King tells the unions cuts are only option September 15, 2010 MERVYN King launched a broadside against bankers’ bonuses yesterday, telling unions they were right to be angry at the industry – but he warned there was no alternative to swingeing spending cuts to reduce the deficit. Speaking at the Trades Union Congress annual conference in Manchester, the Bank of England governor said the economic crisis [...]
THE PEOPLE’S SUPERMARKET September 15, 2010 TESCO chief executive Sir Terry Leahy was on hand at the Economist Emerging Markets Summit in London yesterday to hear his designated successor Philip Clarke predict China will become profitable for the retailer during his tenure. The supermarket giant is planning to invest around £2bn into developing shopping malls in the People’s Republic.
BoE rate setter says inflation is too high in UK September 15, 2010 DAVID MILES, the Bank of England’s rate setter, warned yesterday that UK inflation is uncomfortably high. “I am particularly concerned about inflationary pressures, since it is our job to keep the rate close to the two per cent target and it is uncomfortably above that at present,” said Miles yesterday. Miles said there still remained [...]
Yeo claims BP was victim of over-reaction September 15, 2010 TIM Yeo, chairman of the energy and climate change select committee, has said there was “a degree of over-reaction”over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill after outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward was quizzed by MPs yesterday. Yeo said BP was the “unwitting victim” of US domestic politics after Hayward told the parliamentary committee that [...]
Abu Dhabi buys more oil assets in North Sea September 15, 2010 State-controlled Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) announced another purchase of mature North Sea oil assets yesterday in a move analysts said could increase its UK oil output by almost 20 per cent. TAQA, 75 per cent-owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, said in a statement its unit TAQA Bratani agreed to buy Total’s [...]
Shareholders urged to sign up to new Stewardship Code September 15, 2010 SPEAKERS at the ABI’s investment conference yesterday urged company shareholders to sign up to the government’s new Stewardship Code, arguing that improving the long-term attitude of investors is crucial in order to hold at bay radical changes to governance regulation at a European level. Peter Montagnon, who left the ABI earlier this year to become [...]
ABI: Don’t ignore UK’s institutions September 15, 2010 THE NEW chairman of the ABI’s investment committee has warned regulators that an over-zealous approach to protecting the interests of retail shareholders in the wake of the financial crisis could come at the expense of institutional investors. In his first official speech in the role, Aviva Investors chief executive Alain Dromer expressed support for a [...]
REGAL DITCHES BROKER MIRABAUD AFTER TUSSLE OVER LEADERSHIP September 15, 2010 IT WAS the end of an activist era yesterday for broker Mirabaud Securities and oil and gas firm Regal Petroleum, which parted ways on, shall we say, less than friendly terms. Regal’s terse termination statement to the stock exchange came after Mirabaud questioned the tenure of the company’s chief executive, David Greer. That’s not a [...]
Profit back at ailing French Connection September 15, 2010 FRENCH Connection bounced back into profit yesterday after cost-cutting measures were taken to breathe new life into the business. The group saw a slim half-year profit of £200,000 compared with losses of £5.4m over the same period last year. French Connection is closing loss-making stores in the US alongside the closure of its Japanese business [...]
Identity crisis persists September 15, 2010 FRENCH Connection is a retailer which has more gallic luck than its rivals. At the tail end of the 20th Century, it managed to arrest an alarming decline in sales by rebranding itself as FCUK, tapping into the youth counter culture and stealing a march on rivals like Gap. But in recent years it has [...]
