Sports broadcaster Setanta collapsed with £550m debts July 11, 2010 SPORTS broadcaster Setanta’s British arm collapsed owing £550m to creditors including the Football Association and the Scottish Premier League, according to the final report from administrator Deloitte. Setanta imploded last summer with outstanding bank loans of £261m and unsecured debts of £288m. Unsecured lenders will receive 2p for every pound claimed. Setanta tried to muscle [...]
Red Knights may resurrect their £1bn bid for Manchester United July 11, 2010 THE group of wealthy City financiers hoping to wrest control of Manchester United appeared to resurrect their plan when they met with supporters’ groups over the weekend. The self-styled “Red Knights” looked to have cooled their interest after it became clear their valuation of the Old Trafford club did not match the owners’. But it [...]
Rockhopper eyes second Falklands site July 11, 2010 ROCKHOPPER, the oil explorer which became an investors’ darling after striking black gold off the coast of the Falkland Islands, is eyeing a second big discovery in the region. Analysts believe the Aim-listed company will find up to 240m barrels of oil at its Ernest prospect to the north of the Falklands when it begins [...]
Marketing will be driven by the east July 11, 2010 THE future driver of growth in advertising will be eastern and south eastern economies, according to Martin Sorrell. Writing for the IPA BDO Bellwether Report, which draws on commentary from leading ad agency and business practitioners, he predicts the global economy will continue to grow but that the marketing landscape will remain tough for many [...]
Enel to proceed with €4bn IPO July 11, 2010 ITALY’S biggest utility Enel plans to list a stake in its renewables unit despite difficult market conditions and a potential change to Italy’s renewable incentives scheme, Chief Executive Fulvio Conti said. Enel, with debts of €51.9bn at the end of March, aims in October to raise €3-4bn from the sale of a minority stake in [...]
Zodiac rejects bid from Safran July 11, 2010 FRENCH aerospace group Zodiac Aerospace yesterday said it had rejected a preliminary takeover approach from state-controlled Safran and vowed to stay independent and even seek more acquisitions. Zodiac, the maker of aircraft systems and cabin interiors, said its board considered a “friendly” offer of talks from Safran Chief Executive Jean-Paul Herteman on an “industrial combination [...]
Further falls predicted for jobless count July 11, 2010 OFFICIAL data out on Wednesday is expected to show that fewer Britons claimed jobless benefits in June, the fifth successive monthly drop in the claimant count measure. Economists, on average, expect the number of Britons claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) will have fallen by 24,5000 last month. For the wider International Labor Organisation (ILO) measure, [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU FORECAST FOR THIS WEEK’S JOBLESS FIGURES GIVEN THE FISCAL SQUEEZE? July 11, 2010 MICHAEL SAUNDERS | CITIGROUP “The Labour Force Survey jobless measure also fell sharply in the last month and this may also now be starting to head markedly lower. We see the drop in unemployment as a sign that the economy may well have been recovering faster than generally realised in recent quarters.” PETER DIXON | [...]
Charity gets Goldman gift July 11, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs has stepped up its drive to repair its image in the City with a donation of £1.5m to the Mayor’s Fund for London, which will help put young people into work. The donation will be used to fund the Shoreditch Brokerage, one of the Fund’s flagship projects in the capital. The world’s largest [...]
Future holds fear for business July 11, 2010 BUSINESSES remain pessimistic on the chances of a sustained economic recovery, despite indicators showing that trading levels are at their strongest since before the financial crisis. Accountancy firm BDO’s monthly output index remained above 100 the third consecutive month in June – the first time conditions have stabilised at that level since 2007. The indicator [...]
