Vodafone snaps up new Europe boss from rival group T-Mobile June 28, 2012 PHILIPP Humm, who quit the top job at T-Mobile USA on Wednesday, said yesterday he would become chief executive of northern and central Europe for Vodafone from 1 October. Humm joins Vodafone from his role as president and chief executive of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA to oversee the British firm’s presence in such markets as [...]
American Greetings hurt by Clinton June 28, 2012 US card firm American Greetings yesterday reported a 78 per cent drop in first-quarter earnings, hurt by costs related to bailing Clinton Cards out of administration. Clinton Cards collapsed last month after it could not repay a £35m loan to its biggest supplier American Greetings. The Ohio-based company then bought the troubled chain for $37m, [...]
Morgan Sindall says it is on track June 28, 2012 Morgan Sindall said yesterday it remained on track to meet its full-year expectations but warned that tough market conditions had continued to squeeze its margins as companies compete for a shrinking pile of construction work. In a trading update for the first half of the year, the construction group said its financial position “remains sound” [...]
Olympus insists brand will remain June 28, 2012 An Olympus executive said yesterday at the firm’s annual meeting that despite ongoing talks for a capital tie-up with several firms, it would maintain an independent brand. “We understand we need to consider an increase in capital as one of our key management issues. The main premise is to fully preserve our Olympus brand,” Yasuo [...]
Pension black hole gets bigger at FTSE 250 firms in spite of funding June 28, 2012 THE PENSION deficit black hole within FTSE 250 firms more than doubled last year, according to research released yesterday. Figures from JLT Pension Capital Strategies showed that schemes are £11bn short overall, compared to a total deficit of £5bn last year. The surge came despite firms piling £1.5bn into funding deficits over the last year, [...]
US consumer spending growth slows but economy is in line June 28, 2012 THE US economy’s growth slowed as expected in the first quarter, but a less robust pace of consumer spending and export growth than previously estimated could dampen the economic outlook for the current period. American GDP increased at a 1.9 per cent annual rate, the US Commerce Department said in its final reading yesterday, unchanged [...]
UK house price drop worsens as London gains June 28, 2012 THE DROP in house prices in the UK accelerated in June, as weakness from the Eurozone and the expiry of the stamp duty holiday took their toll, Nationwide said yesterday. Prices were down 0.6 per cent on the month, as part of a 1.5 per cent slide since June 2011 – the biggest year-on-year fall in [...]
IS THIS LATEST HOUSE PRICE SLUMP A SURPRISE? June 28, 2012 ANDREW GOODWIN ERNST & YOUNG ITEM CLUB Given the state of the economy, Nationwide is looking at a very low number of transactions in computing their data, which throws some doubt on the representativeness of their data. The general trend seems to show a general downward drift of roughly one per cent per quarter. CRAIG [...]
Bank warns borrowing costs will rise June 28, 2012 BRITISH banks expect to significantly raise borrowing costs for businesses and home-buyers over the next three months as the cost of their funding rises, the Bank of England said yesterday. The Bank’s latest quarterly credit conditions survey shows the challenge faced by the central bank and the coalition to lower the cost of credit to [...]
Consumer confidence stays low June 28, 2012 UK consumers remained down in the dumps about the economy last month, according to the latest GfK confidence figures. The survey showed an index score of -29 for the economy, in line with May’s reading and slightly down on the -25 figure seen this time last year. Brits are even gloomier about the country’s finances [...]
