Clegg revives battle on rich with raft of tax plans September 23, 2012 THE TOP 10 per cent of Britons should pay more in tax, the Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday, promising to become more creating in finding new ways to take money from the richest. But finance analysts warned the move could simply drive cash and assets abroad, making the UK and the government worse off, rather [...]
The Liberal Democrats’ attack on middle class will backfire September 23, 2012 It is hard to know what the Liberal Democrats are playing at. Their traditional positioning was centrist, appealing to people who were repelled both by Labour’s statism, high taxes and authoritarianism (as well as its foreign policy) and by the Tories’ low-tax, smaller government, Eurosceptic policies, as well as their traditional social conservatism. The Lib [...]
Taxpayers will spend £1bn on business bank September 23, 2012 VINCE Cable will today announce plans for a new business bank, aimed at pumping government money into small firms cut off from other sources of finance. The business secretary wants to put £1bn of taxpayers’ money into the new institution, which will then borrow up to another £9bn on the capital markets, giving it a [...]
Facebook hires data group to track ad success September 23, 2012 FACEBOOK confirmed yesterday it is working with the US data provider Datalogix to measure how many people who view ads on the social networking site then go on to buy that product in a store. The recently-listed group has been under pressure from Wall Street to show it can profit from its vast wealth of [...]
What the other papers say this morning September 23, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks to shed €20bn property loans Europe’s banks are on track to dispose of €20bn worth of loans backed by offices, shops and hotels this year as lenders across the continent race to reduce exposure to the volatile real estate sector ahead of tough regulatory changes. Banks including Lloyds Banking Group, Santander and [...]
Xstrata close to investor deal for its merger September 23, 2012 XSTRATA hopes to thrash out the final terms of its merger with Glencore this week, using its extension from the Takeover Panel to address concerns from agitated investors. Some shareholders in the mining giant are unhappy with retention packages for directors at the firm, which have already been watered down. BlackRock and Legal & General [...]
Liam Fox in surprise support of tie-up of defence giants September 23, 2012 THE FORMER defence secretary Liam Fox yesterday came out in support of BAE Systems’ merger with EADS, dashing hopes in the right wing of the Conservatives that he would fight against the defence tie-up. Fox said BAE would go into a “slow, managed decline” without a merger that gives it access to new markets. “Falling [...]
Russian bank targets $500m in London float September 23, 2012 ADVISERS to Promsvyazbank, one of Russia’s largest privately owned banks, will today start pre-marketing a planned initial public offering in London aimed at raising up to $500m (£307m), two sources close to the placement said. The bank asked Russia’s local market regulator earlier this month for permission to list its shares on the London Stock [...]
Pension funds face long battle to plug deficits September 23, 2012 FIRMS face a longer struggle to fill the holes in their troubled pension funds, a study from PwC showed today. The average pension scheme will need some 11 years to plug the deficit, PwC predicted, up from the eight years it predicted in 2011. The time firms needed to balance their schemes’ books had shrunk [...]
Outsourcing could save UK £23bn, says CBI September 23, 2012 THE CBI has urged the government to open public services up to competition more quickly, arguing it could save the taxpayer nearly £23bn a year. Despite the row over G4S’s performance at the Olympics, the UK’s largest business group said opening up service contracts to private businesses, mutuals, charities and social enterprises would make huge [...]
