City firms struggle to pick the best as A-Level results rise August 20, 2009 CITY firms face increasing difficulties selecting the most promising students to enter their graduate programmes, as more A-level students landed ‘A’ grades yesterday than ever before. Over one in four exam entries were rewarded with the top grade, ahead of plans by education authorities to introduce a new A* grade next year to mark out [...]
Cineworld profits soar on blockbusters August 20, 2009 BLOCKBUSTER hits like Slumdog Millionaire helped to lift Cineworld ‘s half-year profits by 33 per cent, the group said yesterday. Cineworld said its pre-tax profits were £11.6m for the 27 week period ending 2 July 2009 compared to £8.7m for the same period the year before. The group said box office receipts were up 24.3 [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 20, 2009 Aviva InvestorsThe investment group has appointed John Wood as a UK equities fund manager. Wood will be responsible for running the Aviva Investors UK Growth Fund and will join in October from Artemis Asset Management, where he was a senior fund manager for the UK and Europe. Prior to that, he was head of UK [...]
Carillion gets an Openreach deal August 20, 2009 Building and outsourcing group Carillion said a joint venture it is leading has signed a letter of intent with BT Openreach for a £1bn support services contract. The firm said yesterday it expected to agree and sign the contract within the next two months. Openreach is BT’s local access network business. The contract will see [...]
UBC buys Radio Lynx for 2.4m August 20, 2009 UBC Media, the radio-content company, has bought marketing group Radio Lynx for a total of £2.4m, it said yesterday. Radio Lynx provides advertisers with marketing campaigns to put out on radio stations and websites. Clients include P&O Ferries, Coca-Cola, Lloyds Bank and Sainsbury’s. The deal allows UBC to extend its share of the marketing services [...]
Bolt seals sprint double and another new record August 20, 2009 JAMAICAN sprint sensation Usain Bolt smashed another world record to claim 200m gold at the World Championships – and then claimed he hadn’t run a good race. Bolt, who earlier this week in Berlin obliterated his own best time to set a new benchmark in the 100m, again left the field trailing in his wake [...]
Champion Murray and Federer into Masters last eight August 20, 2009 BRITAIN’S Andy Murray made smooth progress into the last eight of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Radek Stepanek. The new world No2 let an early lead slip before taking the opening set, and then went on to cruise through the second against the 16th-seeded Czech.Defending champion Murray will face unseeded Frenchman [...]
SPORT IN BRIEF August 20, 2009 Dar Re Mi stuns Sariska at YorkRACING: Jimmy Fortune led 11-2 shot Dar Re Mi to a huge shock in the Yorkshire Oaks, beating red-hot favourite Sariska. Victories in the Epsom Oaks and Irish equivalent helped send off Sariska as 4-11 favourite at York, but Michael Bell’s filly, ridden by Jamie Spencer, had no answer [...]
The king of the home delivered pizza says timing is everything August 20, 2009 YOU can tell when a business is doing well, when despite the recession, its plans to open a new headquarters five times the size of its existing base are still on track. That is the happy position Chris Moore, the chief executive of delivery chain Domino’s Pizza, finds himself in. His new 100,000 sq ft [...]
Regulators raid the offices of Porsche August 20, 2009 THE OFFICES of German luxury carmaker Porsche were raided by federal prosecutors yesterday, as part of a probe into suspected market manipulation of Volkswagen shares. The investigation centres on Porsche’s former chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and its ex-finance chief Holger Haerter, both of whom resigned last month. Porsche said: “On Thursday morning, officers from Stuttgart [...]
