BA and Iberia set to merge November 29, 2010 SHAREHOLDERS at British Airways (BA) and Spanish carrier Iberia rubber-stamped a £5m merger yesterday, allowing the pair to create a major player that will compete with rivals Lufthansa and Air France-KLM. More than 99 per cent of BA’s shareholders at a meeting in London yesterday backed the deal, meaning the new International Airlines Group is [...]
Cabin crew in threat to strike again as Unite ballots members November 29, 2010 THE UNITE union is getting ready to ballot 11,000 British Airways cabin crew on further strikes, it announced yesterday after the merger with Iberia was passed by shareholders. The industrial action is over staff travel concessions and disciplinary action linked to previous strikes. Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said yesterday BA’s “vicious war against [...]
BSkyB to launch an Arabic news station November 29, 2010 SATELLITE broadcaster BSkyB has teamed up with the owner of Manchester City football club to set up an Arabic news channel based in Abu Dhabi. The channel will be Sky’s first foreign-language news venture, putting it in direct competition in the Middle East with BBC Arabic, Al-Arabiya and state-funded Al-Jazeera. Man City owner Sheik Mansour [...]
PwC faces a probe into its auditing of Connaught’s books November 29, 2010 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS (PwC) faces an investigation into its audit of collapsed social housing repair firm Connaught. The UK accounting regulator, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB), said yesterday it would look at the conduct of auditor PwC, as well as some of its staff, in relation to the preparation and auditing of the group’s results [...]
QUEEN OF THE NET QUITS MORGAN STANLEY November 29, 2010 MARY Meeker, the Morgan Stanley internet analyst, dubbed the “Queen of the Net” as she shot to fame in the 1990s dot-com-boom era, is leaving Wall Street to join the powerful venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner. The firm was one of the prime backers of the early wave of internet [...]
Coop members donate dividends November 29, 2010 Cooperative group members are collectively donating £1.2m of their interim dividend to charity. The 4.9m members of the scheme have earned £16.9m from spending in Coop businesses, but half of all those receiving cash payments have opted to donate. The money will be distributed between community groups. Members usually receive one point for every £1 [...]
Tax protestors target Topshop November 29, 2010 Topshop owner and government efficiency adviser Sir Philip Green has been named as a target by anti-tax avoidance protesters. Activists linked to UK Uncut have scheduled protests at Topshop branches in Birmingham and Manchester this Saturday, with more expected to follow in the run-up to Christmas, while a group protesting against education cuts and tax [...]
NEW FUNDS PLAN FOR CRISIS-HIT IRELAND November 29, 2010 IRELAND may have accepted an €85bn handout to keep it afloat, but why stop there? The ever-popular Powers That Be in Ireland seem to have come up with a novel solution to the country’s solvency issues. An advert has appeared on Ireland’s biggest property website, the appropriately named daft.ie, offering the Republic of Ireland for [...]
BP sells $7bn stake in Pan American unit November 29, 2010 SHARES in oil major BP closed lower yesterday after the company said at the weekend it had agreed to sell its 60 per cent interest in Pan American Energy for $7bn (£4.5bn). Analysts welcomed the sale, saying it was another milestone in the company’s rehabilitation, as it claws its way back from its Gulf of [...]
Peel Hunt staff buyout from KBC completes November 29, 2010 BROKER Peel Hunt has started life as an independent entity after completing a buyout by its staff. The buyout from former owner KBC, a Belgian bancassurance firm, was completed on Friday and values the company at £74m – a third of the £218m KBC bought it for in 2001. Peel Hunt’s employees own 75 per [...]
