Jubilee attracts two million to West End June 6, 2012 SOME two million visitors flocked to the West End over the bank holiday weekend, as the capital went into full swing celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Theatres, hotels, restaurants and retailers are together expected to have made more than £120m over the four-day weekend, according to the New West End company, which represents 600 firms [...]
Queen marks 60-year reign with City service June 5, 2012 QUEEN Elizabeth II rounded off her four-day Diamond Jubilee yesterday on the famous Buckingham Palace balcony after celebrating in the City. A thanksgiving service, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was held yesterday morning at St Paul’s Cathedral to commemorate the monarch’s sixty year reign. The Queen then attended a reception, hosted by the Lord [...]
BP hit by fresh court fight over TNK-BP stake June 5, 2012 OIL major BP is facing renewed investor pressure in Russia after a court reopened a $13bn (£8.5bn) lawsuit linked to its TNK-BP venture. The Russian court said minority shareholders in TNK-BP can restart their fight over last year’s failed tie-in with oil explorer Rosneft. The shareholders complained that BP’s £10bn plan to join forces with [...]
A leaner firm already looks like a better takeover target than its rebellious Russian oil subsidiary June 5, 2012 BP has been saying for years that it wants to be a smaller, leaner firm. Lopping off its occasionally combative but always lucrative Russian arm is nevertheless a radical way to streamline. TNK-BP accounted for 29 per cent of BP’s production and 16 per cent of its 2011 profits. And when its “noisy, not dysfunctional” [...]
Spain close to financial crisis but euro exit is not imminent June 5, 2012 SPAIN is teetering on the brink of a severe financial crisis but is unlikely to leave the Eurozone any time soon, according to our readers’ panel. Asked to rate Europe’s weaker economies on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being close to a severe financial crisis), the panel gave Spain a score of 2.5. [...]
Tyrie: IMF must get tough with EU on bailouts June 5, 2012 THE IMF should stop treating Brussels as a partner in Eurozone bailout talks and show some “toughness”, according to Andrew Tyrie, chair of the influential Treasury committee of MPs. In a paper for the Centre for Policy Studies, Tyrie also suggests the IMF’s “credibility is on the line” and that Britain and other non-Eurozone countries [...]
Even Germany feels the pain as output falls June 5, 2012 ALL FOUR of the largest Eurozone economies contracted last month, survey data showed yesterday, as official figures revealed retail sales are plummeting across much of the area. Markit’s composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in at a near three-year low of 46, down from 46.7 in April, indicating an accelerating decline in private sector activity. [...]
European states avoid the bond market as debt issues tumble June 5, 2012 EUROPE’S market for new debt issuance has shrunk 17 per cent since last year, new figures show. As uncertainty over the introduction of eurobonds continues to cloud the market, statistics from Dealogic show that Europe’s level of new debt issuance fell to $1.11 trillion (£723bn) in the first five months of 2012. This is down [...]
MegaFon float put on hold as Russia’s richest man sits tight June 5, 2012 THE global uncertainty around public listings was underlined yesterday when the chief executive of Russian mobile phone group MegaFon indicated its highly anticipated float might not occur for some time. Russia’s second biggest mobile operator – controlled by Arsenal shareholder and Russia’s richest man Alisher Usmanov – plans to list up to 20 per cent [...]
Portuguese banks tap state bailout money June 5, 2012 THREE of Portugal’s biggest lenders are to receive a €6.6bn (£5.3bn) bailout, mostly from the country’s €78bn EU/IMF rescue money, after failing to make ends meet. Millennium BCP, Banco BPI and Caixa Geral de Depositos have all asked the government for help in meeting the emergency capital requirements set out by Europe’s banking regulator, the [...]
