Garnier pick fails to quell Elliott April 14, 2011 ACTIVIST investor Elliott Advisors turned up the pressure on Swiss biotech company Actelion yesterday, pushing for further board changes. Elliott conceded that it could not top Actelion’s proposal to add two pharma heavyweights, including former GlaxoSmithKline head Jean-Pierre Garnier (pictured), to the board. But the hedge fund argued their presence would not do enough to [...]
Prudential wins in court case over pension dispute April 14, 2011 PRUDENTIAL won a court dispute with members of its staff pension plan yesterday over cuts to payments into the scheme. Members had argued that the insurance group did not have the right to introduce a cap of 2.5 per cent on the annual increase in discretionary payments into their pensions in 2005, after decades of [...]
Rise in business passengers pushes Eurostar revenues up over 10 per cent April 14, 2011 A Surge in business customers and American tourists helped Eurostar push its first-quarter sales revenue up 10.7 per cent to £197m. The total number of passengers transported rose 7.5 per cent year-on-year to 2.15m. The firm, which operates trains through the Channel Tunnel, says the royal wedding will help push passenger numbers up further this [...]
Ashmore Group’s asset rise trumps forecasts in a strong third-quarter April 14, 2011 LONDON-based fund manager Ashmore Group yesterday reported an eight per cent increase in its assets under management to $50.3bn (£30.75bn), surpassing RBS’s assets forecast for the third quarter by 3.5 per cent. In its interim management statement, the emerging markets specialist said the rise was driven by $2.3bn of new money and $1.3bn from positive [...]
BRC warns over warranty probe April 14, 2011 The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation into the sale of extended warranties on electrical goods could be costly and achieve little. The OFT says customers could be losing out on up to £350m after shelling out on lengthy warranties and wants to make sure they are getting [...]
Sony mulls summer holiday April 14, 2011 Sony is mulling a complete two-week summer shutdown of some company premises to save energy as Tokyo and Japan’s northern regions face the peak period with vastly reduced power generation capacity following the 11 March quake. The government last week announced energy saving targets that will require large-scale users to cut peak consumption in the [...]
Roche looks to the future as sales fall April 14, 2011 HEALTHCARE giant Roche shrugged off a fall in first-quarter sales yesterday, focusing instead on successes in new clinical trials. Sales of SwFr11.1bn (£7.6bn) were nine per cent lower than the same quarter last year, but the company said it was on track to meet full-year revenue targets. Roche said its key blockbuster drugs such as [...]
Results boost 888 bid talks April 14, 2011 ONLINE gaming firm 888 yesterday said talks over a possible takeover by British bookmaker Ladbrokes were continuing after it posted its best quarterly performance since withdrawing from the US market. “There is a discussion ongoing with Ladbrokes. There’s not a lot of disagreement other than one, which is price, and that may close or may [...]
Grainger expects sales to rise despite tough market April 14, 2011 GRAINGER, Britain’s largest residential property owner, said it expects completed sales from its UK assets to be worth £89m for the six months to 31 March, up £1m compared to last year. The Newcastle-based company’s trading update showed that the value of its portfolios of UK residential and development operations will increase by around two [...]
Spotify slashes the amount of free music available to its army of users April 14, 2011 MUSIC streaming site Spotify faces a fan backlash after announcing it will slash the amount of free music available to new users. The Swedish firm, which was recently valued at more than $1bn (£612m), will limit users of its free service to just 10 hours a month – half the current allowance. It will also [...]
