CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 16, 2011 Akin Gump Vlad Sourkov has joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld as a partner and head of the firm’s Russian real estate practice. He joins the law firm from CMS Russia, where he was head of the firm’s real estate practice. Other members of his team are expected to join Akin Gump in Moscow [...]
TalkTalk loses market share November 15, 2011 TalkTalk has succumbed to intense pressure from BT and Sky in the broadband market in recent months, shedding a net 70,000 customers. Revenues for the first six months fell 4.8 per cent to £844m but profits surged 36 per cent to £68m. Its net debt remained broadly flat at £475m.
Broadband sales boost profits at BT November 3, 2011 A WAVE of new broadband customers helped push BT to a 17 per cent jump in first-half profits yesterday, as boss Ian Livingston continued his turnaround of the firm. Its retail division added 166,000 new broadband users in the last three months, almost two thirds of the 263,000 net adds in the UK. BT’s superfast [...]
Ian Livingston: the turnaround king November 3, 2011 THE TURNAROUND of BT Group under Ian Livingston has been nothing short of remarkable. When he became chief executive in 2008, its IT services arm Global Services was a basket case that threatened the very survival of the entire group. In an attempt to steal a share of big contracts from established rivals such as [...]
FTSE weak as investors eye G20 November 3, 2011 The FTSE 100 tracked falls in Asia as leaders of the world’s biggest economies gathered in France for a G20 summit set to be dominated by the threat of Greece falling out of the Eurozone. The leaders of France and Germany, angered at Greece’s shock move to call a referendum on its latest bail-out plan [...]
BT profits rise as broadband delivers November 3, 2011 BT confirmed its full-year growth targets as strength in broadband and Global Services enabled it to post better than expected core profits and sales in the second quarter. The firm said it had grown cash flow, profits and underlying revenue after cutting yet more costs. BT, which competes with Virgin Media and TalkTalk and sells [...]
Weaker mining and energy prices drag the FTSE down October 31, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fellback yesterday, led by weaker miners and energy issues, as commodity prices retreated under the influence of a firmer dollar and worries over demand from China, with banks also under pressure after recent gains. Miners and integrated oil stocks took over 30 points off the UK blue chip index, as they [...]
Miners peg back markets October 31, 2011 European shares fell early in the session with miners hurt by falling metals prices while the afterglow of last week’s Eurozone debt deal began to fade. Miners were dented by Japan wading into the currency markets to rein in the value of the soaring yen, which sent the dollar up. A stronger dollar makes dollar-priced [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD October 30, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● Barclays announces today. It traces its origins back to 1690, when John Freame and Thomas Gould traded as goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street. Eagle eyes await results. ● Imperial Tobacco announces tomorrow. Its brands include Davidoff, West, Gauloises Blondes, Montecristo and Drum. It was created in 1901 through the amalgamation of thirteen [...]
25 years after the Big Bang we ask: Was it a good idea? October 26, 2011 YES Eamonn Butler SOMETHING had to happen. London had once been the world’s major financial centre, but by the 1980s it had been overtaken by New York and that lead was growing. The City remained an old-fashioned world: to outsiders like me, more like a private gentlemen’s club than a place of business. Its leading [...]