FirstEnergy plans to merge with Allegheny in £3bn deal February 11, 2010 OHIO-BASED power company FirstEnergy plans to buy Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Energy in an all share deal worth $4.7bn (£3.01bn) that would create one of the largest utility groups in the US. The combined business would have a generation capacity of 24,000 megawatts and serve more than 6.1m customers, the companies said yesterday. Shares in Allegheny rose [...]
Business pitches in 140 letters February 11, 2010 EVERY budding entrepreneur dreams of meeting a Richard Branson or Alan Sugar, but for most people it never moves beyond the realm of fantasy. Not any more. Simon Dolan, an entrepreneur who made his fortune establishing accountancy firms including SJD Accounting, is investing £5m of his own money in entrepreneurs. But, Dolan’s investing style has [...]
Construction projects stalled February 11, 2010 NEW construction orders were flat in the final three months of 2009 on the previous quarter while a survey showed that new projects are under threat in the run-up to the election. Data revealed that while new orders jumped 20.8 per cent in December on the previous month, on a quarterly basis orders showed no [...]
Galliford secures new properties February 11, 2010 HOUSEBUILDING and construction group Galliford Try yesterday acquired the 50 per cent share held by Bank of Scotland in four residential development joint ventures in and around London. The property group handed over a nominal £1 for each of the sites and paid off the £42.5m debt held by the Bank of Scotland. Galliford Try [...]
Q&A SHARE PLANS February 11, 2010 Q. I am an entrepreneur and I am thinking about a share scheme for my employees. What are the benefits for the employer and employee? A.Typically, employee share ownership schemes, or share option schemes, are used by small businesses for the same reasons that they are used by large multi-national corporations: to incentivise, reward and [...]
Repossessions fall as rates kept low February 11, 2010 THE number of homes repossessed in 2009 reached its highest level since 1996 but an unexpected decline in repossessions in the fourth quarter saw the annual figure beat forecasts, the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML) said yesterday. A 13 per cent fall in the number of repossessions in the fourth quarter meant that only 46,000 [...]
Sports Direct celebrates a double victory February 11, 2010 SPORTS Direct has seen a surge in sales and been cleared by a competition commission investigation. Britain’s largest sports retailer raised its full-year profit guidance yesterday after the sales jump for the 13 weeks to 24 January. Retail sales rose 9.4 per cent to £326m – lifting gross profit to £136m. Sports Direct – which [...]
Get into the foreign property game at a fraction of the cost February 11, 2010 FOR many people, owning a foreign property would be the ultimate luxury. However, dealing with local authorities, maintaining the place, or renting it out can turn a luxury into a time-consuming, costly hassle. And that assumes you can really afford the place of your dreams, rather than a flat in a high-rise overlooking a crowded [...]
BANK OF IRELAND’S DEBT EXCHANGE February 11, 2010 BANK of Ireland (BoI) expects to raise around €405m (£353.1m) after completing a debt exchange yesterday. BoI, led by chief executive Richie Boucher, which last year received €3.5bn from the government in return for preference shares, said it had successfully swapped debt with a nominal value of €2.9bn for fresh 10-year paper.
S&N’s strong profits beat expectations February 11, 2010 Smith & Nephew (S&N), the hips-and-knees maker, posted higher profits in the final quarter of last year after the replacement joints market stabilised. The market suffered during the recession, but started to recover in the second half. Traditional hip and knee ranges, like its Legion knee, did well, particularly in the US, while products designed [...]
