Boeing to buy plane plant July 7, 2009 Boeing the world’s second-largest plane maker, said yesterday it will pay $580m (£359m) for a plant that makes part of the fuselage of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, may give Boeing more control over its supply chain.
Four Seasons put on the market July 7, 2009 Lenders to debt-laden Four Seasons Healthcare have rejected the company’s restructuring proposal and the care home operator will now be put up for sale, its bond administrator said yesterday. Four Seasons, which owes a total of £1.4bn put a debt for equity deal to lenders in June, and gave them a 6 July deadline to [...]
CHARTER FOR DIVERSITY TO CHANGE LAW July 7, 2009 STEPHEN WARDTHE LAW SOCIETY TODAY, the Law Society launches its Diversity and Inclusion Charter the legal profession’s flagship diversity initiative. At the official launch event tonight, which is being sponsored by Linklaters and Eversheds, around 40 leading law firms will be announced as founding signatories, but all law firms regardless of their size are encouraged [...]
FAREWELL TO THE KING OF POP July 7, 2009 Michael Jackson’s memorial service in Los Angeles was attended by 17,500 people yesterday. Stevie Wonder and Mariah Carey both played, but former wife Debbie Rowe was not in attendance. Around 1.6m people had applied for 800,000 tickets to watch the service, and international viewing figures were expected to hit 1bn.
Chinese BAIC joins bid for GM Europe July 7, 2009 CHINA’S Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) yesterday offered to invest €660m (£570m) in GM Europe in return for a 51 per cent stake. The state-owned Chinese group’s offer is likely to involve plans to expand operations inside China, the world’s largest car market. The deal would need €2.64bn of state-guaranteed loans. BAIC would also look [...]
Banks to pay for education of consumers July 7, 2009 BANKS will have to fund a drive to improve consumers’ understanding of financial products, under proposals to be revealed today in chancellor Alistair Darling’s white paper on financial regulation. The Treasury believes a lack of sufficient education on finance contributed to the credit crunch and will tell the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to increase dramatically [...]
Clifford Chance loses top spot, but global reach means it will still flourish July 7, 2009 IT WAS never going to be a great result, but even so the news that partner profits at Clifford Chance were down a whopping 37 per cent in the year ending in April compared to the previous one revealed the once globe-conquering law firm to be uniquely exposed in the financial crisis. A reordering of [...]
The hard-core soft-top July 7, 2009 IF this road test ends abruptly, it is because I’ve been skewered by a BAE Hawk T1A aircraft flown by one of the Red Arrows display team, which as I am writing are rehearsing for the first day of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Or the even more earsplitting Eurofighter Typhoon, which is now overhead [...]
CVC’s shock at F1 boss remarks July 7, 2009 CVC, the private equity firm that owns Formula 1, yesterday said it was “shocked” at comments made by motor racing boss Bernie Ecclestone, who praised Hitler’s ability to “get things done”. The remarks are a massive humiliation for CVC, which invests money on behalf of Jewish funds. The 78-year-old racing mogul’s comments caused outrage at [...]
ESPN launching new channel July 7, 2009 ESPN said yesterday that it plans to launch a new channel in August to show its 46 Barclaycard Premier League soccer matches and other international sports programming. The channel, which will be available in standard and high definition, will also carry a range of US sports. Pay-TV firm BSkyB , which owns the rights to [...]