their pay packages published after chancellor George Osborne unveiled a new transparency regime for the 15 largest banks operating in the UK. The Treasury says the new rules, which demand the publication of rewards given to the eight most senior non-board executives, will help investors police a bank’s “risk profile”. [...]
Sorrell: Britain must do more to get WPP back December 6, 2011 BRITAIN has not yet gone far enough to lure WPP back to London, Sir Martin Sorrell told City A.M. yesterday. Chancellor George Osborne has staked a large part of his business-friendly credentials on Sir Martin’s signal that his marketing firm WPP will come home in light of reforms to UK taxes on profits made abroad. [...]
Price war cut food inflation December 6, 2011 CUSTOMERS are benefiting from intense competition between supermarkets, according to data out today from the British Retail Consortium. Food price inflation fell for a second consecutive month to 4.0 per cent in the year to November, compared with 4.2 per cent in October. Overall shop prices rose 2.0 per cent in the twelve-month period, down [...]
Coalition is confused about business December 6, 2011 WE love you – actually, no, we hate you. That, roughly speaking, seems to be the government’s attitude to business and business leaders. The signals are so mixed that they are utterly incomprehensible. Take tax policy and incentives. The official position is – well, there isn’t really one. The coalition is likely to retain the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 6, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CLARKE REJECTS CALL FOR EU POWER GRAB Ken Clarke has told Conservative eurosceptics to forget about repatriation of powers from Brussels at this week’s European Union summit, while urging David Cameron to focus on “how to maintain the financial stability of the western world.” The justice secretary’s comments, in an interview with the [...]
Henderson in legal row December 6, 2011 A GROUP of pension funds is suing asset manager Henderson over the handling of its investment in construction firm John Laing in 2006. The full list is not yet known but the pension funds of the BBC, Tesco, BAE Systems and Bupa, as well as Kent and South Tyneside councils, were among those known to [...]
Lehman set to exit bankruptcy December 6, 2011 Lehman Brothers Holdings Corp, now just the odds and ends of the global financial behemoth that collapsed in September 2008, yesterday received court approval yesterday to exit bankruptcy early next year. Lehman may now wind down its remaining operations, US bankruptcy judge James Peck told a hearing in New York. Unsecured creditors, depending on their [...]
Job placements at 25-month low December 6, 2011 British recruitment firms said the number of people placed in permanent jobs fell at the fastest pace since 2009 in November, highlighting the pressures on the economy at a time of public spending cuts and worries about the Eurozone. A survey for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and accountant KPMG released today shows that [...]
EC boss says nations can’t block treaty December 6, 2011 MOST countries will not get a vote on tighter fiscal integration, allowing Germany to force through new financial controls across the Eurozone, European Council president Herman Van Rompuy said yesterday in a report sent to EU leaders ahead of tomorrow’s two-day summit. US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner added his weight to efforts to resolve the [...]
