Betfair will sell stock to top investors October 7, 2010 BETFAIR expects its £1.5bn IPO to be fully subscribed by “high quality” institutional investors, according to sources close to the firm. Bosses began a two-week roadshow yesterday to convince investors to take up the share offer. The source told City A.M. the firm is confident the 10 per cent stake up for grabs will be [...]
Public sector pensions cut October 7, 2010 MILLIONS of public sector workers will have to contribute more to their pensions, if proposals put forward by Lord Hutton are adopted by the government. The former Labour work and pensions secretary, who is leading a commission into public sector pensions, also said that employees in the public sector would likely have to work longer [...]
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF LORD HUTTON’S RECOMMENDATIONS October 7, 2010 JOHN CRIDLAND | CBI He is clear that traditional final salary defined benefit schemes are not a viable way forward. Everybody needs to understand the true scale of pension liabilities. Every year there is a £10bn gap between what public sector employees and employers contribute and the value of the benefits that the state promises [...]
Cuts to civil service pay-offs October 7, 2010 THE government has agreed a new redundancy scheme with five civil service unions, ahead of a wave of public sector layoffs when spending cuts start to kick in. Firemen’s union the FDA, Prospect, the Prison Officers’ Association, GMB and Unite have all agreed to reduced terms for redundancy payouts, which will now be capped at [...]
BT must give access to its fibre network October 7, 2010 OFCOM yesterday said it will force BT to allow its rivals access to the former state phone firm’s superfast fibre broadband network. BT will also have to wholesale its infrastructure of telegraph poles and underground ducts in a bid to increase competition for superfast internet to rural areas. The decision supports government plans laid out [...]
HSBC hit by US watchdogs October 7, 2010 THE Federal Reserve said yesterday that it issued an order against HSBC North American Holdings requiring the bank to improve company-wide risk management, including practices to prevent money laundering. It said that within 30 days, the bank’s board of directors must submit a plan for strengthening oversight of its compliance risk-management programme. The plan must [...]
London Underground set to cut an extra 400 jobs October 7, 2010 LONDON Under ground (LU) is to axe up to 400 further permanent back-office staff in a bid to cut costs and improve efficiency. These cuts come on top of LU’s plans to reduce 800 ticket office jobs, which is currently at the heart of a bitter dispute with trade unions RMT and Transport Salaried Staffs’ [...]
Rosenfeld is second on power list October 7, 2010 KRAFT chief executive Irene Rosenfeld is the second most powerful woman in the world, outranked only by American First Lady Michelle Obama, according to Forbes magazine. Rosenfeld moves four places up the power rankings from last year’s Forbes list in the wake of Kraft’s £11.5bn play for chocolate maker Cadbury earlier this year. German chancellor [...]
Investcorp plans a London listing of its Moneybookers online payments firm October 7, 2010 Investcorp, the Bahrain-based investment bank, is understood to be eyeing a float of Moneybookers, the fast-growing European online payment firm it tried to sell last year. Investcorp has hired Morgan Stanley and Jefferies to help prepare for a stockmarket listing, the people said. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is also likely to have a role, [...]
Over a million riders have used Mayor Boris’ bikes October 7, 2010 LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson’s flagship cycle hire scheme passed the million journey milestone yesterday – ten weeks after its launch. More than 90,000 people have signed up as members, with around 20,000 journeys being made every weekday, with the average journey made under 30 minutes. Johnson said: “A million thank yous go to Londoners for [...]
