Rentokil gears up for City Link sell off option October 14, 2012 RENTOKIL Initial, the business service group, is set to conduct a make or break review of its loss making delivery arm City Link at the end of the year with a view to selling off the business. The FTSE firm, which offers pest control, laundry and parcel delivery services, is gearing up to sell the [...]
It’s a skilled business making technology look magical October 14, 2012 ANY sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” was science fiction master Arthur C Clarke’s third law of prediction. Unfortunately, its consequences aren’t too often examined for business, as RBS seems to be now finding out. The problem with technology that looks like magic is that it looks easy – a few swipes, a few [...]
Tory ministers want new deal with Europe October 14, 2012 A LEADING backbench MP yesterday told City A.M. that a majority of Conservative cabinet ministers would like to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU. Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton, made the comments following a report that education secretary Michael Gove wants Britain to threaten to leave the European Union if it does not claw back [...]
Black cab firm on brink as it seeks bail out October 14, 2012 LONDON black cab maker Manganese Bronze will seek an emergency cash bail out from its Chinese partners this week as it battles to stay alive. The Aim-listed firm was forced to suspend its shares on Friday after recalling 400 of its cabs due a fault with the steering box on its new black cab model. [...]
Spirit Pubs to be lifted with Games effect less than feared October 14, 2012 THE PUB sector is set to receive some rare good news after a disappointing summer when Spirit Pub Company announces preliminary annual results tomorrow. Analysts expect Spirit – which runs around 800 pubs – to report a four per cent rise in sales to around £761m. Spirit’s performance will be a welcome sign of resilience [...]
Vivendi unit in talks with cable firm Numericable over tie-up October 14, 2012 FRENCH mobile phone operator SFR, a unit of Vivendi, is in talks with unlisted cable company Numericable over a possible tie-up, the country’s daily Le Figaro reported over the weekend. Le Figaro did not cite its sources but said in an online report that the two companies had been in “very serious” discussions for around [...]
Adele smash hit leads XL to surge in profits October 14, 2012 BRITISH superstar Adele helped lead her record label, XL Recordings, to an “exceptional” year in 2011, helping boost its turnover from £21.4m to £111.7m. The surge in revenues for 2011 helped lift pre tax profits from £4.1m in 2010 to £41.7m. The firm said the success of Adele’s album, 21, would not be repeated in [...]
O2 says outage persists but will not compensate October 14, 2012 O2 FACED further embarrassment over the weekend as users continued to suffer network problems despite the company claiming it had fixed the problems on Friday. The mobile operator said last night that despite efforts to return service to customers before Saturday, many people were still having problems connecting to the network. The company, owned by [...]
Pressure on Murdoch mounts ahead of News Corp meeting October 14, 2012 RUPERT Murdoch is facing increasing pressure to split his role as chief executive and chairman of News Corp ahead of the media giant’s annual meeting tomorrow, with several investors set to vote for Murdoch to step down from one or both roles. Shareholder advisory body Pirc joined calls for a division of powers at News [...]
Concordia ship captain to face Italian hearing October 14, 2012 THE captain of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship will attend pre-trial hearings this week where experts will present analysis of the events that led to the vessel hitting a rock off the Italian coast in January, killing 30 people. The luxury cruise liner has been sitting half-submerged on the sea floor near the Tuscan [...]
