Mitie buys home care provider October 9, 2012 Bristol-based outsourcing company Mitie yesterday announced it had acquired the UK’s fourth largest home care service provider Enara from August Equity and Enara’s senior management for £110m. The deal was funded by bridge loans from existing investors and though costs of around £5m are expected to be incurred in the next 12 months to integrate [...]
Paralympic win for Sainsbury’s as its sales rise October 9, 2012 J SAINSBURY’S sponsorship of the Paralympic Games and Brand Match campaign has helped the British supermarket steal market share from its three biggest rivals. New figures from industry experts Kantar Worldpanel showed that Sainsbury’s sales rose 5.6 per cent in the 12 weeks to 30 September, boosting its share of the UK grocery market to [...]
Justin King hits out at Osborne October 9, 2012 SAINSBURY’S chief executive Justin King has criticised chancellor George Osborne’s plan to allow employees to swap workplace rights for shares in their firms. The supermarket boss told a retail conference that the plan is “not what we should be doing”, adding that such a scheme would destroy trust between the public and some of Britain’s [...]
McLoughlin is upbeat on HS2 October 9, 2012 TRANSPORT secretary Patrick McLoughlin insisted yesterday that the failure of the West Coast franchise competition will not scupper the chances of the High Speed 2 route linking London to the north. He told an event at the Conservative conference that he would not review the case for HS2 in light of the franchise fiasco. McLoughlin [...]
Karen Millen opens first store in China October 9, 2012 KAREN MILLEN opened its first store in China today as part of its ambitious plans to roll-out 60 stores across the country over the next five years. The fashion chain, which has 350 stores and concessions worldwide, also revealed plans to launch a local language website in spring next year along with a second store, [...]
Ryanair bows out of Stansted Airport auction October 9, 2012 RYANAIR yesterday dropped its efforts to buy a stake in Stansted, blaming the airport’s owner Ferrovial for refusing to engage. The budget carrier has written to all of its potential bidding partners to withdraw from the process, citing “Ferrovial’s decision to exclude Ryanair from the Stansted sale”. Ryanair had been looking to take a 25 [...]
West Coast train disaster highlights Virgin’s appeal October 9, 2012 LAST Wednesday the government scrapped the award of the West Coast Mainline franchise to First Group. Although the public will take a dim view of the technical flaws in the bidding process (by 51 per cent to 18 per cent in a YouGov/Sunday Times poll they thought former transport secretary Justine Greening should resign) there [...]
News Corp shareholders told to throw out Murdoch as chairman October 9, 2012 INFLUENTIAL shareholder advice group Pirc has told investors to overthrow Rupert Murdoch as News Corp chairman at next week’s annual meeting, calling for independence at the head of the company. Murdoch, who holds both the chief executive and chairman positions at News Corp, cannot provide “independent oversight” and “lines of accountability” while serving in both [...]
Property firm PointPark eyes a London float October 9, 2012 EUROPEAN warehouse operator PointPark Properties yesterday announced plans to raise £250m in a float on the London Stock Exchange, marking the first IPO in the real estate sector for two years. The property group said it plans to use the proceeds to buy a €760m (£612m) portfolio of properties that it currently manages on behalf [...]
Fraud squad plans tougher reporting rules October 9, 2012 FIRMS that admit internal bribery failings to the UK’s anti-fraud regulator are now more likely to face criminal prosecutions, under tough new rules issued by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) yesterday. In an update to its guidance on last year’s Bribery Act, the SFO said: “The revised policies make it clear that there will be [...]
