Pubs to fight competition probe June 8, 2009 Pub companies are to fight a rearguard action to prevent a potentially damaging probe into competition issues at the heart of the industry. A cross-party committee of MPs last week called on the Competition Commission to look into the arrangement by which pub tenants buy beer directly from landlords. But Enterprise Inns is now leading [...]
Setanta close to administration June 8, 2009 The board of Irish sports broadcaster Setanta met yesterday, a person familiar with the situation said, following media reports the group was close to going into administration. Sources close to the Premier League said that the people running English football’s top flight would be willing to see the broadcaster go under. The company, which could [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 8, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES OBAMA’S SPENDING DRIVE TO FOCUS ON JOBSBarack Obama yesterday stepped up the pace of Washington’s stimulus spending with plans to create or save 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days – four times the rate achieved in the $787bn package’s first 100 days. The announcement, which follows last week’s news that 345,000 jobs [...]
BlackRock nears BGI deal June 8, 2009 US ASSET manager BlackRock, led by chief executive Larry Fink, is poised to wrap up a $13bn (£8bn) deal for Barclays Global Investors (BGI) as early as tomorrow, in a move that will create the world’s largest money manager. The cash-plus-equity deal, which looks set to go ahead despite interest from Bank of New York [...]
Brown now a lame-duck prime minister June 8, 2009 GORDON Brown may be an expert at surviving the internal struggles of his party but he and Labour are headed for political oblivion. It doesn’t matter how you look at it – a 15.7 per cent share of the vote and third place after the Tories and Ukip is a catastrophe for a governing party. [...]
Fraudsters jailed over Aviva con June 8, 2009 A trio of conmen who defrauded five directors of insurance giant Aviva out of a combined £638,000 have begun their jail terms, the City of London police said yesterday. The men used publicly available information from Companies House and a series of bogus bank accounts to fool call centre workers in India into revealing details [...]
Air France-KLM traffic down June 8, 2009 Air France-KLM unveiled an 8.1 per cent drop in May passenger traffic yesterday, and said cargo data confirmed activity stabilised in recent months and capacity was adjusting to demand amid a global economic crisis. Europe’s biggest airline said it carried 6.1m passengers in May while it cut seat capacity by 5.7 per cent. Its load [...]
BoE extending QE to aid firms June 8, 2009 THE Bank of England (BoE) plans to widen its quantitative easing programme to offer further help to sound firms that are unable to access working capital. Firms will be able to offload their high-quality short-term debt backed by assets such as trade receivables, equipment leases and short-term credit to consumers for cash. BoE officials said [...]
Braveheart acquires rival Inkopo June 8, 2009 Investment management firm Braveheart said yesterday it had acquired Inkopo, a specialist Yorkshire-based investment business. Aim-listed Braveheart will pay an initial consideration in cash and three tranches of shares over the next two years, up to a maximum value of £1.31m. Inkopo operates the Viking fund, headed by its chief executive Andrew Burton.
WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR RETAIL SALES AND CONSUMER SPENDING? June 8, 2009 VICKY REDWOOD CAPITAL ECONOMICS“It was always likely there would be some fall in like-for-like retail sales in May after the boost from Easter dropped out. Factors impacting spending, particularly a weaker labour market, are taking effect and high street spending, which has been surprisingly resilient so far, is easing back in line with overall consumer [...]
