UK services grow slowly but Eurozone contracts October 3, 2012 EUROZONE services continued to collapse in September, contracting even faster than in August, data showed yesterday, while UK service firms just managed to avoid decline. Output and business activity in the Eurozone service sector both slipped to levels indicative of faster decline, according to Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) business survey, prompting analysts to call [...]
Lessons to be learnt from government’s rail franchise fiasco October 3, 2012 THERE are several lessons to be drawn from the government’s West Coast franchising disaster. For a start, it is hard to see why any government would want to take on Sir Richard Branson and his incumbent operator, Virgin – his PR skills are so superior to anything the government can muster that the final outcome [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 3, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES End to Russian petrodollar surplus Russia’s petrodollar surplus is poised to vanish as early as 2015 as import revenues overtake those from oil exports, according to its central bank. The forecast is the first official acknowledgment that the economic model which has characterised Vladimir Putin’s leadership – a country buttressed by oil money [...]
Direct Line set for float with full order book October 3, 2012 DIRECT Line Group’s IPO is set to go ahead next week after investors agreed to buy all the shares that are being offered for sale, a source close to the deal said yesterday. Covering the entire order book just three days into an investor roadshow is considered a major success and increases the likelihood that [...]
Halfords hires Pets at Home boss October 3, 2012 Halfords Group last night announced former Pets at Home boss Matt Davies as its new chief executive as the car parts and cycles retailer targets a revival in its fortunes. Davies was chief executive of Pets At Home for eight years until April 2012 and takes over immediately. Halfords has been without a permanent chief [...]
HP shares hit nine-year low October 3, 2012 Hewlett-Packard’s shares plunged to a nine-year low yesterday after chief executive Meg Whitman warned of an unexpectedly steep earnings slide in 2013, with revenue set to fall in every business division except software. The US firm has struggled with the shift away from personal computers to mobile devices and the admission drove its stock down [...]
Police interviewed UBS trader October 3, 2012 A colleague of accused UBS rogue trader Kweku Adoboli was interviewed by police as a suspect, a London court heard yesterday. Simon Taylor, who was a junior trader on the ETFs desk, was cross-examined by Adoboli’s lawyer Charles Sherrard. It emerged during the hearing that Taylor was interviewed by police in April 2012 under caution. [...]
Europe’s banks close in on new capital targets October 3, 2012 EUROPEAN banks successfully raised capital levels substantially over the first six months of this year, putting almost all of them in a better position to face the Eurozone crisis, the European Banking Authority (EBA) confirmed yesterday. But it also insisted its nine per cent capital ratio rule will be maintained indefinitely, hitting hopes the expensive [...]
UK group calls for votes for all BAE investors October 3, 2012 THE UK shareholder trade body has urged both the chairman of BAE Systems and the UK Takeover Panel to allow indirect shareholders in the defence group to vote on the proposed merger with EADS. In a letter to the UK Takeover Panel, the UK Shareholders’ Association (UKSA) asked it to let shareholders holding an indirect [...]
Clarke: Tesco at start of journey to its recovery October 3, 2012 TESCO chief executive Philip Clarke insisted that the group’s £1bn turnaround plan was paying off, yesterday, stressing “it was just the beginning” despite the group suffering its first profit fall in nearly 20 years. Although half-year profits fell 10.5 per cent to £1.6bn due to the cost of the recovery plan, Clarke highlighted that the [...]
