The top 5 wash bags on offer for the modern man October 1, 2012 Mulberry, oak natural leather The epitome of style, this classic oak leather case has two zipped compartments, an internal pocket and a fully lined wipe-clean interior. Details include leather trims, a leather zip pull and, of course, the infamous Mulberry tree logo emblazoned on the front. £250; mulberry.com Santiago Gonzalez, crocodile wash bag This is [...]
Eurozone jobless at record high October 1, 2012 Eurozone unemployment hit a record high of 18.2m in August, according to data published today by the European Union. Month on month, the number of unemployed people in the euro-area rose by 34,000 in August. The unemployment rate was up 1.2 per cent year on year to 11.4 per cent, with southern European economies such [...]
FTSE 100 firmly up on Glenstrata deal October 1, 2012 Banks and miners led the blue chip index up in early trading, as the £56bn mining mega-merger of Xstrata and Glencore stole the headlines. Better-than-expected results from the Spanish bank stress tests boosted UK financial shares. Barclays was up 2.89 per cent in early trading, followed by RBS, which added 2.06 per cent. HSBC was [...]
Ed Miliband needs to stop distorting statistics October 1, 2012 IF you want to know why I find it hard to be optimistic about Britain’s economic future, look no further than the political parties’ annual conferences – this weekend it was the turn of the Labour party to pander to prejudice and envy and advocate policies that will end up retarding growth, reducing job creation [...]
Chinese manufacturing contracts for second consecutive month October 1, 2012 Chinese manufacturing fell for the second straight month in September, fuelling fears that China is continuing to struggle in the face of low demand from the US and Europe. The Purchasing Managers’ Index rose modestly to 49.8 in September from 49.2 in August, the lowest reading since November 2011. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. [...]
Alstom nets £325m power station contract October 1, 2012 French transport and power engineering group Alstom said this morning it had won a £325m contract for a gas-fired power station near Manchester. Alstom will supply service equipment to the new power plant at Carrington. The contract has been signed with Spanish construction firm Duro Felguera, which will build the new plant. The power station [...]
Lagardere asks EADS to review BAE merger October 1, 2012 EADS shareholder Lagardere this morning said that the mega-merger with BAE has not yet shown that it could create value for the defence and aerospace company. In a statement, the French publishing firm said a review is “indispensable”, adding that the current merger conditions are unsatisfactory. Lagardere owns 7.5 per cent of EADS. Last month, [...]
Xstrata backs £56bn Glencore mega-merger October 1, 2012 Xstrata has green-lit the £56bn merger with Glencore, though with conditions. An independent board of directors at the miner has revised the voting structure to allow shareholders to support the deal, but object to the retention plan for key managers. Sir John Bond, chairman of Xstrata, said today that following opposition from shareholders the directors [...]
Utah: America’s secret scenic wonderland October 1, 2012 Touching down at Las Vegas airport at 9pm, we made a classic mistake. Predicting we’d be fine to drive the two-hour journey to our hotel after a refreshing Diet Coke and a few rounds of Blackjack at the Mandalay Bay, we didn’t expect to find ourselves deliriously sleep-deprived, jetlagged to the max and sans sat-nav, journeying [...]
Xstrata and Glencore to back tie-up September 30, 2012 XSTRATA and Glencore hope to win round investors today with the long-awaited latest version of their mining mega-merger. The Xstrata board spent the weekend thrashing out the details of the improved deal in a bid to satisfy as many shareholders as possible, with a focus on the generous retention package for the firm’s top staff. [...]
