London’s gloomy firms September 1, 2008 London businesses are among the most pessimistic nationwide when considering their prospects for the coming year, reveals a survey published today by the Institute of Chartered Accounts in England and Wales (ICAEW). According to the latest UK business confidence monitor, London is the third most negative region with confidence standing at a “record low” of [...]
Latest house price fall piles on the misery September 1, 2008 House prices slumped by 0.9 per cent in August, falling for the 11th successive month and adding to the gloom currently surrounding the market. According to the latest national housing market survey from Hometrack, average prices are down by 5.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis, the lowest level since the survey began in 2001. [...]
Lehman Bros locked in new equity talks September 1, 2008 Lehman Brothers, the troubled Wall Street investment bank, was holding intensive talks this weekend over a much-needed injection of billions of dollars in new equity capital. Korea Development Bank (KDB), the South Korean government-backed institution, which last week appeared to have lost its appetite for Lehman, is thought to have returned to the table to [...]
City expects interest rates will be held September 1, 2008 Interest rates are expected to remain on hold this week in spite of a slew of bad economic news that has left the UK teetering on the edge of official recession. Consensus expectations suggest that once again rising inflation will trump dwindling growth for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meaning interest rates will remain at [...]
Allianz sells Dresdner in £8bn deal September 1, 2008 German insurance giant Allianz last night agreed to sell its beleaguered banking arm Dresdner to rival Commerzbank in a deal worth €9.8bn (£7.9bn) – a tie up that will lead to at least 1,000 job losses in the City. In what will be the biggest German banking merger in nearly a decade, Commerzbank will buy [...]
Bodycote test unit sale sees bid talk start August 29, 2008 Engineer Bodycote’s decision to sell its testing business makes it vulnerable to a bid from a predator, analysts claimed yesterday. The Macclesfield-based company revealed that it had sold the division, which tests materials for the oil and gas, civil engineering, food and pharmaceutical sectors, to private equity group Clayton, Dubilier and Rice for £417m, a [...]
Premier falls on failed well in Vietnam August 29, 2008 Shares in Premier Oil slumped 6 per cent yesterday, after the British-based oil explorer revealed that a Vietnam well it had been drilling had failed. The firm, led by chief executive Simon Lockett, said its Chim Cong well was being plugged and abandoned because “the oil flow rate achieved was marginal”. Its stock closed down [...]
Computacenter falls after tough conditions in UK August 29, 2008 IT services firm Computacenter yesterday cited poor performance in the UK as the reason for a 14.2 per cent dip in profits, hammering its shares which plunged by almost 13 per cent in early trading. A lacklustre set of numbers across the channel in France also hurt the firm, it said, reporting profit before tax [...]
Running an old media company isn’t much fun right now August 29, 2008 The outlook for most of the media is as bleak as the August weather. Everywhere you look this week profits seem to be tumbling as cost cuts and job losses accelerate. Johnston Press chief executive Tim Bowdler could see little cause for hope for 18 months at the very least as he unveiled an advertising [...]
Toyota slashes output August 29, 2008 High steel and fuel costs as well as the slowing global economy forced Japanese car giant Toyota to cut its sales forecast in Britain and across the world yesterday. Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe said he will cut the firm’s annual global sales target for 2009 by 700,000 vehicles to 9.7m. Watanabe said: “We have been [...]
