Exxon spends $1.7bn on shale June 8, 2011 Exxon Mobil said it bought privately held natural gas company Phillips Resources and related company TWP Inc for $1.69bn (£1bn) last week, picking up about 317,000 acres for exploration in the Marcellus shale basin. The action highlights the importance Exxon is placing on natural gas assets after spending about $30bn last year to buy natural [...]
KKR eyes stake in ING business June 8, 2011 Private equity giant KKR & Co is eyeing a minority stake in ING’s US online bank, ING Direct USA, a source familiar with the situation said last night. General Electric and Capital One Financial are also understood to have submitted bids. ING was forced to split its insurance and bank operations and agreed to divest [...]
RISKY GAME: WAGES NEAR DANGER LEVEL June 8, 2011 Top-flight clubs have never had it so good but are splashing more than ever on salaries, says Deloitte THE SYMPTOMS have not been hard to spot. First Yaya Toure, an effective if unspectacular journeyman midfielder, charmed Manchester City into lining his pockets to the tune of £185,000 a week. Then some expert brinkmanship from Wayne [...]
Spain at risk of following Scotland if Barca and Real allowed to maintain stranglehold June 8, 2011 SPANISH football is riding the crest of a wave. The national team are world and European champions, while Barcelona dominate the club game, and Real Madrid, home to Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho, are no slouches either. Yet beneath the surface all is not so rosy. The same individual selling of broadcast rights that has [...]
Urgent action needed in dire Championship as TV revenue shows signs of drying up June 8, 2011 AS WORRYING as the situation in the top flight is, it is far worse in the Championship, where £4 is spent for every £3 earned. Financial results for England’s second tier worsened for the sixth successive year in 2009-10, according to Deloitte, while the average wages-to-turnover ratio is an eye-watering 88 per cent. It could [...]
Hundreds of thousands of 2012 tickets unsold June 8, 2011 CHAIRMAN of London’s Olympic organising committee Lord Coe has moved to clarify that hundreds of thousands of tickets will be available in the upcoming second ballot. Over 55 per cent of applicants were left empty-handed following the first round of sales and although they are to be given priority second time around Lord Coe sparked [...]
Man United pip Arsenal to Jones signing June 8, 2011 MANCHESTER UNITED kick-started their summer spending spree by snatching Blackburn centre-half Phil Jones from the clutches of Premier League rivals Arsenal and Liverpool. Jones, 19, underwent a medical at Old Trafford yesterday ahead of a £17m move. His transfer represents the second time in a year that Sir Alex Ferguson has stolen a march on [...]
Banned Amir defends club appearance June 8, 2011 BANNED Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir has denied flouting his suspension and insists he did no wrong in turning out for a club team in Surrey. Amir, 19, was banned for five years for the part he played in the spot-fixing scandal that marred last summer’s Test series against England. But Amir appears to have contravened [...]
Bank chiefs clash on plan for ringfence June 8, 2011 THE heads of Britain’s four biggest lenders were at loggerheads over banking reform yesterday, with RBS chief Stephen Hester saying that the Vickers Commission’s proposals would “increase systemic risk” while HSBC chairman Douglas Flint said they are “required” to protect depositors. Following business secretary Vince Cable’s latest attack on banks for insufficient lending yesterday, the [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT HIGHER OIL PRICES DERAILING THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY? June 8, 2011 MALDWYN WORSLEY-TONKS | RED24 “The recovery will certainly slow down because higher oil prices push everybody’s costs up. That takes money out of the economy, which could be spent on things that boost the recovery.” JONATHAN LEGG | GIANT INSURANCE “Yes, it will. An increase in oil prices has an impact on everything. We are [...]
