Tories in fast broadband plan January 31, 2010 A CONSERVATIVE government could use part of the BBC licence fee to fund the rollout of superfast broadband to the majority of homes by 2017. And the Tories pledged to end BT’s dominance of broadband by forcing it to give rivals access to its ducts, sewers, telephone poles and unused cables. Shadow culture secretary Jeremy [...]
Hermes green fund launches January 26, 2010 HERMES Private Equity yesterday launched its new Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) with £125m of capital at first close, as part of a government programme to underpin the economic recovery by supporting investment in UK growth businesses. Hermes, along with the European Investment Fund, was last month appointed as one of two fund of funds managers [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 25, 2010 MASTER OF MACAROONS COMES TO LONDON Parisian pâtissière to the stars Pierre Hermé is to come to London. Naturally he’ll have a Knightsbridge boutique – but that’s scheduled for summer. In the meantime, his gilded macaroons and bonbons will be on sale at Selfridges, from 5 February. Hermé is credited with creating the modern macaroon, [...]
INVESTMENT BANK WANNABE LAYS HIS SOUL BARE AT GOLDMAN ALTAR January 24, 2010 DEPLETED bonus pool or not, it appears university graduates are still tripping over themselves to land a coveted internship position at Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. In swoops an email doing the rounds in the City, alerting The Capitalist to a copy of a Goldman internship application form recently sent by an aspiring master of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 21, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MUSIC INDUSTRY CLAIMS 95 PER CENT OF DOWNLOADS ILLEGAL AS CD SALES FALL A quarter of all recorded music industry revenues come from digital channels but online file-sharing continues to undermine the global music industry, with sales of physical and digital music falling last year, according to trade body the International Federation of [...]
Carphone ups profit target January 19, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse yesterday upped its full-year forecasts for the second time in a matter of months after strong trading at both its retail and broadband arms during the third quarter. The FTSE 250 group, which is splitting into two businesses in March, says earnings per share to the end of March are likely to be [...]
Heritage deal key to Tullow January 17, 2010 TULLOW Oil’s decision to pre-empt the sale of Heritage Oil’s Ugandan oil deposit assets to Italian oil group Eni is a brave one, and one that will secure the firm’s position among the giants of the oil world, having grown up from its humble beginnings a quarter of a century ago. Under the terms of [...]
Sky vows to fight plans to force it to wholesale premium content to rivals January 17, 2010 SKY yesterday vowed to fight “through every avenue possible” attempts to force it to sell its premium channels to rivals at regulated prices. Media regulator Ofcom is meeting tomorrow to discuss plans to make Sky wholesale its movies and sports channels to competitors like Virgin and BT Vision. It will give a final decision in [...]
Infosys boosts hopes of a revival in sales for outsourcing industry January 13, 2010 INDIAN outsourcer Infosys yesterday raised its annual sales forecast boosting hopes of an industry recovery. The company, a trendsetter for the $60bn (£36.9bn) Indian outsourcing sector, expects spending on outsourcing to go up. Its quarterly results showed quarterly earnings fell for the first time but were still above market forecasts, sending its shares up four [...]
Sell-off in bank and mining shares rocks the FTSE 100 January 13, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index shed 0.5 per cent yesterday as weakness in commodity and banking issues countered gains in selected defensive stocks, reflecting fading risk appetite among some investors. At the close, the FTSE 100 was 25.23 points lower at 5,473.48, having lost 0.7 per cent on Tuesday following China’s decision to tighten banks’ reserve [...]