BP hires new head of PR after Gulf spill January 5, 2011 BP has hired one of chief executive Bob Dudley’s former colleagues to repair the company’s public image following the Gulf of Mexico disaster, sources close to the company confirmed yesterday. Peter Henshaw is set to join the firm as a senior executive in the next month, with responsibility for rebuilding the company’s reputation. He most [...]
Ocado soars to fresh highs as it leaves IPO blues behind January 5, 2011 SHARES in Ocado, the online grocery retailer, rose to a new record yesterday, reaching a high of 212.4p after lunch before falling back to close at 200p, giving the firm a market capitalisation of £1.1bn. The 200p close is 5p up on the previous day when Ocado shares traded above their 180p July flotation price [...]
Petrofac gives job to drilling boss who quit over oil disaster January 5, 2011 OIL services firm Petrofac has hired the former boss of BP’s exploration and production (E&P) arm to run its energy developments business, less than four months after he quit BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Andy Inglis, 51, will join the Petrofac board in March after relocating to London from Houston, [...]
TOP OF THE GAFFES January 5, 2011 IT’S NOT JUST BP: EVEN THE BEST MEDIA SPINNERS CAN’T STOP SOME CHIEF EXECUTIVES FROM CAUSING HAVOC WHEN PUT IN FRONT OF A MICROPHONE 1 Gerald Ratner called Ratners’ jewellery products “total crap” in 1991. His remarks wiped £500m from the value of the firm (later renamed Signet), and “doing a Ratner” became synonymous with [...]
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD: LORD FORSYTH REACHES THE SUMMIT January 5, 2011 FOLLOWING The Capitalist’s update on Tuesday regarding the progress of the eminent Lord Forsyth, he wrote yesterday with a triumphant missive and picture: He has at last reached the top of Antarctica’s highest mountain and had just enough energy left to take a few snaps of himself brandishing an ice pick atop the summit. The [...]
Hardy tanks as well disappoints January 5, 2011 British oil explorer Hardy Oil and Gas has abandoned a second exploratory well in India after failing to find enough gas to make the project commercially viable, sending its shares down 17.5 per cent. Reliance Industries, an Indian company that owns 90 per cent of the D9 field, agreed with Hardy to shelve the project [...]
Gulf Keystone hits oil in Iraq January 5, 2011 Gulf Keystone Petroleum said yesterday it has found a “massive” oil deposit in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, sending shares up 5.5 per cent to close at 173p. The firm estimated it has struck 220m barrels of probably oil reserves at a shallower depth than previous discoveries, with the potential for up to 2.2bn barrels [...]
FTSE 100 rebounds as banks rally and miners pare losses January 5, 2011 BRITAIN’S top shares rallied yesterday after employment data from the US showed the economic recovery was picking up steam, which helped miners and oil stocks pare losses and banks rally. The FTSE 100 closed up 29.99 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 6,043.86, bouncing off a session low of 5,964.43. Miners pared losses and oil [...]
Panmure sees a recovery in Britain and US January 5, 2011 STOCKBROKER Panmure Gordon has drawn a line under a tough first six months of 2010 to report a “significant improvement” in trading in the second half, it said yesterday. Its businesses on both sides of the Atlantic had reported operating profits despite “continued challenging trading conditions”, it said. The update will hearten investors after a [...]
Wall St rises after strong jobs data January 5, 2011 THE creation of three times as many private-sector jobs as expected turned Wall Street’s early losses into gains yesterday, extending a rally investors worried had come too far too fast. Financial stocks led gains, helped by credit-card companies such as Capital One Finance, which rose 4.2 per cent to $45.52. The S&P consumer finance index, [...]
