…as it sells a £185m stake in Esure to Peter Wood February 11, 2010 Lloyds Banking Group is selling off its majority stake in online insurer Esure as part of its plans to scale back its non-core operations. New company Esure Group Holdings, run by veteran insurance entrepreneur Peter Wood, is paying £185m for the 70 per cent stake – “slightly more” than its book value. The management buyout [...]
CITY EYE February 11, 2010 CITY workers toast their fundraising efforts for the SOS Children’s Haiti Appeal yesterday evening at Leadenhall Market, after donning antiquated headgear for the second annual Bowler Hat Day. The event saw a number of Square Mile grandees taking part, including Cardew Group chairman Anthony Cardew and Strand Hanson chairman and chief executive Robert Hanson and [...]
Diageo warns it could leave UK over tax February 11, 2010 THE head of Diageo yesterday threatened to take his company abroad because of UK tax laws. Chief executive Paul Walsh said that it was “very difficult” to locate staff in the UK where they could be hit by a 50 per cent tax rate. He also called for corporation tax to be cut and the [...]
Consumers suffering from hangover February 11, 2010 DURING the great depression, the US government continued prohibition. Too many Americans were drowning their sorrows in booze. If consumers are drinking their way through this recession, they aren’t swigging the premium brands that Diageo makes. On a constant currency basis, first half net sales fell by two per cent, as did volumes. Operating profit [...]
Banks suffer as concerns over their Greek exposure weigh February 11, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed 0.6 per cent higher on Thursday, as gains in commodities outpaced falls in banks, which remained mired in uncertainty over Eurozone’s plans to deal with Greece’s debt problems. BT Group slumped 8.8 per cent, topping the losers’s list on the FTSE 100 and hitting a more than six-month low after [...]
Britain’s eurozone liabilities revealed February 11, 2010 THE exposure of Britain to the eurozone’s weakest members was laid bare last night as French and German officials scrambled to agree a rescue package for Greece. Based on Bank for International Settlement numbers, in total the UK’s financial sector has just under £250bn in exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (Piigs). The data [...]
Spanish economy continues to suffer as slump drags on February 11, 2010 INDEBTED Spain was lingering in recession in the fourth quarter, preliminary data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) showed yesterday. The INE figures showed that the Spanish economy contracted 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with -0.3 per cent in the previous three months. This indicates that output contracted [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK THE UK SHOULD ASSIST IN BAILING OUT GREECE? February 11, 2010 ANGUS ROSE | ALEXANDER DAVID “We stayed out of the euro for that very reason. We saw that a few of the weaker members could get us into problems. If we were part of a team it could be worth it. But if it’s just the rich countries, it’s a bit of an imposition.” SIMON [...]
Caterpillar’s profits give Dow a boost February 11, 2010 US stocks rose on Thursday after a pledge by European leaders to support debt-laden Greece eased fears of a broader Eurozone crisis and upbeat data from China spurred mining and material stocks. Data pointing to stabilisation in the US labor market gave the market a further boost, along with a broker upgrade of bellwether 3M, [...]
Rio Tinto sees profits slump February 11, 2010 Dividends are back on the menu for mining giant Rio Tinto after it posted better than expected full year profits. The FTSE 100 group, and the world’s third largest miner, said it would reinstated dividends yesterday after a year-long break – a move it hailed as a reflection of its “positive outlook”. The news came [...]
