Dixons to get £59m as part of lease deal June 1, 2011 ELECTRICALS retailer Dixons has agreed the sale and leaseback of its Nordic distribution centre in Sweden in a bid to reduce its debts. Dixons, which owns the Currys and PC World brands, has exchanged contracts with a syndicate of investors with a deal due for completion on 23 June. The total cash payable is SEK600m [...]
Home Retail execs in line for pay hikes despite profit drop June 1, 2011 HOME Retail Group executives are in line for pay rises despite a tough year in which the company issued a profit warning. The owner of Homebase and Argos proposed in its annual report that chief executive Terry Duddy and finance director Richard Ashton should receive raises. Under the remuneration proposal, to be presented to shareholders [...]
Topps Tiles hit as sales decline June 1, 2011 SHARES in Topps Tiles fell almost six per cent yesterday to 63.75p after the wood and tile flooring firm posted lower underlying profit in the first half and gave a cautious outlook. It said like-for-like sales were down 2.1 per cent in the past seven weeks, compared with an increase of 1.8 per cent over [...]
P&O Cruises to get largest liner June 1, 2011 P&O CRUISES owner Carnival has ordered a new 141,000 tonne cruise liner, which will be the largest built specifically for the British market. The liner, costing £489m and scheduled to enter service in March 2015, will be built by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. The as-yet unnamed ship will be able to carry a maximum of 4,372 [...]
Nokia denies Microsoft is lining up offer June 1, 2011 BELEAGUERED Nokia was yesterday forced to deny speculation it is in talks to sell its mobile phone business to Microsoft. The Finnish manufacturer described the report – by the same industry insider who predicted its tie-up with the software giant earlier this year – as “100 per cent baseless”. Eldar Murtazin says Microsoft is lining [...]
Odeon buys Irish cinemas for £60m June 1, 2011 ODEON & UCI, the cinema chain owned by Guy Hands’ private equity house Terra Firma, bought nine cinemas in Ireland and two build sites for new complexes for £60m yesterday. The chain used some of the proceeds of its recent £500m bond issue on the purchase, which will add 77 new screens to its Ireland [...]
Sega exec warns of skills shortage June 1, 2011 SEGA boss Mike Hayes has warned the UK could be heading for a digital skills shortage. In an interview with City A.M. the European boss of the gaming giant said he is forced to hire a lot of staff from outside the UK because of a chronic lack of programming skills. He said: “We could [...]
Lenovo buys PC firm in Germany June 1, 2011 CHINESE computer maker Lenovo has agreed to buy German electronics retailer Medion for around $900m (£551.5m), boosting its market share in Europe. The acquisition, Lenovo’s biggest since its purchase of IBM’s PC business six years ago, comes four months after Lenovo signed a joint venture deal with NEC Corp to sell laptops in Japan. The [...]
Google admits social failings June 1, 2011 GOOGLE has revealed it tried unsuccessfully to team up with Facebook and admitted it “screwed up” by failing to make inroads into the booming social network market. Executive chairman Eric Schmidt said Facebook had rebuffed his entreaties to do a deal, while acknowledging he had not pushed hard enough to address the rising threat posed [...]
WHAT A FARCE June 1, 2011 ● Blatter wins uncontested presidential vote ● Plans to clean up in-house ethics committee ● FA unrepentant despite crushing defeat FIFA president Sepp Blatter won a fourth term in office amid farcical scenes in Zurich yesterday while the English Football Association were left virtually friendless and lambasted for their attempts to postpone his coronation. Blatter, [...]
