Buffett won’t back Kraft’s Cadbury bid January 5, 2010 BILLIONAIRE investor Warren Buffett yesterday put a spanner in the works of Kraft’s hostile bid for confectioner Cadbury, voting against plans to issue new shares to fund the acquisition and claiming the current bid structure fundamentally undervalues the US firm’s stock. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm, which owns a 9.4 per cent stake in Kraft, said [...]
Bonus supertax to raise up to £3bn as firms pay in full January 5, 2010 SENIOR bankers have told City A.M. that the government’s supertax on bank bonuses will not reduce City payouts, predicting the levy will raise up to £3bn as firms cough up to protect their London employees. That is six times the £550m tax take predicted by chancellor Alistair Darling when introducing the 50 per cent levy [...]
Worst snow in years to cause commuter chaos January 5, 2010 LONDON transport will be put to the test today as it strains to cope with some of the worst weather to hit the capital in years. The Met Office issued an emergency weather warning for the whole of the UK saying London and the Home Counties would be the worst affected. Forecasters predicted that more [...]
Iceland sees the first anti-bailout revolt January 5, 2010 SOMEONE should give Gordon Brown a copy of John Maynard Keynes’ The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Published in 1919, it addressed post-war Germany – but the book is uncannily relevant to the situation in today’s Iceland, explaining how crippling reparations enforced by powerful foreign nations on an unwilling population are counter-productive. Iceland – unlike [...]
Seymour Pierce MD resigns and admits errors January 5, 2010 THE managing director at Seymour Pierce resigned yesterday after making errors in a deal involving a client. Richard Feigen, who has been with the corporate broker for 11 years, said he decided to leave after mistakes occurred in a transaction he was overseeing. “Some errors occurred during a transaction which I was leading. I feel [...]
Fears over UK gas shortage January 5, 2010 A CHRONIC lack of gas storage is leaving the UK at risk of an energy shortage and higher gas bills if the cold snap continues, experts claimed after gas network operator National Grid warned about gas supplies. Britain has only three weeks’ worth of gas in reserve, far less than its European neighbours like Germany, [...]
Pearl courts bondholders January 5, 2010 PEARL, the insurance group founded by pizza entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, has tabled a deal it hopes will resolve a dispute it has been embroiled in with its bondholders. The firm suspended interest payments on £500m of bonds last year, sparking protests from the bondholders. The clash is an obstacle to the company’s hopes to achieve [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 5, 2010 WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING FINANCIAL TIMES ALWALEED’S CITI SHARES TO BOLSTER KINGDOM Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, the Saudi investor, revealed on Tuesday that he plans to shore up the balance sheet of his investment vehicle by “donating” SR2.24bn (€416m) of shares in Citigroup into it. Prince Alwaleed said the initiative would [...]
Ford cheers investors as sales surge January 5, 2010 US CARMAKER Ford yesterday posted a 33 per cent sales gain for December, ending a crushing 2009 on an upswing as it recorded its first full-year market-share gain since 1995. The Ford sales surge ran beyond the expectations of analysts and sent the company’s stock sharply higher. Ford shares powered above $11 to hit their [...]
Vodafone is first off the blocks with Google phone January 5, 2010 VODAFONE will be the first UK carrier to stock the new Google Nexus One smartphone. It will start stocking the phone “soon” but the deal is non-exclusive, meaning other networks could offer it in the coming weeks. Vodafone missed out on the exclusive rights to the iPhone in 2007 after clashing with Apple over its [...]
