Waitrose flexes its muscle in John Lewis online tie-up deal August 2, 2009 WAITROSE, the upmarket grocer, yesterday announced it plans to sell kitchen and homeware products online in a commercial tie-up with John Lewis, in the hope it can pinch market share from rival retailers. Under the deal Waitrose will sell thousands of its own and John Lewis’s products online from 4 August, placing more pressure on [...]
Bankers win bonuses back August 2, 2009 FOUR former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers have won a €12.6m (£10.8m) legal battle against Commerzbank after claiming the German bank reneged on guaranteed bonuses after it bought Dresdner last year. Commerzbank acquired Dresdner Kleinwort in January, but the investment-bank posted a €6.3bn loss for 2008. Commerzbank was then forced to take taxpayers’ money in a state [...]
GM DEAL IN SLOW LANE August 2, 2009 NEGOTIATIONS between General Motors (GM) and the two competing bidders for Opel could take longer than expected, the German government said yesterday. The German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Canadian auto parts maker Magna and RHJ International must improve their bids to win government backing.
Gaucher drug boost for Shire August 2, 2009 PHARMACEUTICALS firm Shire is today expected to announce it has been granted treatment protocol by the Food and Drug Administration for its yet-to-be-approved drug for Gaucher Disease. The treatment protocol will allow Shire to make the product available to patients on a compassionate basis, before gaining commercial approval. The new drug, Velaglucerase, has been pushed [...]
L&G cash call fears mounting August 2, 2009 A SLEW of major insurers are gearing up to issue half-year numbers this week, with fears of a possible rights issue at Legal & General (L&G) continuing to mount. L&G, which has tripled its share price from a 23p March low, is expected to cut its interim dividend amid a continued struggle to boost its [...]
Seymour Pierce on top of Aim advisers August 2, 2009 STOCKBROKER Seymour Pierce continued to dominate the small cap advisory sector over the past three months of the year, the latest Aim adviser rankings from financial data provider Hemscott show today. Seymour Pierce added six new stockbroking clients over the period despite a wave of recent small cap insolvencies and delistings from Aim, taking its [...]
UBS avoids US tax fine, will expose clients August 2, 2009 STRICKEN Swiss bank UBS will walk away from its epic fight with the US tax authorities without paying a fine, in a deal designed to head off a diplomatic crisis between the two nations, it emerged yesterday. But UBS is to hand over details of 5,000 rich American clients who may have evaded taxes to [...]
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE PURCHASING MANAGERS’ INDICES TO SHOW? August 2, 2009 PHILIP SHAW INVESTECRecent trends in the services PMI have been highly encouraging in recent months. The problem is that this revival is still not fully reflected in the official data, which showed the service sector contracting by 0.6 per cent over the second quarter. The MPC is likely to place some weight on the readings [...]
City divided on how to use quantitative easing money August 2, 2009 The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) faces a tough decision this week when it meets to discuss its next steps on quantitative easing (QE). The Bank last week exhausted the £125bn of Treasury money it said it would pump into the banking system, and must now decide at its monthly meeting whether to [...]
Small rise for July surveys August 2, 2009 FURTHER improvements are expected in the forward-looking CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) due out this week, although economists caution that the rises will only be modest at best, indicating a weak recovery for the UK economy in the second half of 2009. The service sector, which accounts for about 60 per cent of UK GDP [...]
