Short sellers aim for Next and Glencore on FTSE 100 October 3, 2011 FASHION retailer Next was the most shorted stock on the FTSE 100 in September as investors bet its share price would be dented by further pain on the high street, data from Data Explorers yesterday showed. Investors, primarily hedge funds, borrowed close to eight per cent of Next’s shares to take short positions as retail [...]
UK firms are still M&A targets despite fall in global dealmaking October 3, 2011 GLOBAL merger and takeover deals have fallen in value every quarter this year as torrid markets and gloomy economic expectations put pressure on companies, Dealogic data shows. M&A deals worth $633bn (£405bn) closed in the third quarter, a fifth lower than a year earlier. But early gains this year mean 2011 is so far still [...]
IATA sees air travel slide over August October 3, 2011 INTERNATIONAL airline traffic slowed in August compared to July, with the total passenger market down 1.6 per cent and cargo down by 1.3 per cent, industry figures released yesterday showed. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said international markets fell by 1.8 per cent, while domestic markets slipped one per cent. The fall reflected a [...]
Gulf Keystone drafts in former Army chief October 3, 2011 THE FORMER head of the British Army, Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, has been appointed a non-executive director of oil company Gulf Keystone. Lord Guthrie, who was chief of the defence staff between 1997 and 2001, is a cross bench member of the House of Lords. He was director of NM Rothschild & Sons Limited from [...]
Music sales dip as CDs fade out October 3, 2011 SALES of compact disc albums have continued to slide as digital downloads grow in popularity. Figures from BPI, the music industry’s trade body, showed that digital music accounted for almost 30 per cent of UK album sales in the third quarter, up from 20.1 per cent at the same time last year. Compact disc sales [...]
Autonomy gives HP green light October 3, 2011 HEWLETT-PACKARD last night completed its $12bn (£7.77bn) buy of British software firm Autonomy, the centrepiece of a botched strategy shift that cost ex-chief executive Leo Apotheker his job last month. HP said its £25.50-per-share cash offer had been accepted by investors representing 87.34 per cent of the company’s shares, well ahead of the 75 per [...]
FPC ponders move to boost bank lending October 3, 2011 SOME senior officials on the Bank of England’s new regulatory body want banks to tap their liquidity buffers in order to boost lending and stimulate the recovery. Yet the majority of members on the Bank’s new Financial Policy Committee (FPC) decided that banks should continue to “strengthen levels of capital and liquidity”, the minutes to [...]
British retail industry calls for free trade across EU October 3, 2011 BRITISH retailers face “bonkers” trade barriers that prevent them opening stores in some other European Union countries, a leading industry group will argue today. Excessive regulations deter investment and deprive people of the benefits of free trade, the British Retail Consortium has said. “I applaud the [European] Commission’s efforts to tackle discriminatory national legislation which [...]
Gloomy future for construction October 3, 2011 The construction industry in the UK is set for a significant downturn according to industry surveys released yesterday. The building industry is “heading towards a nose dive”, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said, claiming the workloads have fallen for 15 consecutive quarters. Nearly half (44 per cent) of FMB members have reported falling levels [...]
Retail sales grow in Hong Kong October 3, 2011 Retail sales in Hong Kong grew by 28.9 per cent annualised in August, official data revealed yesterday. Yet with inflation taken into account the rise is closer to 20 per cent, according to Société Générale. “On a rolling three-month basis, seasonally adjusted data shows retails sales volumes up just 1.6 per cent compared to an [...]
