Rail link sale on the cards June 6, 2010 The government is aiming to kickstart a round of crucial asset sales with the auction of the Channel Tunnel rail link, estimated to raise £2bn, according to reports yesterday. The Department for Transport (DfT) and rail link owner London & Continental Railways (LCR) plans to distribute a sales document to potential bidders ahead of the [...]
Brown replaced as climate chief June 6, 2010 Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will take over from Britain’s Gordon Brown as co-chair of a UN group looking at ways to raise finance to help poor nations to combat climate change. “It’s decisive to ensure sufficient financing of measures against climate change in poor nations to get a new international climate deal in place,” [...]
DRESS SENSE PAYS OFF June 6, 2010 Monsoon founder Peter Simon’s passion for fashion has earned him a healthy dividend of £14m, according to documents filed at Companies House. Simon, 60, shared the dividend – the first for five years – with his family last year. Earlier this year Monsoon reported an eightfold increase in profits from £3.96m in 2008 to £32.96m [...]
Denton Wilde Sapte joins the rush for transatlantic law firm mergers June 6, 2010 MERGERS and acquisitions are rattling along at quite a pace among transatlantic law firms – unlike at the corporate clients they service, many of which are still finding the M&A game a little hard going at the moment, not least of course Prudential. The latest legal mega-deal repays a closer look. The City’s Denton Wilde [...]
HMRC’s tax assault to hit honest firms June 6, 2010 A TOP City accountancy firm has claimed that a tax crackdown by HMRC will mean innocent firms being investigated at the taxpayers’ expense. UHY Hacker said that plans to seize an additional £4bn in revenue in 2010/11 through a more aggressive strategy would leave blameless businesses facing unnecessary probes into their dealings. The total figure [...]
Bars and clubs fail to shake off recession June 6, 2010 THE number of bar and pub companies going bust has continued to soar in the last year, a new survey has shown. While corporate insolvencies have been falling in other sectors, the picture for bars and clubs is still bleak. A total of 23 pub, bar and nightclub companies have become insolvent in the first [...]
FSA approvals taking longer June 6, 2010 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been criticised for the long delays in its corporate approval process, in a fresh blow to the City regulator. Companies now wait 19.5 weeks on average for an FSA decision on whether to authorise financial services work, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by City [...]
Greek economy kept afloat by shipping trade June 6, 2010 MANY of the headlines about the UK and Greek economies have, perhaps understandably, painted a bleak picture of harsh financial realities in both countries. Clearly the UK Government and the Greek administration face a period of painful fiscal tightening as they balance the books and reassure international investors. Therefore, in this challenging period, the top [...]
Dispute numbers up in recession fallout June 6, 2010 THE NUMBER of commercial disputes held before international arbitral institutions were up by 16 per cent last year, according to new research, suggesting the recession was one of the main contributors to the rise. Figures from law firm Hogan Lovells’ arbitration practice showed that arbitration bodies across the globe saw a flurry of commercial disputes [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 6, 2010 TATE & LYLE Evolution Securities maintains a “buy” recommendation for Tate & Lyle and has upped its target price to 560p. Evo said Tate is a compelling long term turnaround story and that new boss Javed Ahmed appears to have all the credentials to tackle Tate’s issues. Evo said the added spice is that Tate [...]
