Veolia issues profit warning November 10, 2011 Veolia Environment issued a fresh profit warning on yesterday, saying adjusted operating income could fall around 9 per cent this year following a similar drop in the first nine months due to difficulties in some of its businesses.
RWE confirms outlook November 10, 2011 Germany’s RWE , Europe’s fifth-largest utility, reiterated its earnings expectations for this year as it reported nine-month operating earnings that dropped 30 percent, in line with analyst expectations. Operating profit in the period through September fell to €4.3bn from €6.1bn in the same period a year earlier, the company said yesterday, exactly meeting expectations
Rothschild calls for Bumi clean-up November 10, 2011 Financier Nathaniel Rothschild has called for a “radical cleaning up” of corporate governance at miner PT Bumi , affiliate of his coal venture Bumi, in a show of frustration with his Indonesian partners. Rothschild said the plan remained to roll out the “best practices of corporate governance”, but said he was not satisfied with the [...]
No shift from MPC in face of euro woes November 10, 2011 INTEREST rates and the asset purchase programme (QE2) were both held steady in yesterday’s Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. October’s meeting saw the MPC expand its asset purchase programme by £75bn in an effort to boost the economy in the face of a worsening European outlook. Governor Mervyn King (pictured, right) had [...]
UK tax competitiveness slips November 10, 2011 CORPORATE taxation policy in the UK is failing to keep up with rival nations and has slipped further down the international competitiveness rankings, according to a report out today from PwC. The UK fell to 18th place out of 183 countries measured, down from 16th last year and 11th in 2006. Other countries – including [...]
US jobless claims decline while trade gap narrows November 10, 2011 THE US Labor Department said yesterday that initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell for the second straight week, dropping 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000. That is still well above levels seen before the 2007-2009 recession, but below a 400,000 claims level which economists say could likely prompt some acceleration in hiring. In a separate [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 10, 2011 E.ON Deutsche Bank rates the energy group as a “buy” with a target price of €23 (£19.64). The broker says the recent nine-month results were uneventful and in line, with full year targets confirmed for 2011. The target price is reduced slightly to reflect lower carbon dioxide prices, but the broker reiterates E.ON as a [...]
London still in housing price boom November 10, 2011 HOUSE prices in the capital are increasingly detached from those in the rest of the country as international wealth pours into London, according to a report from real estate adviser Savills, published today. Central London prices are set to grow by 22.7 per cent over the next five years, the report predicts, as over £4bn [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE MOTORISTS UNFAIRLY TAXED BY THE CURRENT “GREEN” TAXATION SYSTEM? November 10, 2011 IAN SEYMOUR | HERBERT SMITH “I don’t have a lot of sympathy with motorists because it is so bad for the environment, so I cycle which is also more efficient and quicker. The taxes aren’t a bad thing.” DOUG KINGTON | CHARLES TYRWHITT “Green taxes are unfair because you need to know where the money [...]
Drivers are over-levied by £18bn, say campaigners November 10, 2011 DRIVERS are being “over-taxed” by high petrol taxes that far exceed the social costs of pollution, according to a Taxpayers’ Alliance report out today. The campaign group used the government’s own methodology, largely based on carbon emissions, to estimate the social costs of driving at £3.5bn in 2009-10. Over the same time period motoring taxes [...]
