Toyota adds brake system to calm fears February 17, 2010 TOYOTA will add a brake-override system to all future models worldwide in the wake of brake and accelerator defects that led to the recall of more than 8.5m vehicles. The system cuts engine power when the accelerator and brake pedals are applied at the same time and Toyota hopes the move calms customer fears, particularly [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 17, 2010 MORRISON Barclays says Morrison has continued to take market share, has seen profit growth accelerate and has sharply increased its dividend. Yet it was the worst-performing stock in the sector during 2009. To some extent Morrison is seen as a “consensus Buy”, a worthy story but one which lacks triggers which might lead to a [...]
CITY BEAN COUNTERS GET STAR TREATMENT February 17, 2010 DULL accountants, hobnobbing the evening away with some of the world’s glitziest movie stars? Who’d have thought it? Yet that’s exactly what a gaggle of beancounters from Deloitte will do on Sunday evening at the annual BAFTA film awards – for which they’ve been engaged as official “scrutineers” for the past four years. This year’s [...]
Orange offers juicy concession February 17, 2010 Orange and T-Mobile hope to avoid an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation into their proposed merger by offering to sell off part of the mobile spectrum. The European Commission are looking into the deal, which would create the UK’s largest mobile provider with £29.5m customers, and will decide by 1 March whether the OFT [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 17, 2010 HSBC Private Bank The bank has appointed Paul Forshaw as head of real estate fund management. Forshaw was previously part of a team responsible for real estate proprietary investment at failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing, investing joint venture equity in the UK, US and emerging markets. Prior to that, he spent time at property groups Knight [...]
Hedge fund managers buy up financial holdings in a sign of industry recovery February 17, 2010 Prominent hedge fund managers voted with their wallets in the fourth quarter to declare the long financial crisis over, and made big bets on banks and other lenders to back that view. John Paulson, Edward Lampert and Carl Icahn were among those who raised their bets on financial stocks during the last three months of [...]
Atkins says trading is on track despite hard market February 17, 2010 ATKINS, the design and engineering consultancy group, said yesterday its year to date results are in line with expectations. It warned that market conditions remained turbulent and that it continues to adjust staffing levels in line with prospective demand. The design and engineering company has continued to undertake significant restructuring due to crumbling construction markets [...]
FSA heaps censure on Wills February 17, 2010 WILLS & CO, the 127-year-old City stockbroker, was yesterday publicly censured by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which said the firm had consistently failed to remedy poor sales practices and properly monitor its advisers despite previous regulatory warnings. The FSA, which has barred Wills from giving investment advice, said the firm would have been slapped [...]
Apple leads the way on mobile phone design February 17, 2010 Apple is casting a long shadow over this year’s Mobile World Congress. The iPhone maker isn’t in attendance – it is far too cool for an annual trade fair – but its name is still on everyone’s lips. For a firm that has just 2.5 per cent of the mobile handset market, its ability to [...]
Stelios uses EasyJet shares as collateral to secure a £5m loan February 17, 2010 EasyJet owner Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has raised £5m by using shares as collateral for a loan. An unnamed lender accepted 1.27m shares as collateral in a deal arranged by UBS. The arrangement mirrors a deal in September, when Stelios raised £7.5m by using 2m shares as collateral on a loan through Credit Suisse. EasyGroup has [...]
