Why the London Olympic Games mean business February 16, 2011 THE extraordinary thing about the great Olympic stadium legacy debate is not that everyone has an opinion, although they do. No, it is that we are having this debate at all eighteen months before the start of the London games. Normally in a host city at this stage, the great debate is: will it be [...]
Rise in corporate travel boosts Hogg Robinson February 16, 2011 BUSINESS travel firm Hogg Robinson yesterday raised its profit expectations for the full-year due to a boost in travel activity, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Hogg Robinson said travel books rose 15 per cent in the four months to the end of January, while the amount spent per client rose 15 per cent in [...]
Kotak India pulls £100m City share placing February 16, 2011 KOTAK Mahindra, an Indian financial services group, was yesterday forced to abandon a £100m London share placing and offer after failing to satisfy the rules over having a sufficiently free float. Kotak adviser Investec said there was demand for around £40m worth of shares in Kotak’s Infrastructure Fund – below the maximum amount but above [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE BUSINESS TRIPS MAKING A COMEBACK? February 16, 2011 Save or Borrow peer to peer at RateSetter.com www.RateSetter.com Customer Phoneline: 08442490115 GARETH LODGE | SECURA MONDE “I do travel for work, and while it’s currently better than it was two years ago, it’s nowhere near the peak. The amount companies spend on travel has been reduced; it used to automatically be business class.” SHAFIQ [...]
MADOFF: BANKERS WERE COMPLICIT February 16, 2011 CONVICTED fraudster Bernard Madoff has said top banks and funds must have known he was running a Ponzi scheme. Speaking in his first interview since his arrest in December 2008, he said: “They had to know.” Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence for defrauding investors of $50bn (£31bn), told the New York Times from [...]
The new trade minister on exports, China and telecoms… but not banks February 16, 2011 IT IS fitting that new trade minister Lord Stephen Green, who is ordained in the Church of England, should make his first foreign trip to an event that inspires an almost religious fervour amongst its followers. Sitting at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, surrounded by the giants of the telecoms world, the former HSBC chairman [...]
Nokia chief Elop comes out fighting February 16, 2011 NOKIA boss Stephen Elop took to the stage for his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress yesterday with calls for his resignation ringing in his ears. A group of shareholders, all former Nokia employees who are dismayed by his decision to ditch the Symbian operating system in favour of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7), issued [...]
New devices give shot in ARM February 16, 2011 UK CHIP maker ARM was one of the big winners from this year’s Mobile World Congress, with its royalties set to rocket from the uptake of its processors powering many of the new devices on show. It receives up to two per cent of the selling price for its Cortex designs, against nearer one per [...]
Sanofi agrees $20.1bn deal for Genzyme February 16, 2011 AFTER months of negotiations, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi has confirmed it will pay $20.1bn (£12.5bn) for Genzyme, the US biotech specialist it has been pursuing since last year. The deal, confirmed yesterday, combines a $74 per share cash offer with extra delayed payments based on the performance of Genzyme’s experimental drug portfolio. It marks the [...]
Merc sales driving Daimler February 16, 2011 GERMAN carmaker Daimler yesterday posted disappointing fourth-quarter earnings, with an upbeat outlook failing to deliver the detail that analysts said was needed to reassure investors. “On balance, a weak fourth quarter 2010 and no specific 2011 outlook”, wrote JP Morgan analyst Ranjit Unnithan in a research note. Daimler, which ditched its dividend last year, predicted [...]
