Grainger: Property sector is over the worst of the slump August 12, 2009 GRAINGER, the residential property developer, yesterday added its voice to the growing number of firms who think the worst of the slump could be over, after it reported a rise in house sales turnover. Grainger, which has around £3bn of assets under management, said tough trading conditions in the residential sales market had eased in [...]
Balfour books rising profits despite slump August 12, 2009 SHARES in construction firm Balfour Beatty jumped yesterday after it reported a 14 per cent rise in first-half pre-tax profits. The group reported pre-tax profits of £108m for the six months to 27 June, up from £95m in the same period last year, and raised its dividend by eight per cent to 5.5p. Chief executive [...]
City hit by more strikes August 12, 2009 THOUSANDS of City commuters will face further misery today and tomorrow, as a third 48-hour strike begins on National Express’ East Anglia line. The situation is set to escalate, as union bosses announced that a full week of strikes – planned for next month – will follow the four planned walk-outs that have disrupted journeys [...]
E.ON UPS FORECAST August 12, 2009 E.ON, the German power giant, said yesterday it was seeing signs that demand for energy was stabilising after a prolonged slump, and upped its 2009 outlook after first-half profits beat forecasts. The recession has cut power consumption rates, notably among industrial users, and many utilities have said they expect the downturn to continue. But E.on [...]
Don’t worry: it’s worse than you think August 12, 2009 MERVYN King had just two words to say to those teenage scribblers in the City who have been getting carried away about the prospect of interest rates being raised soon: calm down. The Bank of England governor, introducing the much anticipated Inflation Report, argued that although an imminent VAT rise and the recent depreciation of [...]
Lok’n Store chief executive calls storage recession proof August 12, 2009 SELF-storage firm Lok’n Store is defying the gloom and will continue its winning streak, chief executive Andrew Jacobs said yesterday. Despite fears that the storage sector would suffer from the property slump, Jacobs revealed the group’s rate of storage occupancy was now up 10 per cent from the beginning of 2009, and was now achieving [...]
Insight sold to BNY Mellon August 12, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group has confirmed that it is to sell its Insight Investment unit to Bank of New York Mellon in a £235m cash-plus-shares deal. The bank, which has been conducting a review of its asset management businesses with an eye to disposals, said it had reached an agreement in principle with BNY Mellon, ending [...]
Fed sounds an upbeat note August 12, 2009 THE US Federal Reserve yesterday sounded a cautiously optimistic note about the US economy as it said it would keep its key interest rate unchanged at between 0 and 0.25 per cent. It also announced it would extend the government’s $300bn (£182bn) programme to buy Treasury bonds until October. The bond purchase, part of the [...]
City up in arms over academics’ calls for a windfall tax on banking bonuses August 12, 2009 LEADING City figures yesterday slammed the idea of a windfall tax on bonuses floated by a group of university professors, labelling it “gratuitous”, “impossible” and “absurd”. The 14 business school academics, writing in a letter to The Guardian newspaper, said money raised should be injected into public services, to reimburse taxpayers for the billions used [...]
Regulator adopts a measured Code for bonuses August 12, 2009 NEWS that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) wants to influence but not emasculate the bank bonus culture is welcome, but was the only sensible option. The City watchdog has clearly listened to industry concerns, particularly the worry that an excessive clampdown on remuneration would spark an exodus of workers overseas. Jocelyn Mitchell, employment partner at [...]
