KAY’S PROPOSALS July 23, 2012 Long-term directors’ incentives should only be provided in the form of shares to be held until after the executive has retired from the business. Mandatory quarterly reporting of company results should be ended. An investors’ forum should be established to allow collective engagement by investors in UK firms. Companies should consult large long-term investors on [...]
Loan charges for ex-bosses at Anglo Irish July 23, 2012 TWO FORMER top executives at Anglo Irish Bank were charged with 16 counts of fraud yesterday, as part of a long-running fraud investigation into the failed lender. Former finance director Willie McAteer, and former managing director Pat Whelan faced the same set of charges relating to loans given to rich clients to purchase shares in [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 23, 2012 Financial times Local staff hired as G4S fails G4S has been replaced as the security contractor for Olympic football matches in Newcastle after games organisers realised that the company could not provide enough staff to safeguard the venue. Farmers agree milk price deal Dairy farmers have struck a deal “in principle” with processing companies and supermarkets [...]
O’Donnell and Winters could head Barclays July 23, 2012 THE TOP two jobs at Barclays could be given to a regulatory adviser and a Whitehall insider, rather than candidates with internal experience. Former JP Morgan banker Bill Winters is the Barclays board’s favoured candidate to replace Bob Diamond as chief executive of the beleaguered bank, and ex-civil service boss Lord Gus O’Donnell is the [...]
Minister: cash in hand is wrong July 23, 2012 TREASURY minister David Gauke declared yesterday that cash in hand payments are morally wrong, during an event at a Westminster think-tank. In the speech to Policy Exchange, Gauke outlined plans to toughen up oversight of tax avoidance schemes, including measures that could see the government name and shame advisers that help their clients who aggressively reduce [...]
Virgin Money buys more loans from Northern Rock bad bank July 23, 2012 THE TAXPAYER-OWNED part of Northern Rock offloaded another half a billion pounds-worth of mortgage assets yesterday, accelerating the wind-down of the so-called bad bank. Virgin Money, which bought the “good bank” at the start of this year, paid £465m for a book of roughly 3,700 residential mortgages, of which one-third are buy-to-let loans. None of [...]
China’s energy giants snap up British assets July 23, 2012 CHINA made a grab for a large part of the North Sea’s oil and gas fields yesterday, bidding to take over Canada’s Nexen for $15.1bn (£9.7bn) and 49 per cent of the UK unit of Talisman for $1.5bn. CNOOC, China’s state-owned oil producer, has agreed to buy Nexen in a cash deal worth $27.50 per [...]
The Chinese quest for oil comes close to home in North Sea bids July 23, 2012 ACCORDING to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), Friday will be China Business Day. It seems the dragon is too cash-rich to wait, as CNOOC and Sinopec moved on Nexen and Talisman yesterday. China has bought a number of North American energy assets in recent years, bouncing back after the US Congress spiked CNOOC’s $18.5bn bid [...]
Rolls-Royce hit by engine fault July 23, 2012 ROLLS-ROYCE said yesterday it will replace part of its Trent 1000 engines, which power Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner plane. The firm’s pledge came after Japan’s All Nippon Airways grounded five of its 11-strong fleet of the new aircraft over the weekend after tests revealed a risk of engine corrosion – though three of the planes [...]
WPP buys yet another firm July 23, 2012 ADVERTISING giant WPP has bought out marketing technology group Acceleration, the latest in a string of acquisitions for Sir Martin Sorrell’s firm, it announced yesterday. WPP has purchased a majority stake in Acceleration, with divisions in Guernsey and South Africa, for an undisclosed sum. The firm had revenues of $16.8m (£10.8m) last year and assets [...]
