Telefonica and Unicom connect September 7, 2009 Spain’s Telefonica has reached a deal with China Unicom that will see the firms buy $1bn worth of each other’s shares as part of a strategic alliance. Telefonica said that its stake in Unicom would rise to about 8.06 per cent, while Unicom would hold between 0.885 and 0.892 per cent of Telefonica. The new [...]
REI boosted by property recovery September 7, 2009 Property group Real Estate Investors saw its profits spike over the first half of the year as property markets began to emerge from the doldrums. The firm said its rental income was up by 55 per cent to £1.7m over the six months to end of June, while pre-tax profit grew to £1.3m, from £0.7m [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 7, 2009 C&C GROUPCitigroup upgraded Magners owner C&C Group from a “hold” to a “buy” with a €2.95 target price. It said that underlying trading is challenging, but that management has made significant progress to improve the cost structure of the group. As a consequence, the broker believes top-line growth will be a key driver for the [...]
Murdoch plans internal wire service to increase NewsCorp’s content sharing September 7, 2009 RUPERT Murdoch’s News Corporation is planning to launch a newswire service that will give all parts of its global network immediate access to all its stories and videos. The new service will be called NewsCore and will collate all of the media giant’s news stories, satellite feeds and web content for instant access by News [...]
Spotify goes mobile with new iPhone agreement September 7, 2009 SPOTIFY, the digital music firm, has secured a deal to launch a mobile offering on Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and phones using the Android platform. The Swedish firm said yesterday that a mobile application is now available for its premium subscribers in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France and Norway on the three devices, and in [...]
TD Waterhouse heads to Eire September 7, 2009 EXECUTION-only stockbroker TD Waterhouse will on Saturday launch an online equity trading service in Ireland in the latest step of its European expansion strategy. The broker plans to provide Irish investors with online trading services on both local and international equity markets, as well as delivery direct access to a number of international trading exchanges. [...]
London sees record rise in business confidence but lags rest of the UK September 7, 2009 CONFIDENCE among business professionals in London has risen by a record 35 points since last quarter – though the capital remains the least confident in the region, according to a new survey. The latest research from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) showed that confidence rose from -36.2 to -1.1, the [...]
Swiss Re says reinsurance prices rising September 7, 2009 SWISS Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, yesterday said reinsurance prices were rising overall despite difficult times in the insurance market.The reinsurer also said it was well positioned for the January 2010 renewals season. “We are observing a broad upward trend in overall reinsurance pricing, although this varies significantly between different lines of business,” said Michel [...]
EXPECT MORE RISES IN THE GOLD PRICE September 7, 2009 MARTIN SLANEYHEAD OF DERIVATIVES, GFT DESPITE stock markets being jittery after a surging summer, investors and speculators didn’t have far to look before finding an alternative home for their trading buck. Gold is glittering once more, coming close to the $1,000 per ounce price tag, and trading levels on the spot gold CFD are soaring [...]
Take a view on future interest rate rises with short sterling contracts September 7, 2009 WHILE THE Bank of England’s monetary policy decision on Thursday is almost certainly a done deal – everybody expects a hold – and is not expected to shock the market, there is no doubt that everybody in the City will be watching the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) accompanying statement for indications of a more upbeat [...]
