Bad weather hits Travis Perkins sales October 12, 2012 Building materials supplier Travis Perkins this morning posted a 3.5 per cent decline in like for like sales over the three months to September, blaming poor weather and tough competition. The firm, whose brands include City Plumbing, Keyline, Tile Giant, BSS and Wickes, said that sales were down in all but one of its divisions, [...]
Chemring grants Carlyle Group extension for bid talks October 12, 2012 Chemring has granted private equity company Carlyle Group an extension to make a firm offer for the defence equipment maker. Carlyle now has until 5pm on 9 November to table a bid for Chemring. The deadline was originally 5pm this afternoon. Chemring, which makes flares, equipment to detect improvised explosive devices and mechanisms used in [...]
Rothschild told to give up £40m October 11, 2012 INFLUENTIAL Indonesian family the Bakries yesterday called on financier Nat Rothschild to give up his 12 per cent shareholding in miner Bumi, worth more than £41m. The Bakrie brothers, who own 23.8 per cent of London-listed Bumi, want Rothschild to give up his 16m bonus shares in Bumi, which he was awarded when his acquisition [...]
London back on top as best financial city October 11, 2012 LONDON has won back its crown as the best financial city on earth after climbing to the peak of a global ranking of the best places to do business, a heavyweight study showed yesterday. The capital climbed four spots from last year to claim joint first position with New York in a ranking of 27 [...]
FSA boss lines up for top Threadneedle Street job October 11, 2012 CITY watchdog chief Adair Turner last night presented his plan for a safe and prosperous financial sector, in a speech that appeared to set out his stall to take over as the new head of the Bank of England. With Sir Mervyn King stepping down as governor of the Bank next year, Turner is a [...]
Adair Turner’s analysis of the crisis is worryingly incomplete October 11, 2012 IF, like me, you believe that the bubble that blew up the global economy in 2007-08 was caused primarily by years of excessively loose monetary policy which pumped too much liquidity into the system, global imbalances that pushed down long-term interest rates, the promotion of sub-prime lending by the US authorities and massive moral hazard [...]
British Gas to hit customers with price hike October 11, 2012 BRITISH Gas is preparing to hike its gas and electricity prices by around eight per cent as early as today, leaving its variable tariff customers with an average of £100 extra on their bills. The group, which has around 12m residential customers in the UK, last increased its bills in August 2011, blaming rising costs. [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 11, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Geithner phone friend at BlackRock When Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, wants a first-hand account of how financial markets are interpreting government policies or reacting to the latest crisis, the man he turns to most often is Larry Fink of BlackRock. Mr Fink, the group’s chief executive, featured more frequently in Mr Geithner’s [...]
Man falls to death at 1 Poultry October 11, 2012 A man fell to his death from an upper walkway inside No. 1 Poultry in the City yesterday in a suspected suicide. Police were called at 12.41pm after reports of a man falling from a walkway just yards from Coq d’Argent restaurant. The police are not treating the death as suspicious. The death is the [...]
DECC denies policy change October 11, 2012 The Department for Energy and Climate Change last night insisted it was still committed to meeting climate change targets despite reports the government was plotting to build new gas stations. The Times said this morning that the government would introduce a legal loophole to allow new fossil fuel plants to be built. Last night DECC [...]
