Crossrail facing delays October 13, 2010 LONDON’S flagship Crossrail scheme could be delayed by a year in the face of government pressure to cut costs on the £15.9bn project. The new rail link across the capital was due to open in 2017, but could now be delayed to 2018, it emerged yesterday. It is understood that officials have told engineers to [...]
Decorator is back in black October 13, 2010 UPMARKET decorating firm Walker Greenbank’s first-half pre-tax profit has more than quadrupled, driven by the strong sales of its mid-market wallpaper and fabrics, the company said yesterday. The company declared its first interim dividend payment in 13 years, of 0.15p a share. Walker Greenbank said it was confident of delivering a strong full-year performance as [...]
Record gold and silver output at Fresnillo October 13, 2010 A RECORD boom in gold and silver output at miner Fresnillo caused investors to rush to buy the stock yesterday. The Mexico-focused miner said production will be slightly above its full-year targets thanks to a record third quarter. Gold output jumped 44.4 per cent on the year-earlier quarter to nearly 92,000 ounces in the three [...]
Overhaul for Crest Nicholson October 13, 2010 TROUBLED housebuilder Crest Nicholson faces another financial restructuring as new majority shareholder Varde examines the company’s finances, people close to the business said yesterday. US-based Varde is working with advisers Lazard and Bingham McCutchen on the options for Crest, which became 90 per cent owned by its lenders following a £648m debt for equity swap [...]
Terry Smith stands aside to focus on fund business October 13, 2010 City veteran Terry Smith is retiring as a director and deputy chairman of stockbroker Collins Stewart to focus on his new asset management venture Fundsmith. Smith, one of the UK’s best-known investment bankers who led the management buyout of Collins Stewart after becoming chief executive in 2000, will remain chief executive of inter-dealer broker Tullett [...]
Profit jump lifts shares in Bodycote October 13, 2010 SHARES in Bodycote shot up more than nine per cent yesterday after the engineer revealed that full-year profit would come in at the top of analysts’ expectations. Bodycote said renewed demand from heavy truck customers such as Scania and Volvo has helped push revenue in the nine months to 30 September up 13 per cent. [...]
Lloyds slashes 4,500 posts from IT team October 13, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group yesterday announced it will shed 4,500 jobs from its IT team as part of an ongoing integration plan. The bank said it will lose 1,600 permanent staff across the UK, 1,150 temporary UK workers and 1,750 offshore contractors. The redundancies will be made by 2012. Mark Fisher, director of group operations at [...]
EU proposals target radical audit revamp October 13, 2010 “BIG FOUR” accountancy firms could be forced to scale back their audit activities in the future, if a European Commission consultation on shaking up the industry finds that the scale of individual players poses a systemic risk. The EU’s internal markets commissioner Michel Barnier yesterday launched the wide-ranging consultation to examine whether the role of [...]
Rivals circle Turkey’s Dogan October 13, 2010 Germany’s RTL Group and US-based Time Warner are believed to have submitted bids for assets belonging to Turkey’s largest media company Dogan Yayin. Dogan Yayin, which owns Turkey’s largest broadcasting network as well as several newspapers and magazines, is valued at around $2bn (£1.25bn). News Corp had submitted a bid but pulled out yesterday because [...]
GEKKO IS GOOD FOR BOX OFFICE October 13, 2010 Cinema-goers have proved high finance is still a firm favourite by sending financial drama “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” to the top of the UK box office. The movie, starring Michael Douglas in a reprise of his role as corporate raider Gordon Gekko, took £1.8m, easily beating romantic comedy “Life As We Know It”.
