Alexon upbeat on trading September 23, 2010 Fashion retailer Alexon has posted a marginally higher pre-tax profit for the first half in spite of lower stock levels and said that trading since the half year looked promising. There was a 10 per cent fall in revenue at the company, whose brands include Ann Harvey, Eastex and Dash but it reported an adjusted [...]
China denies cheap yuan September 23, 2010 PRESIDENT Barack Obama met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday as US lawmakers appeared closer than ever to acting on long-standing threats to penalise China for keeping its currency artificially low. Wen staged a pre-emptive defence of China’s policies ahead of the meeting, flatly rejecting any link between the level of the Chinese yuan, or renminbi, [...]
BMI to start flights to Libya in December September 23, 2010 UK airline BMI is to launch a daily service from London to Tripoli from 1 December 2010, it said yesterday, in a possible sign of thawing UK/Libyan relations Until now British Airways was the only UK airline to operate a route to Libya, with flights to Tripoli beginning in1999. BMI will operate flights from?Heathrow with [...]
United fans share tickets September 23, 2010 ONE in eight Manchester United fans plan on sharing season tickets this season, a new survey by Virgin Money has revealed. The club has so far failed to sell its quota of season tickets for the year. A sustained campaign by fans unhappy with the club’s ownership by the Glazer family has also hit sales. [...]
EU calls for roaming fees to be slashed September 23, 2010 LARGE roaming fees charged by telecoms operators are “an outdated concept” and the European Union is prepared to take steps to reduce the costs, the bloc’s telecoms chief said yesterday. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who oversees telecoms and the internet across the 27-country EU, signalled she was prepared to continue to cap lucrative roaming [...]
Diageo boss talks up UK tax exodus September 23, 2010 DRINKS firm Diageo’s chief executive warned the government yesterday that companies will move out of the UK if the tax regime deteriorates. Paul Walsh said governments often misunderstand how multi-national companies operate. “It doesn’t matter where we’re based, and governments can forget that,” said Walsh. “So if they start to think they can be cute [...]
BlueCrest in second spot with AllBlue September 23, 2010 BLUECREST AllBlue yesterday became the second largest listed hedge fund after it tapped investors for £83.3m in its third share placing in nine months. The only larger listed hedge fund is BH Macro, which was floated by Brevan Howard in 2008. BlueCrest AllBlue now has assets of £904m across its three share classes, while BH [...]
Songbird is in talks to build Walkie Talkie September 23, 2010 SONGBIRD, the property company that owns most of Canary Wharf, has confirmed it is in talks with Land Securities to resurrect the abandoned Walkie Talkie project on Fenchurch Street . “We are in advanced discussions about a 50-50 joint venture, and we are expecting a decision in the near term,” Songbird secretary John Garwood told [...]
US property sales stabilising… September 23, 2010 SALES of existing homes in the US rose last month following a big correction in July, a new report said yesterday. The National Association of Realtors (NAR), the US trade body representing estate agents, said existing-home sales increased 7.6 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13m in August from an upwardly revised [...]
Mortgage approvals slump September 23, 2010 The number of loans approved for buying houses fell in August to its lowest since the housing market trough in 2009, industry data showed yesterday, suggesting housing market weakness is set to continue. Mortgage approvals are a good indicator of house price trends around six months down the line, and the figures chime with data [...]
