Portugal ventures back into bonds as unveils fresh austerity measures October 3, 2012 PORTUGAL yesterday announced sweeping tax rises to meet the budget goals imposed as part of its €78bn (£62.6bn) bailout. Three income tax bands will be scrapped, finance minister Vitor Gaspar said, bringing the number from eight to five, and raising the average income tax rate from 9.8 per cent to 11.8 per cent. Earners will [...]
Retailing flat in Eurozone October 3, 2012 AUGUST saw only a very slight increase in retail sales in the Eurozone, data from Eurostat revealed yesterday. Retail sales volumes edged up 0.1 per cent between July and August, the data showed, after an equal increase between June and July. Volumes in austere Portugal grew 2.8 per cent, while troubled Spain saw 2.1 per [...]
Nuclear blow as Areva fails to bid for site October 3, 2012 BRITISH nuclear power project Horizon has attracted just two bidders, after Areva and China Guangdong Nuclear Power (CGNP) dropped their joint approach, a source said yesterday. Offers rolled in on Friday for Horizon, which was put up for sale by RWE and E.ON in March. But Areva confirmed yesterday that it and CGNP did not [...]
EU sets deadline on Glenstrata deal as UBS backs mega tie-up October 3, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Commission has set a deadline of 8 November to decide on the £56bn mega-merger of Glencore and Xstrata, it said on its website yesterday. Glencore, which filed the notification on Tuesday, is edging closer to a merger with Xstrata. Earlier this week Xstrata directors recommended the tie-up to shareholders, who are set to [...]
Third largest bank from Russia prices stock for London listing October 3, 2012 PROMSVYAZBANK took another big step towards listing shares in London yesterday, setting the price range for its initial public offering. Russia’s third largest bank is joining the flood of firms from the country rushing to the UK, following larger compatriot Sberbank which listed in London last month, and coming ahead of VTB, another bank looking [...]
Timeweave tells shareholders to accept £50m Joe Lewis offer October 3, 2012 TIMEWEAVE, the company that part owns betting shop horse racing channel TurfTV, yesterday recommended shareholders accept a buy-out offer from billionaire Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis. Aim-listed Timeweave received the 22p per share offer from Lewis’s fund management business Mayfair Capital Investments in September, valuing Timeweave at just under £50m. The offer had initially been [...]
Salford-based Luxfer lists its shares in NY October 3, 2012 LUXFER Holdings, a speciality materials group, saw its shares rise on their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, reaching 17 per cent above the offer price by mid-afternoon. The group is being brought to the US market by Jefferies, which recently led the successful flotation of Manchester United in the [...]
Lamprell issues fourth warning October 3, 2012 ENGINEERING firm Lamprell yesterday issued its fourth profit warning since the spring, sending shares on a downward spiral yesterday. In July, the Middle Eastern-based rig maker warned that delivery of two windfarm vessels had been delayed, which incurred additional costs. A separate construction project has now pushed revenue and profit from this year into next, [...]
Premier splits bread into a separate unit October 3, 2012 PREMIER FOODS said yesterday it had hired Geoff Eaton, the former boss of puddings manufacturer Uniq, as its new chief operating officer while also announcing a further shake-up of its business. Eaton, who left Uniq after it was taken over by Greencore, will replace Tim Kelly, who left the company following a management reshuffle last [...]
Olisa non-exec at Outsourcery October 3, 2012 THE HEAD of boutique technology merchant bank Restoration Partners has been appointed as non-executive chair of cloud-based IT services firm Outsourcery. Ken Olisa, whose technology career spans over 30 years, founded technology merchant bank Interregnum in 1992, leading its listing on AIM in 2000. Olisa is also director of Thomson Reuters, where he is a [...]
