Aamal confirms pulled £400m share offering June 16, 2011 QATARI conglomerate Aamal has confirmed it will pull its $600m (£371m) London share sale, as first reported in City A.M. yesterday. The $2.4bn-valued company blamed the “continuing unfavourable new issues market environment” for its failure to list. Aamal is said to have been unable to attract the valuation it had hoped for from investors, according [...]
MALMAISON TAKES NO PRISONERS AS BANKER COUPLE TURN JAIL BAIT June 16, 2011 EVEN if you have never stayed at Oxford’s Malmaison hotel, you may know the former jail from its TV appearances in Porridge, Inspector Morse and The Italian Job. The boutique hotel – which until 1996 was known as Her Majesty’s Prison Oxford – is now a home from home for the bankers of Britain, who [...]
Networks to launch new mobile wallet June 16, 2011 THE three main UK network operators yesterday announced a plan to create a new “mobile wallet” joint venture. Vodafone, Everything Everywhere and O2 held a joint briefing yesterday in which they said the service will provide a single point of contact for advertisers, banks and retailers. The wallet will take the form of a smartphone [...]
THE LOWDOWN ON THE JV June 16, 2011 Q.WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW JOINT VENTURE? A.The new entity will be divided equally between Everything Everywhere, Vodafone and O2. The networks will themselves be customers of the new company and say it will be “open for business” for firms including smaller network 3 and online rivals like Google and Facebook. Q.SO HOW [...]
Vodafone finalises a £6.8bn sale of its 44 per cent holding in SFR June 16, 2011 VODAFONE yesterday announced it has completed the £6.8bn sale of its 44 per cent stake in SFR to joint venture partner Vivendi. The world’s largest network provider by revenue will also receive a final dividend from SFR of £176m. The pair have agreed terms for a new two-year commercial partnership that will enable Vodafone customers [...]
Hackers who do it for the Lulz hit CIA website June 16, 2011 THE hacker group that has been playing havoc with the online security of some of the world’s biggest companies yesterday said it had brought down the website of the CIA. Lulz Security (LulzSec) – whose members refer to it as the Lulz Boat – has already admitted to targeting a string of companies and organisations including [...]
Nokia closes its UK online store June 16, 2011 Nokia will pull the plug on its UK online store as it continues to strip back its operations across Europe. It will not process any payments after 30 June. Nokia’s online stores have struggled to shift phones thanks to the hefty discounts offered when buying through a network operator. Most handsets are available free with [...]
Energy prices keep Eurozone inflation high June 16, 2011 HIGHER energy prices kept Eurozone annual inflation well above the European Central Bank’s target in May, data showed yesterday, strengthening the case for an expected ECB interest rate rise in July. Eurostat said consumer prices in the 17 countries using the euro were flat month-on-month in May and confirmed its earlier estimate of a 2.7 [...]
Strong imports prompt US current account gap to widen June 16, 2011 THE US current account deficit increased to $119.3bn (£74bn) in the first quarter of the year on strong imports, the American commerce department said yesterday. The gap was narrower than expected by many economists, who had anticipated a gap of around $126bn. The deficit — which measures the flow of goods, services and investments in [...]
Employment slowly improving in Euro area’s two-speed economy June 16, 2011 EMPLOYMENT in the Eurozone was stable in the first quarter of the year, rising just 0.1 per cent on the final three months of last year, Brussels’ statistics office revealed yesterday. At the end of last year, employment grew by 0.2 per cent in the 17-country single currency area. “Flat Eurozone employment in the first [...]
