Big companies shy away from London floats July 12, 2012 LONDON’S Alternative Investment Market (Aim) was the venue for the vast majority of UK initial public offerings in the last three months while the main market remained in the doldrums, according to figures from Ernst & Young out yesterday. Aim hosted 11 listings in the second quarter, compared to just one IPO on the London [...]
Suntory time in the world’s second-biggest ad market July 12, 2012 ADDICTS of HBO’s Mad Men and fans of Lost in Translation may not find Tokyo an obvious home for an advertising group with global ambitions. But that’s not what the numbers say. Japan is the second largest advertising marketplace in the world. The heirs of Madison Avenue still keep the United States a long way [...]
Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury to lead Britain’s Supreme Court July 12, 2012 LORD Neuberger of Abbotsbury will become Britain’s top judge in October when he becomes president of the Supreme Court, it was announced yesterday. As a result the 64-year-old will give up his current position as master of the rolls, the second most senior judicial position in England and Wales, where he is responsible for the [...]
CITY VIEWS | HAVE THE O2 NETWORK PROBLEMS AFFECTED THE FIRMS’ REPUTATION? July 12, 2012 RUPERT BUSHMAN AVIVA I’m not an O2 user, but I would say this hasn’t affected how I see the company. This is just one of those annoying things a bit like the NatWest fiasco – it’s a human glitch, and it’s bound to happen sometimes. It does demonstrate the weakness of these systems – we [...]
O2’s network blackout is an embarrassment admits boss July 12, 2012 O2 has been forced to apologise after network problems caused millions of its customers to lose mobile phone coverage. Chief executive Ronan Dunne said the “embarrassing” failure had affected more than 7m of the network’s 23m UK subscribers. The outage meant that users were unable to receive phone calls or text messages, and were also [...]
Murdoch’s girl in Shine retreat July 12, 2012 ELISABETH Murdoch, daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is to step down from the day-to-day running of Shine – the firm she sold to her father’s News Corporation in a £415m deal last year. Elisabeth, who will continue to hold the role of chairman, will hand over the chief executive role she has held since [...]
888 bets on Spanish dominance July 12, 2012 Shares in online gaming company 888 Holdings jumped 15 per cent yesterday after the firm said it expects earnings for the first half of the year to “significantly exceed” expectations. It has become Spain’s second-biggest poker site after securing an e-gaming licence and following a government crackdown on illegal online bookies. 888 warned that it [...]
Infosys falls on sales downgrade July 12, 2012 Shares in software group Infosys plummeted yesterday after the Bangalore-based company downgraded its revenue forecasts to five per cent annual growth from a previous estimate of up to 10 per cent. The outsourcer has struggled to keep up with its competitor Tata Consultancy Services for growth, and despite reporting a 33 per cent rise in [...]
Digital growth propels Centaur July 12, 2012 Centaur Media has increased its earnings estimates thanks to improved digital revenues. The business publishing group expects an 18 per cent profit margin on a two per cent increase in sales. Centaur has also announced the acquisition of digital marketing group Econsultancy.com for an initial £12m. The group’s digital operations now account for 30 per [...]
Premier in $1bn move to pump oil in Falklands July 12, 2012 PREMIER Oil yesterday said it had agreed a $1bn (£647m) deal to explore the Falkland Islands with Rockhopper. The FTSE-250 British company said Rockhopper, an explorer that made an oil discovery in the Falklands in 2010, was the ideal partner. It will pay an initial $231m in cash for the deal as well as providing [...]
