Pret A Manger mulls refinancing deal February 10, 2013 PRET A MANGER, the purveyor of sandwiches and coffee for London’s hungry workforce, has ruled out plans for an immediate stock market float in favour of a refinancing deal. Bridgepoint, the private equity shop with a 70 per cent stake in the firm, will use the refinancing to fund future expansion and refund loan notes.
Google chair to sell £1.6bn stake in firm February 10, 2013 GOOGLE executive chairman Eric Schmidt is to sell 42 per cent of his stake in the internet giant over the next year, raising around $2.5bn (£1.6bn). The disclosure, made in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, will see the former chief executive’s control over the company loosened as he sells 3.2m shares. [...]
EasyJet bats away latest Stelios issues with investors’ blessing February 10, 2013 EASYJET shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has published a fresh list of complaints about the budget airline, but investor bodies the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and ISS have given the firm’s proposals the thumbs up. Sir Stelios yesterday repeated his call for EasyJet chairman Sir Mike Rake to resign before his planned departure date in [...]
New directors for Heathrow February 10, 2013 QATAR’S sovereign wealth fund has installed two directors on the board of Heathrow Airport Holdings, filings at Companies House show. The emirate, which agreed to buy a 20 per cent stake in the airport owner in the summer, has nominated Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker and Ali Bouzarif as directors. Al Baker has [...]
US air groups near merger February 10, 2013 US Airways and American Airlines parent AMR are nearing an $11bn (£6.7bn) merger that would create the world’s largest airline and could announce a deal within a week, after resolving key differences on valuation and management structure, sources said yesterday. The deal would come more than 14 months after AMR filed for bankruptcy in November [...]
Private sector regains growth in the new year February 10, 2013 THE UK private sector surged back into growth in the first month of 2013, according to the results of a business survey out this morning. The Lloyds TSB purchasing managers’ index (PMI) climbed to 52 during January, the bank said, up from 49.9 in December and therefore through the crucial 50 barrier, into territory indicating [...]
Builders face more gloom during 2013 February 10, 2013 THE construction sector faces another difficult year in 2013, an industry body said this morning, after yet another batch of poor figures came out on Friday. Some 84 per cent of manufacturers of heavy side construction inputs – such as cement and steel – along with 79 per cent of those putting out light side [...]
Average house price in London to hit £500,000 February 10, 2013 HOUSE prices in the southeast of the UK will soar in coming years, according to a forecast out yesterday, with the average house in the capital fetching half a million pounds. Currently the average London house is worth £383,000, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), but a tight housing market will [...]
Analysts predict another missed inflation target in January data February 10, 2013 INFLATION will come in above target for the 38th straight month when data for January is released tomorrow, analysts have predicted. The consumer price index (CPI) will show inflation of 2.6 to 2.7 per cent, City economists said, marking yet another month above the Bank of England’s two per cent target, with aggressive discounting in [...]
London’s new king of social gaming is always on the move February 10, 2013 SINCE Riccardo Zacconi’s online games company, King.com, first started developing games for Facebook in mid-2011, the business has seen growth explode, overtaking US gaming giant Zynga on the Facebook gaming charts, and being highlighted as one of the hottest companies on London’s burgeoning technology scene. But King.com is no flash in the pan. August marks [...]
