Regus frets over future May 18, 2010 SHARES in the temporary office accomodation group Regus fell by nearly 17 per cent to 94p yesterday as chairman John Matthews revealed he was concerned about the state of the UK market. Matthews told shareholders at the group’s annual meeting: “The UK remains our most difficult region and the early signs of improvement seen in [...]
City regulator banishes Sir Fred’s RBS sidekick May 18, 2010 SIR Fred Goodwin’s former right hand man at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) faces a blanket ban on full-time employment in the City for the rest of his career, under a ruling imposed yesterday by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The regulator’s draconian verdict came after a year-long investigation into the role played by [...]
RPI inflation sees sharpest jump since ‘91 May 18, 2010 NEW chancellor George Osborne yesterday called on the Bank of England to accelerate plans to reintroduce house prices into the benchmark rate of inflation, after the housing-linked index in April recorded its biggest monthly increase in two decades. The consumer price index (CPI) – the official inflation measure which does not currently take housing into [...]
US housing builds momentum but could still stall May 18, 2010 US housing starts touched a one year to 18-month high in April, but a drop in permits to a six-month low suggested the housing market recovery will remain slow. The number of private houses on which building had started rose 5.8 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 672,000 units, the Commerce Department [...]
Greece receives EU funds but faces huge task ahead May 18, 2010 GREECE received a €14.5bn (£12.4bn) loan from the European Union yesterday and can now repay its immediate debt, but still faces a mammoth task to claw its way out of recession. Concerns that other EU countries such as Portugal and Spain could follow Greece and need aid from the bloc have hit the euro, while [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU ABOUT CURRENT INFLATION LEVELS? May 18, 2010 HETAL MEHTA | SENIOR ECONOMIC ADVISOR, ERNST & YOUNG ITEM CLUB “The Bank has factored in these short term upside risks, and believes the high margin of spare capacity will bear down on inflation in the second half of the year. In light of this, we do not expect the Bank to raise interest rates [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS IT RIGHT GREECE SHOULD BE BAILED OUT BY THE TAXPAYER? May 18, 2010 BILLY PRICE | CHARLES STANLEY “I don’t think the foreign taxpayer should have had to sort out Greece’s economic problems. The International Monetary Fund should have stepped in. The recession has shown what bad news the euro is for the world economy.” NICK TISI | SCOTIABANK “Europe had no choice but to bail out Greece, [...]
Britvic pays £200m for its French rival May 18, 2010 BRITIVIC is taking over French rival Fruité in a €237m (£203m) deal. Fruité makes popular French brands such as Teisseire, which sponsors the Tour de France. The deal will be funded from existing debt facilities and a £100m share placing. Fruité has four factories, all in France, which Britvic says offer a platform to expand [...]
Wal-Mart price cuts pay off May 18, 2010 WAL-MART’S quarterly results yesterday beat Wall Street expectations as a curb on costs helped the world’s largest retailer overcome weaker US same-store sales. The costs cuts on everything from labour to transportation helped the company fund “rollbacks” on prices for thousands of items in recent weeks, as it tries to hold onto customers pressured by [...]
Paddy Power is racing ahead with strong 2010 May 18, 2010 PADDY Power – Ireland’s largest bookmaker – said that online revenue so far this year was very strong and profit modestly ahead of expectations, as sports results went its way and punters spent more. The company said the amount staked by online customers, excluding those in its recently acquired Australian business, grew by 19 per [...]
