Bumi plummets on probe into financial irregularity claims September 24, 2012 Shares in miner Bumi plunged by more than 35 per cent this morning, as it announced it would investigate alleged financial irregularities at its Indonesian operations. The company, co-founded by financier Nat Rothschild, said this morning that allegations related to PT Bumi Resources, in which Bumi owns a 29 per cent stake. An independent investigation [...]
Promsvyazbank unveils plans for London-Moscow listing September 24, 2012 Russian lender Promsvyazbank said this morning it is proceeding with a dual London-Moscow initial public offering, becoming the latest Russian company to tap the London markets for funding. It is understood the IPO is hoping to raise up to $500m (£308m). The IPO follows news that Russia’s top lender Sberbank raised just over $5bn by [...]
QinetiQ enjoys strong first half September 24, 2012 Defence technology company QinetiQ this morning reported better-than-expected first-half performance, boosted by its global products and UK services divisions. In the first half, FTSE 250-listed QinetiQ delivered two key orders for the Q-Net vehicle survivability product, which protects vehicles from rocket-propelled grenade attacks, earlier than planned. It reported strong performance in its UK services unit, [...]
Aberdeen sees modest summer outflows September 24, 2012 Fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management reported a net outflow over the summer, while assets under management edged up to £184.3bn at the end of August. Aberdeen, led by chief executive Martin Gilbert, said today that strong fund performance outweighed the outflows. Overall, the group attracted £6.1bn of new business during July and August, while outflows [...]
Top tech boss: London still no Silicon Valley September 23, 2012 LONDON needs to do more to nurture growth in technology firms and become an attractive destination for them to go public, the head of one of the UK’s most successful internet firms said yesterday, warning that the US is a significantly better option for blooming British companies. Michael Acton Smith, chief executive of Mind Candy, [...]
Clegg plan on pensions draws fire September 23, 2012 THE INVESTMENT industry slammed Liberal Democrat plans to allow parents to use a quarter of their pension pots to guarantee their children’s mortgages yesterday, arguing it could undermine pensions and hit retirement incomes. Nick Clegg said the move will help struggling young people get a foot on the housing ladder at a time when large [...]
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 [...]
