BA asks staff to retrain as cabin crew January 18, 2010 BRITISH Airways (BA) has vowed to train thousands of baggage handlers and call centre workers as flight stewards in a bid to break a March strike. Chief executive Willie Walsh last night squared up to Unite, the cabin crew union, by sending a letter to 38,000 BA employees asking them to volunteer and cross picket [...]
International Power’s merger talks with GDF run out of gas January 18, 2010 A MERGER between UK energy firm International Power and France’s state-controlled power giant GDF Suez collapsed last night after the two failed to strike a deal. International Power saw an early surge in share price – up eight per cent yesterday morning – reversed as it ended the day as the FTSE 100’s biggest faller, [...]
APPLE PLANS E-BOOK VENTURE January 18, 2010 PUBLISHER HarperCollins is said to be in talks with Apple over making electronic books available on its new tablet device – dubbed the iSlate – which is set to be launched by Steve Jobs on 27 January. News Corp’s HarperCollins is expected to set the price of the e-books, with Apple taking a percentage of [...]
PM is warned on UK rating January 18, 2010 PRIME Minister Gordon Brown suffered a fresh blow yesterday as one of the country’s largest investors warned the UK’s triple-A credit rating was “extremely vulnerable”. Standard Life said Britain’s ballooning budget deficit and the government’s unwillingness to take tough spending decisions created a “highly toxic” mix that could lead to its sovereign debt rating being [...]
Tullow set to get government approval on Ugandan oil deal January 18, 2010 SHARES in FTSE 100 oil explorer Tullow Oil jumped yesterday after analysts predicted the company would have little trouble persuading the Ugandan government to accept its offer to buy $1.35bn (£827m) worth of oil fields in the country from its partner Heritage Oil. The stock closed up 2.24 per cent at 1,369p on the London [...]
Gala Coral and creditors close to hammering out deal to ease debt January 18, 2010 GAMBLING group Gala Coral is understood to be days away from a deal to ease its £2.5bn of debts. Gala’s senior lenders — led by Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and investment group Alcentra — are in advanced talks with the holders of its £540m mezzanine debt about a debt-for-equity swap. The mezzanine [...]
Wimpey sees orders jump January 18, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey said yesterday it entered the new year with a 28 per cent rise in orders for new homes and that it had seen a boost in prices. But the trading update on performance in the 12 months to 31 December saw a drop in the number of homes completed in 2009 compared [...]
Osborne set to meet bankers January 18, 2010 BANKING bosses will meet with George Osborne and Boris Johnson this morning to discuss the Tories’ plans for their industry, City A.M. has learnt. City A.M. understands that those in attendance will include Barclays chairman Marcus Agius, president of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Europe Jonathan Moulds, and vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs Michael Sherwood. Executives from [...]
Insolvencies to peak in 2010 as state props are withdrawn January 18, 2010 THE rate of corporate failures will accelerate in the second half of 2010 as government stimulus measures are unwound, insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor warned yesterday. The firm said 140,000 British companies suffered significant financial problems in the fourth quarter despite measures such as quantitative easing and the 2.5 per cent VAT cut. Begbies Traynor executive [...]
LSE names new director to head post-trade services and cut costs January 18, 2010 THE London Stock Exchange (LSE) yesterday said Kevin Milne has begun work in a newly created job as director of post-trade services, with a brief to bring down clearing and settlement costs as a priority. “While the costs of trading and execution have fallen away quite sharply, the costs of clearing and settlement have not,” [...]
