Browne picks City spending tsars October 21, 2010 Lord Browne has cherry-picked a team of senior City figures to serve as non-executives in Whitehall, in an effort to provide government departments with business management expertise. Browne has rounded up around 60 business heads to parachute into Whitehall as unpaid advisers, according to the Financial Times today. The ex-boss of BP is thought to [...]
Taxpayers will pay if BT fails October 21, 2010 TAXPAYERS will have to stump up a staggering £23bn to BT’s pension trustees if the telecoms giant ever goes bust. A landmark ruling yesterday means even BT workers who joined after the firm was privatised in 1984 will have their pension liabilities covered. The ruling will increase the government’s contingent liability but will not affect [...]
Canadian province formally rejects BHP’s bid for Potash October 21, 2010 The Canadian province that is home to Potash yesterday said it was opposed to a $39bn (£24.8bn) bid by BHP Billiton to buy the world’s largest fertiliser supplier. Saskatchewan will urge the federal government to block the Anglo-Australian miner’s hostile bid for Potash, which is based in the province. “In the interests of jobs for [...]
Amazon beats profit predictions but falls on extra operating costs October 21, 2010 THE WORLD’S biggest online retailer, Amazon, beat Wall Street expectations with its results yesterday, though shares fell as it announced higher than expected costs in the run-up to the Christmas rush. Revenue soared 39 per cent for the third quarter to $7.56bn (£4.81bn), though operating expenses also rose 40 per cent to $7.29bn. Pre-tax profit [...]
Shock fall in September retail sales October 21, 2010 THE high street suffered a shock fall in retail sales last month, raising fears that consumer spending is slowing even before the austerity measures really begin to bite. Headline retail sales fell by 0.2 per cent for a second consecutive month in September after a downwardly-revised drop of 0.7 per cent in August. Economists had [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 21, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES AIRBUS CHIEF CALLS SUBSIDY ROW AN ABSURDITY The head of Airbus has lashed out at the “absurdity” of the prolonged aircraft subsidy row between his company and Boeing, its US rival, saying both sides had taken state aid and the only winners were likely to be rivals in China and Russia. In a [...]
Eurozone economic recovery slowing October 21, 2010 ECONOMIC recovery in the 16-country Eurozone continued to lose momentum at the start of the fourth quarter, preliminary purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) showed yesterday. Markit’s composite output indicator for the Eurozone manufacturing and service sector fell to a 12-month low of 53.4 in October from 54.1 in September and a 32-month high of 57.3 in [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW BLEAK IS IT FOR THE HIGH STREET AS SALES STUTTER? October 21, 2010 RAMONA TIPNIS | SHORE CAPITAL The data showing a decline for September 2010 highlights that consumers are indeed beginning to reconsider their spending patterns. It is worth noting that excluding auto fuel, the number is flat. Within the general retail numbers as well there are variations, with clothing showing a decline for the second month [...]
Banks hit by £2.5bn levy October 21, 2010 The government yesterday said it would press ahead with plans to hammer banks with a £2.5bn-a-year levy. Mark Hoban, the financial secretary to the Treasury, unveiled draft legislation that paves the way for the tax to come into force in January. It will be introduced in two parts, eventually earning the exchequer £2.5bn-a-year from 2012-13 [...]
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE BANKING LEVY? October 21, 2010 PHILIP BOOTH | IEA The burden of this levy will be felt by banks’ owners and customers. Ultimately those who will pay are shareholders – in other words potential pensioners and other savers – and the users of financial services. At most the government should use this tax as a temporary measure NIC CLARKE | [...]
