Ineos quit UK after Vat snub April 25, 2010 Chemicals group Ineos quit its UK base after ministers snubbed a request for help with a liquidity crisis. The £30bn firm was badly stung when the recession hit its sales. It requested, among other things, a deferral on VAT payments to help it weather the storm. The firm estimates its relocation to Switzerland will save [...]
Hugh Osmond bidding for UK building firm April 25, 2010 PIZZA-to-pubs entrepreneur Hugh Osmond has made a takeover offer for Crest Nicholson that values the UK housebuilder at £300-350m. Horizon Acquisition, Osmond’s quoted vehicle, put the takeover plan to a meeting of Crest’s 40 owner banks on Wednesday. The potential deal is part of bold plans by Osmond to consolidate the recession-hit housebuilding sector. According [...]
Forth Ports to seek deal intervention April 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S last remaining ports company Forth Ports will this week ask the Takeover Panel to issue a “put up or shut up” deadline to its suitor, the Northstream consortium, it is understood. The consortium, made up of investors Arcus and Peel Group and RREEF, an arm of Deutsche Bank, is expected to walk away. A [...]
Farepak to pay customers back April 25, 2010 FAREPAK customers who lost money when the Christmas savings group went into administration will now receive 15p for every pound they lost. The group’s directors have agreed to pay up £4m from their own pockets in compensation to the 150,000 customers who subscribed to their savings scheme. The number marks a small portion of the [...]
Swann set for bumper payday April 25, 2010 KATE Swann, the chief executive of stationery retailer WH Smith, could be in line to receive a million-pound payout if the firm’s shareholders approve a sweetened incentive package designed to guarantee her loyalty. Swann, who has been the subject of intense speculation over the top job at Royal Mail, has already received £2.5m after a [...]
ELECTION2010 April 25, 2010 Tories plan economic crime body The Tories are planning to set up a new agency tasked with stamping out white collar crime. A new Economic Crime Agency will take over the task of investigating and prosecuting economic crime, from the Serious Fraud Office, the Financial Services Authority, the Fraud Prosecution Service and the Revenue and [...]
It’s decision time for the Lib Dem leader April 25, 2010 WHO will he pick? That’s the question on everyone’s lips. With just ten days to go, all the opinion polls suggest Britain is heading for its first hung parliament since 1974; it looks like Nick Clegg is going to have to make a choice. The Liberal Democrat leader was giving nothing away on Andrew Marr’s [...]
A hung parliament: harmony or unrest? April 25, 2010 With polls pointing to a hung parliament, we want to know what it would mean for the economy: 1. Do you think a hung parliament would make it harder or easier to implement spending cuts and/or tax rises to reduce the budget deficit? 2. Do you think a hung parliament would be likely to send [...]
Calvert could face monster costs bill for illegal trading April 25, 2010 MALCOLM CALVERT should surrender more than £950,000 in a confiscation and costs order, the Financial Services Authority has suggested. The former Cazenove partner, who is currently serving a 21-month jail sentence after he was found guilty of five counts of insider trading, could pay £956,863 back to the government. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which [...]
Ten laws a day were introduced in spike last year April 25, 2010 TEN new laws were introduced every day last year, according to new research, as the total number of laws passed by parliament soared by more than 15 per cent. During the last 12 months, the government introduced 2,492 new laws, marking a 16 per cent spike compared to 2008, according to Sweet & Maxwell. The [...]
