India asks for Kingfisher’s income tax December 20, 2011 STRUGGLING carrier Kingfisher Airlines owes the Indian government two years of income tax, the country’s finance minister said yesterday. SS Palanimanickam, minister of state for finance, told the Indian parliament that Kingfisher has around 1.3bn rupees (£15.7m) of employees’ tax deducted at source that has not been deposited with the government. He added that the [...]
Qataris and Luxembourg set to buy Dexia’s private bank December 20, 2011 QATAR and Luxembourg are to buy bailed-out Dexia’s private banking arm for €730m (£610.4m), less than analysts had estimated, as the Franco-Belgian group is broken up. Qatar’s al-Thani royal family will acquire 90 per cent of Banque Internationale Luxembourg (BIL) via their Precision Capital investment group, Dexia said yesterday. The deal follows Precision’s agreement in [...]
Crossrail dents Foyles earnings December 20, 2011 BOOKSELLER Foyles reported encouraging annual profits yesterday, but it hit out at the Crossrail construction work for damaging trade in London. Foyles, which has five London branches, said disruption caused by Crossrail work will cost the firm £1.5m a year due to a “significant decrease in footfall”. Overall, the firm’s turnover declined 0.8 per cent [...]
Axa sells off its Denplan branch December 20, 2011 AXA UK has agreed to sell dental insurance business Denplan to Simplyhealth for £115m. The deal is cash free and debt free and comes with certain add-ons. Denplan, which has 1.8m patients, is set to report pre-tax profits of £14.1m on revenue of £55.5m this year. Health cash plan provider Simplyhealth was seen as the [...]
CATHEDRAL CAROLS SET OFF A YEAR FOR HEALTH December 20, 2011 CITY GRANDEES joined some of the stars of Downton Abbey in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral last night at the launch of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2012. As Lord Mayor David Wootton explained to guests including Phil Raper, head of corporate broking UK at Goldman Sachs, Aon Benfield chairman Grahame Chilton, and Jonathan Moulds, [...]
Equity deal volumes down by 31pc in 2011 December 20, 2011 THE GLOBAL market in new equity shrank by nearly a third this year in a stark indication of the damage done to capital markets by ongoing political turmoil all over the world. Annual figures from Dealogic show the amount of cash raised by issuing new shares has dropped to $621bn this year, down 31 per [...]
Value is key for the grocers December 20, 2011 LAST week I looked at how the major UK banks performed on YouGov’s BrandIndex in 2011, and this week I’m turning my attention to how the supermarkets fared over the same year. An interesting starting point is to take the Index Score (which is a composite of six key attribute measures). We see that all [...]
SHELL CONFIRMS GULF OF MEXICO SPILL December 20, 2011 SHELL yesterday confirmed a leak from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, just 26 miles from the site of last year’s spill from BP’s Macondo well. Shell claimed the liquid was in fact drilling fluid and would not have “any significant impact on the environment”. The leak was from Transocean’s Deepwater Nautilus rig. [...]
Gloomy New Year as shops predict slump December 20, 2011 RETAIL sales are higher now than the run-up to Christmas a year ago, the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) distributive trades survey showed yesterday – the first year-on-year rise since May. But the expansion is not expected to last, with sales set to fall again next month and consumer confidence dropping again, claims researcher GfK. [...]
London is still top choice for international workers December 20, 2011 LONDON is the most popular “global city” among international jobseekers, beating New York, Singapore and Paris according to a survey out today. The capital’s world-beating reputation comes despite the downbeat outlook encouraging Britons themselves to seek work overseas. Workers in crisis-hit countries are particularly keen to move to London, with those in Portugal, Ireland and [...]
