MPs slam private finance initiative and call for liabilities to go on balance sheet August 18, 2011 THE COST of building schools and hospitals using the controversial private finance initiative (PFI) should be included on the government’s balance sheet, a group of influential MPs will say today. In a highly critical report, the Treasury select committee will say that PFI does not provide taxpayers with good value for money and recommend that [...]
Banks should take more risk, says Bank’s Haldane August 18, 2011 BANKS must overcome “psychological scarring” induced by the financial crisis and start taking more risk, a senior Bank of England official said yesterday. Andrew Haldane said banks should pay smaller dividends to shareholders in order to meet capital requirements while also increasing risk. Yet he also suggested that capital requirements could be relaxed. “The Financial [...]
Mortgage lending slows in UK August 18, 2011 The rate of UK house-buying is set to fall again in the next few months, experts warned yesterday, after new data showed the faltering recovery in UK mortgages ground to a halt in July. Bob Pannell, chief economist of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), said Britain had been hit by the effects of the [...]
CEBR: house values will rise August 18, 2011 House prices will rise by nearly a sixth by 2015, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). It forecast a 14 per cent rise by the middle of the decade with the depressed rate of housebuilding leading to an increasing shortage of accommodation. The level of home ownership is currently 68 per cent, [...]
Holcim hit by strong franc and cost rises August 18, 2011 CEMENT maker Holcim yesterday said the record strength of the Swiss franc combined with soaring raw material and energy costs to hit its second-quarter profits. Holcim’s operating earnings fell more than a fifth in the three months to the end of June, to 1.1bn francs (£843m) and net income dropped 14.9 per cent to 464m [...]
Ofcom fines TalkTalk £3m August 18, 2011 OFCOM has handed out a £3m fine to telecoms provider TalkTalk after it incorrectly billed tens of thousands of consumers for services they had not received. TalkTalk yesterday said it was “disappointed” by the size of the fine – a record for a telecoms company – but said it will not appeal it. After a [...]
Google’s $12.5bn Motorola bid includes an eye-watering break fee of $2.5bn August 18, 2011 GOOGLE will be forced to pay Motorola a staggering $2.5bn (£1.5bn) if it fails to clear regulatory hurdles with its $12.5bn takeover bid. The mammoth break fee represents 20 per cent of the proposed price, compared to AT&T’s fee of $3bn in its planned $39bn takeover of T-Mobile USA, which is just seven per cent. [...]
Lenovo cedes ground to Apple in its native China August 18, 2011 APPLE’S sales have taken over those of Lenovo in China for the first time. As the third-largest personal computer company in the world by shipment volume, the Chinese firm holds the top spot as the industry’s fastest-growing firm for the seventh quarter consecutively. It announced yesterday that its China sales rose 23.4 per cent to [...]
DOLLARS DOWN: WHO LOSES FROM FRANC RISE August 18, 2011 HOLCIM is just the latest in a long line of major corporates citing Switzerland’s record-high safe haven currency as a factor behind a dip in their fortunes. The strength of the currency has depreciated dollar and euro-denominated revenues and profits, while input costs and local production costs have rocketed, and output prices have to be [...]
Firms feel Swiss pain now but more is coming August 18, 2011 THE franc was steady yesterday thanks to a decision by the Swiss central bank to add massive liquidity to the market. But it has been a very different story for the year so far – as markets have worsened, investors have piled into francs with an appetite mirrored only in their buying of gold. Deemed [...]
