Hosts honing mystery ball November 12, 2012 THE ENGLAND camp has shrugged off Indian hopes that they could be undone by an innovative type of spin when the Test series begins this week. India bowler Ravichandran Ashwin is honing a carrom ball similar to that used by Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis, in which the thumb and middle flinger flick the ball to [...]
Coach Sutton going back to work November 12, 2012 CYCLING: British head coach Shane Sutton could return to work at this week’s Track World Cup in Glasgow. Sutton suffered bleeding on the brain and a broken cheekbone in a bike accident last week, just hours after Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins broke a rib in a crash with a van while training in [...]
HRT owners’ green light to sale November 12, 2012 FORMULA ONE: Struggling team HRT have been put up for sale by their owners, Spanish private equity group Thesan Capital. The outfit, which boasts drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan, is bottom of the constructors’ championship. The owners said they were in talks with a number of potential buyers and hoped for a [...]
Sandy casts a shadow over Catlin growth November 12, 2012 LLOYD’S of London insurer Catlin yesterday revealed that its New York office remains closed following Hurricane Sandy – and it does not know how much it will have to pay out to those affected by the storm. The firm said it would be some time before the true cost of the damage is assessed due to [...]
Reverend banned from finance for making illegal church loans November 12, 2012 REVEREND Carmel Jones was yesterday banned from working in finance after he spent years directing funds from a credit union into The Church Organisation, rather than to the members who were supposed to get the loans, losing the union hundreds of thousands of pounds. Jones was a director of the Pentecostal Credit Union based in [...]
Walker Crips reaps sell-off November 12, 2012 WALKER Crips boosted pre-tax profits to £7.7m between April and September on the back of the £10m sale of its asset management business earlier this year, it said yesterday. The business, which offers broking and wealth management services, saw revenues fall 17 per cent down to £8.8m for the six months ending 30 September but [...]
Homebuilders welcome rise of green shoots November 12, 2012 HOUSEBUILDERS Taylor Wimpey and Bovis Homes yesterday said they had continued to make steady progress since the first half of the year as their focus on margins paid off. In a third quarter update, Taylor Wimpey said housing market conditions remained stable and while mortgage lending was still constrained, it had seen “incremental improvement” since [...]
Bright signs can also be an indication of danger ahead November 12, 2012 THERE were glimmers of optimism from the housebuilders yesterday. Bovis Homes reported its average selling price up from £180,100 in 2011 to £190,000 and its operating margin expected to be 13 per cent, up from 10 per cent in 2011. Redrow and Taylor Wimpey also both backed the picture of a sector facing tough but [...]
Rebel shareholders fail to oust Redrow non-executive director November 12, 2012 A GROUP of rebel shareholders failed to oust one of Redrow’s senior non-executive directors yesterday over his handling of founder and chairman Steve Morgan’s failed attempt to take the housebuilder private. Alan Jackson saw a 24 per cent vote against his re-election at the firm’s annual meeting in Wales, after investors voiced concerns over his [...]
Surveys reveal housing sector activity boost November 12, 2012 THE UK’S ailing housing sector has begun to show signs of life, according to two widely-regarded reports released yesterday and this morning. Interest in residential properties from potential buyers grew at its fastest rate for nearly three years in October, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed this morning. The number of agreed sales [...]
