Car talk October 16, 2012 The new Turbo S Porsche is a powerful upgrade on the V8 Porsche has introduced a new flagship Cayenne SUV, the Turbo S. The 4.8-litre twin-turbocharged V8 has had its power increased by an additional 10 per cent over the Turbo model. The extra 50bhp translates to a 0-62mph time of 4.5 seconds and a [...]
BHP Billiton returns to Aussie market with A$1bn bond issue October 9, 2012 MINING giant BHP Billiton made a return to the Australian bond market after an 11-year absence with a A$1bn (£635.8m) five-year issue paying 90 basis points over bank bill swap rate. The issue was heavily oversubscribed with talk of a total order book around A$2bn, according to one participating investor. He said every account was [...]
Aston Martin strikes the right balance October 9, 2012 “It’s the best car we’ve ever made,” says Dr Ulrich Bez of the new Vanquish. I resist the temptation to ask Aston Martin’s boss whether its new flagship GT is better than the £1.2m-plus One-77 hypercar or the less extreme, but almost as exclusive, V12 Zagato now on sale. To be fair, Bez isn’t referring [...]
Car talk October 9, 2012 The new Volkswagon Golf Volkswagen has released prices for the new seventh-generation Golf. Starting from £16,330, it will be sold with a choice of four petrol engines and two diesel engines. All will have seven airbags, semi-automatic air-con and a touchscreen entertainment system with DAB radio that’s teed up for your bluetooth phone, MP3 player [...]
SLR Management splashes out on Australian mining adviser October 7, 2012 PRIVATE equity-backed environmental consultancy SLR Management has snapped up an Australian adviser to the coal mining industry, the firm is set to announce today. Oxford-based SLR is buying GSS Environmental, which counts BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata among its clients, for an undisclosed sum. It is SLR’s first acquisition since raising money for its [...]
New terms for Glencore-Xstrata deliver new problems October 1, 2012 ANOTHER day, another twist in Glencore-Xstrata’s epic drama. It seemed for a few hours that Xstrata’s board might have done the trick, recommending the bid with a new share multiple and terms that include allowing shareholders the option of rejecting the planned £144m retention awards for senior Xstrata managers. Then Knight Vinke Asset Management, which [...]
Xstrata shareholders have time to reread the fine print September 30, 2012 FOLLOWERS of the Glencore-Xstrata merger proposal will be aware that the £44bn deal itself has faded into the background in recent months, replaced instead by a seemingly endless boardroom melodrama. Perhaps today’s announcement will allow attention to return to the compelling logic behind the tie-up: the world’s biggest commodities trader and the world’s biggest miner [...]
Meet the hero of the Audi range September 25, 2012 The Neckarsulm facility, near Stuttgart in Germany, is the home of Audi’s R8 supercar production and where it builds its RS line of high-performance vehicles. It’s also where quattro GmbH and its motorsport division is based, which is why we’re racing across Europe from the UK to Neckarsulm on a 600-mile drive in Audi’s latest [...]
FTSE dips on poor European data and weakness in price of copper September 24, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, led by miners, as dull European data kept the focus on a gloomy economic outlook, tempering the boost given to markets by recent central bank stimulus moves in Europe and the United States. Germany’s Ifo index of business sentiment fell for a fifth month running, bucking expectations for a [...]
Kloppers bags $6.6m as BHP ices exec wages September 18, 2012 THE BASE salary for miner BHP Billiton’s senior executives will be frozen for the next year, the FTSE 100 firm’s annual report revealed yesterday, as it battles to counteract falling iron ore prices. Chief executive Marius Kloppers received no short-term incentive as well as having his salary frozen, due to the $3.3bn (£2bn) shale gas [...]