ATM Christmas is on the cards December 21, 2009 Wednesday 23 December will be the busiest day on record for cash purchases, according to research, suggesting consumers are shunning credit cards for banknotes. Figures compiled by Tesco Bank indicate cash machine withdrawals so far in December have outstripped 2008’s numbers. The trend is expected to peak on Wednesday, when ATMs are predicted to handle [...]
LSE seals deal to buy stake in Turquoise December 21, 2009 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has finally struck a deal to acquire Turquoise, a rival share trading platform that was launched just over a year ago to take on the LSE. The London bourse will announce at 7am that it is taking a 60 per cent stake in the lossmaking platform and investing some £20m [...]
Spyker Cars tables renewed offer for GM’s Saab marque December 21, 2009 Dutch luxury carmaker Spyker Cars yesterday submitted a new offer to fast-track a buyout of Saab from General Motors, two days after last-ditch talks to rescue the Swedish manufacturer collapsed. GM said on Friday it would start shutting down the loss-making firm after talks with Spyker ended. The move to abandon the 60-year-old Swedish auto [...]
Christmas party spending cut as companies play Scrooge December 21, 2009 Businesses are spending nearly a third less on Christmas parties this year than they did in 2008, according to research due to be published today. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) estimates that employers will spend about £600m on Christmas parties for their staff this year, down from close to £1bn in 2007 [...]
CHUNNEL CRIPPLED BY COLD December 20, 2009 EUROSTAR services are today suspended again after this weekend’s travel chaos on the cross-channel route. Winter weather wreaked havoc on the line on Saturday, with condensation blamed for electrical faults. Chief executive Richard Brown, facing calls to resign, said the company had not been adequately prepared for such cold weather.
Irish banks close to freedom December 20, 2009 Irish banks that receive state capital will be strong enough to sell their possible majority government stakes to foreign investors in a year or two, the governor of the central bank said yesterday. Dublin – which already has indirect 25 per cent stakes in each of the top two lenders Allied Irish Banks and Bank [...]
Maaden and Alcoa in $10.8bn JV December 20, 2009 State-run Saudi Arabian Mining Company and US aluminium giant Alcoa agreed yesterday to build a $10.8bn (£6.7bn) aluminium complex in the world’s top oil exporter, targeting the Middle East from 2013. Under the deal, the companies form a joint venture to set up a 1.8m tonne-per-year refinery and a bauxite mine with an annual capacity [...]
Avatar rakes in $73m in the US December 20, 2009 Titanic director James Cameron’s Avatar, the 3D film hyped as a giant leap in cinematic prowess, earned an estimated $73m (£45m) during its first weekend at the North American box office, distributor 20th Century Fox said yesterday. The opening for the costly sci-fi film fell short of industry forecasts in the $85m range. But News [...]
Copenhagen meeting ends on flat note December 20, 2009 British businesses have slammed the Copenhagen climate summit as a “missed opportunity” as fears grow that London’s leading position in the carbon trading market is under threat. CBI director-general Richard Lambert said the climate-change meeting was “a disappointing conclusion” to two years of negotiations. “Business needs a clearer sense of direction if it is to [...]
Apollo enters the running for Gala Coral with £250m offer December 20, 2009 A LAST-MINUTE attempt by US private equity firm Apollo to muscle into the rescue of ailing bookmaker and bingo group Gala Coral is likely to be rebuffed, sources said yesterday. Apollo has submitted a proposal to the board which would see it pump in £250m in exchange for 50 per cent of the company’s equity. [...]
