Sales recovery provides relief for Burberry October 11, 2012 SHARES in Burberry surged yesterday as the luxury fashion house reported it had seen sales recover in recent weeks, while it blamed a slowdown in UK and China sales on the continued squeeze on middle class shoppers. Burberry finance chief Stacey Cartwright said while wealthy shoppers continued to spend, the “aspirational luxury consumer” – or [...]
Japan’s mobile giant Softbank mulls £7.9bn Sprint Nextel deal October 11, 2012 US MOBILE operator Sprint Nextel said yesterday it was in talks with Softbank, the Japanese telecoms giant, over selling a majority stake to the firm in what would be the biggest ever US investment from a Japanese firm. Sprint, the US’s third-most popular operator with around 56m subscribers, said it was negotiating with Softbank on [...]
Banks at threat of being cut as companies tap investors direct October 11, 2012 BANKS are at threat of being isolated from the financial system, as companies increasingly turn to the bond markets to borrow money, Ernst & Young has warned. The professional services firm said the banking system is being “disintermediated” from the financial system after the growth of the corporate bond market to finance firms over the [...]
Basel plans new capital rules for national banks October 11, 2012 BANKS considered nationally important will have to hold more capital than their smaller counterparts from 2016 onwards, the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision said yesterday. But the global watchdog said it would leave the question of how much more the domestic systemically-important banks should hold up to individual national regulators. The new rules are designed [...]
Lagarde urges Europe to put a brake on deep budget cuts October 11, 2012 THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has backed giving debt-burdened Greece and Spain more time to reduce their budget deficits, cautioning that cutting too far, too fast would do more harm than good. But Germany pushed back and said back-tracking on debt-reduction goals would only hurt confidence, a stance that suggested some disagreement between the IMF [...]
European Central Bank concern over distortion in bond markets October 11, 2012 THERE are severe distortions in Eurozone sovereign bond markets stemming from unfounded investor fears about a potential break-up of the single currency, the European Central Bank said in its monthly bulletin yesterday. The ECB said its new bond-purchase plan – dubbed Outright Monetary Transactions, or OMT – was a “necessary, proportional and effective” instrument to [...]
French prices slip as German prices are flat October 11, 2012 FRANCE experienced mild deflation in September, according to data out yesterday, while prices were completely flat in Germany, and edged up in Spain. Consumer prices sagged 0.3 per cent in France last month, data from official statistics body INSEE revealed, but even after this fall they were 1.9 per cent higher than September last year. This fall [...]
German think tanks dampen the country’s growth outlook October 11, 2012 GERMANY’S leading economic institutes have cut their growth forecasts for Europe’s largest economy to 0.8 per cent this year and to one per cent in 2013, the business daily Handelsblatt said yesterday. These figures compare with the institutes’ previous spring forecasts of 0.9 per cent growth for 2012 and two per cent for 2013. The [...]
BBA’s Browne set to face MPs October 11, 2012 THE NEW head of the British Bankers’ Association will tell MPs next week what the industry body thinks of new powers set to be handed to the Bank of England. A new committee within the Bank could soon be able to impose capital rules for lenders and set charges to dampen lending in overheated parts [...]
WH Smith boss Kate Swann to leave retailer October 11, 2012 WH Smith yesterday announced Kate Swann is to step down as chief executive next year after heading the retailer for almost a decade. Swann will hand over the reins to Steve Clarke, managing director of the group’s high street division, next July after overseeing its crucial Christmas period and ensuring “a smooth transition” of the [...]
