Real wages tumble to below 2003 levels February 13, 2013 REAL wages have sunk to levels last seen a decade ago, due to stubborn inflation and sluggish pay growth. Including the effects of inflation, the median average UK wage last year was even lower than it was in 2003, new data revealed yesterday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the median hourly wage [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 13, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Hedge funds win big on yen bets Hedge fund giants have made billions betting against the yen in recent months, marking a return to form for some blue-blood investors that stumbled after the financial crisis. Managers who speculate on economic shifts by trading currencies, bonds and derivatives have reaped their biggest gains in [...]
Prices will soar for three more years says King February 13, 2013 GOVERNMENT policies are pushing prices up beyond the control of the Bank of England while a lack of supply side policies from the Treasury means consumers and firms are being given little hope of better growth in future, governor Sir Mervyn King claimed yesterday. And he added monetary policy is becoming less and less effective [...]
Rolls-Royce to appoint former McKinsey boss as new chairman February 13, 2013 ROLLS-ROYCE will today unveil ex-McKinsey boss Ian Davis as its new chairman, replacing Sir Simon Robertson who will leave the business after eight years. The announcement will be made alongside today’s year-end results which are expected to show the engineering giant made bumper profits in 2012, according to Sky News. Davis spent 31 years with [...]
EU aims to sign US trade deal by end of 2014 February 13, 2013 THE EUROPEAN UNION will this summer begin talks with the United States on producing a free-trade agreement that would be the biggest such trade deal in history. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso made the announcement after President Obama backed reducing trade barriers in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Under an outline for the [...]
LSE tries to turn tide on exodus of tech startups February 13, 2013 THE LONDON Stock Exchange is trying to tempt fast-growing tech firms away from Silicon Valley by launching a “high growth segment” with less onerous listing rules. The exchange said yesterday that companies with an annual growth rate of 20 per cent over three years will from next month be able to join the segment of [...]
Capital Idea: Tech views February 13, 2013 MICHAEL ACTON SMITH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF MIND CANDY “We are proud to be a British company and love being based in London. We welcome these new initiatives to make the London financial markets more attractive to the many fast growth tech companies that are based here.” ERROL DAMELIN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF WONGA “If we want [...]
Britvic-Barr deal threatens to fizzle out February 13, 2013 THE proposed £1.4bn merger of soft drinks giants AG Barr and Britvic was thrown into disarray yesterday after a trading watchdog referred the deal to the Competition Commission (CC). The current terms of the all share merger, agreed in November, have now been shelved after the Office of Fair Trading said the range of Britvic [...]
Crest Nicholson hails a jubilant market return February 13, 2013 CREST NICHOLSON made a successful return to the stock market yesterday, after the 50-year old British housebuilder completed a listing which valued it at £553m. The company, taken private by Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter at the height of the housing bubble in 2007, priced its shares at 220p, the upper half of its original range. [...]
No Stone unturned by housebuilding boss February 13, 2013 STEPHEN Stone was a happy man yesterday. But he was, after a gruelling round of presentations, also a man with a gravelly sounding voice. The chief executive of Crest Nicholson since 2005, Stone is the first person to lead a company to a main stock market listing in London this year and that’s required a [...]
