Serco wins £415m contract to build a new London prison July 5, 2010 SERCO has signed a contract to run a new London prison, despite concerns that public spending cuts could mean fewer deals for support services firms. Serco, which runs the DLR and detention centres in Australia, said its consortium signed a contract worth £415m with the Ministry of Justice to build and manage a prison at [...]
FSA bans six mortgage brokers and fines one over £130,000 for fraud July 5, 2010 SIX MORTGAGE brokers have been banned and one fined over £130,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for allegedly committing fraud as the financial watchdog continues its campaign to crack down on illegal activity in the UK. Neale Morton, Syed Meah and Jonathan Smith of Neale Morton IMS Limited have all been banned, with Morton [...]
Serco: Coalition will come good for outsourcers July 5, 2010 THERE may be trouble ahead for outsourcers. The new coalition government is intent on getting a better deal from support services firms; as one of the biggest clients in town, the likes of Serco are powerless to resist. But while there is short-term uncertainty, this government will outsource more in the future. The massive Work Programme [...]
British Land shifts focus to West End July 5, 2010 DEVELOPER British Land is “tweaking” its property portfolio by extending its West End presence because of financial uncertainty in the City, the company said yesterday. The switch will see the company concentrate on areas where rents are holding up. British Land is planning to spend £330m to redevelop a property on Baker Street that it [...]
Travis Perkins to buy BSS July 5, 2010 Travis Perkins is to acquire BSS Group for £557.6m, making it the country’s biggest plumbing and heating chain. The offer – made up of cash and shares –?values each BSS share at 435.8 pence, a 4.7 per cent premium on Friday’s closing price of 416.2p. Travis Perkins charman Robert Walker said: “Our respective businesses are [...]
St Modwen is back in the black July 5, 2010 REGENERATION specialist St Modwen Properties reinstated dividend payments yesterday after going back into profit. The company, which owns Elephant and Castle shopping centre, announced an interim dividend of 1p a share. It is the first payment for two years. It also reported a profit of £26.7m in the first half of 2010 after losing £98.3m [...]
Clouds hover over the second half outlook July 5, 2010 THE last three months have seen a step-change in global markets. After a boom fuelled by fiscal stimuli, financial markets have fallen as governments plan to scale back their support, and the period has been punctuated by a flight to quality assets. So, what should contract for difference (CFD) traders concentrate on as we enter [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 5, 2010 SWIP The Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has appointed Ramsay Urquhart as its new finance director and part of the executive committee, reporting directly to managing director Dean Buckley. Urquhart joins from Barclays Wealth, where he has been head of investment operations since September 2006. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at Dutch financial services [...]
LABOUR DATA IS A WORRY FOR THE US July 5, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT FOR many investors the long weekend in the US couldn’t have come at a better time. On top of Europe’s sovereign debt problems, and signs that Chinese growth is slowing, recent data from the US suggests that the much-hyped economic recovery may be reversing. We have seen housing data sour following [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 5, 2010 TUI TRAVEL UBS upgrades TUI Travel from “neutral” to “buy” with a lower price target of 250p. UBS said that market risk aversion and concerns that a late collapse in summer 2010 sales will cause a significant earnings downgrade seem to have caused the shares to sharply underperform. UBS believes the stock now offers good [...]
