SERCO WINS NEW BORIS BIKE CONTRACT October 25, 2011 Support services firm Serco yesterday signed a £50m agreement to support the expansion of TfL’s Barclays Cycle Hire scheme into East London. The contract will run until 2015 and include the design, operation and installation of the scheme in Tower Hamlets, plus new docking stations to serve the Westfield shopping centre in West London. Serco [...]
Bunzl boosted by North America October 25, 2011 British-based business supplies distributor Bunzl said its third-quarter revenue rose as strong growth in its North American and continental European markets outweighed a weaker performance in Britain where economic conditions remain tough. FTSE 100-listed Bunzl, which supplies supermarkets, hospitals and hotels with products ranging from carrier bags to toilet rolls, said yesterday that group revenue [...]
Senior upbeat on 2012 demand October 25, 2011 Senior said yesterday it had not seen any material change in underlying orders since the end of June, despite an uncertain economy, as the engineering company’s most important end market – the commercial aircraft industry – continued to grow. Senior, which designs and manufactures technology components and systems for original equipment producers in aerospace, diesel [...]
Novartis plans further job cuts October 25, 2011 Swiss drugmaker Novartis said yesterday it is slashing 2,000 jobs in Switzerland and the US to keep costs under control in the face of growing price pressures and the strong Swiss franc. The Basel-based group has already cut thousands of jobs and shut several sites, notably in Britain. The latest measures, which affect 1.7 per [...]
Bank lending on mortgages is on the rise October 25, 2011 MORTGAGE lending rose over the twelve months to September, according to figures out yesterday from the British Bankers’ Association, though at a slowing rate. Growth of 1.6 per cent was recorded in net mortgage lending over the last year. Gross mortgage lending came in seven per cent higher in September than a year ago, at £8.4bn. [...]
Can BlackBerry bury the hatchet over outage? October 25, 2011 LAST week I looked at YouGov’s BrandIndex data to see the immediate impact on consumer perception of the outage that caused a blackout of BlackBerry’s email, web and Messenger services. Now two weeks on from the crisis we can return to BrandIndex for signs of recovery. Focusing firstly on buzz, BlackBerry’s dramatic fall does appear [...]
Rising investment income drives fall in UK current account deficit, says ONS October 25, 2011 BRITAIN’S current account deficit narrowed to its smallest in more than three years in the second quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday. The gap between imports and exports fell to £2.02bn between April and June from £4.12bn in the previous three months. The figure represents just a quarter of analysts’ forecasts for [...]
Families failing to plan for retirement or joblessness October 25, 2011 HALF of parents in the UK have no financial plans for retirement, sickness and unemployment, according to a survey published today by HSBC. Forty-eight per cent have no life insurance, whilst 59 per cent of childless adults are in the same position. Medical expenses come even lower down the list of priorities, with only 18 [...]
INDIA RAISES RATES YET GETS SET TO HOLD October 25, 2011 INDIA’S central bank raised interest rates yesterday for the 13th time since early 2010 but gave a strong signal it may be finished with its current tightening cycle as growth slows and it expects high inflation to ease from December. The Reserve Bank of India raised its policy lending rate, the repo rate, by 25 [...]
Bearish Canada keeps rates low October 25, 2011 The Bank of Canada took the prospect of interest rate hikes off the table yesterday with downgraded forecasts that showed some of the gloss coming off an economic recovery touted as the strongest in the G7. The central bank held its key interest rate steady at an ultra-low one per cent, as expected, but said [...]
