Rollercoaster ride facing markets as deficit bites May 23, 2010 THE benchmark FTSE 100 Index is facing months of uncertainty as it takes a battering from the spiralling UK debt and an ill wind blowing from Europe, according to City experts. Markets were hit by huge losses last week as politicians failed to provide concrete plans to deal with the sovereign debt crisis which has [...]
US threatens to kick BP off spill clean-up May 23, 2010 US OFFICIALS have warned they could remove BP from efforts to seal the well currently spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, if the oil giant doesn’t do enough to plug the leak. Ken Salazar, the US interior secretary, said yesterday that the US government is becoming increasingly frustrated and angry that BP has missed [...]
BT boss Livingston in £1m bonus boon May 23, 2010 BT is set to anger its unions this week with the announcement that bonuses for its top executives have tripled. In its annual report, due on Wednesday, Britain’s biggest phone company will reveal chief executive Ian Livingston was awarded about £1m – up from £343,000 last year. He also received a £808,000 salary. Meanwhile Gavin [...]
US presses China on trade ahead of a key meeting on the economy May 23, 2010 THE US yesterday pressed China to give “fair access” for foreign companies, and China stressed the risks both economies face from Europe’s debt woes, ahead of top-level talks in Beijing. Speaking a day before the start of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed the importance of US [...]
Little value in employee law May 23, 2010 MANY employment laws have little value and should be repealed or amended, a report out today claims. As the new government reviews flexible working rules, the report by business advisers KPMG and human resources group CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) claims that one in four companies offer no more than the legal minimum [...]
Olswang to ditch lockstep pay May 23, 2010 OLSWANG is set to join a handful of law firms by overhauling its associate pay structure and moving away from the traditional lockstep model. From September, the London based legal outfit will move associate remuneration to a model that will connect pay with performance, shifting away from the historical model of linking pay to number [...]
Legal sector confident as associate salary ban lifted May 23, 2010 A NUMBER of major UK law firms have signalled a return in confidence by unfreezing associate pay. Recently merged, Hogan Lovells is the latest large firm to lift a ban on pay rises, after handing out a small salary increase to associates. Lawyers at Hogan Lovells who have just qualified will now earn £60,000, marking [...]
Historic water fountain at St Paul’s opens May 23, 2010 THE first public drinking fountain certified in London in 30 years has opened in the City. The fountain, located alongside St Paul’s Churchyard, was a hit with tourists over the scorching weekend. The fountain, which could be the first of many across the City, is part of a proposed scheme to restore the historic drinking [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 23, 2010 Ofcom Stewart Purvis will quit media regulator Ofcom after a two-and-a-half year stint at the quango. He will leave his post in the autumn. He was responsible for content regulation and standards. He was previously chief executive at ITN and has over 30 years of broadcast experience, including working for the BBC and ITN. At [...]
Aurum back in profit after restructuring May 23, 2010 LUXURY jeweller Aurum Holdings announced earnings of £10.5m yesterday, a jump of 27 per cent, after refinancing last November. The parent company of Goldsmiths, Watches of Switzerland and Mappin & Webb made a post-tax profit of £0.1m in the year to January 2010, against a loss of £19.4m the previous year. While overall sales were [...]
