BA set to pay up over price fixing claims February 20, 2012 BRITISH Airways is set to end a five-year saga over the regulator’s allegations of price fixing by paying a reduced fine. BA has held talks with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over the £121.5m fine issued in August 2007. The British flag carrier is now expected to pay part of the charge, but this [...]
Virgin complains to regulator over IAG deal February 17, 2012 Virgin Atlantic has made a formal complaint to the European Commission about IAG’s purchase of Lufthansa’s British unit bmi, saying competition on some European routes would diminish and that fares would increase. Late last year, British Airways (BA) owner IAG agreed to buy bmi for £172.5m, seeing off rival bidder Virgin in the race to [...]
FTSE bounces off lows after good US data February 16, 2012 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 closed off intraday lows yesterday as upbeat US economic data brought some cheer to an otherwise gloomy macro outlook, helping oil stocks pare losses, while banks and miners sagged as Greece’s debt crisis rumbled on. London’s blue chip index closed down 6.78 points, or 0.1 per cent at 5,885.38, bouncing off an [...]
Art, history and pampering in New England’s capital February 12, 2012 Boston: the genteel city of academia, tea parties, clam chowder, Matt Damon, and for me at least, electric eels. I had come to Boston on a long weekend – a bit of sales shopping, sight-seeing and relaxing in this history-steeped city. Yet also to confirm something that had been a bit of a mystery for [...]
BA and Japan Airlines agree revenue share February 8, 2012 BRITISH Airways and Japan Airlines have agreed a revenue-sharing deal for flights between Europe and Japan, potentially giving their oneworld alliance more competitive muscle. The joint venture would lead to more choice of flights and could lead to more routes, BA’s parent International Airlines Group (IAG) said yesterday. “Despite the difficulties the Japanese aviation market [...]
BRITISH AIRWAYS EXPANDS ITS CITY ROUTES February 6, 2012 BRITISH Airways is expanding its routes from London City Airport this summer, with plans to launch new flights to Menorca, Angers and Quimper in late May.
Tullow Oil to ditch BAML as its broker February 2, 2012 TULLOW Oil, the FTSE 100 oil explorer, yesterday parted company with its long-standing corporate brokers, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and RBS Hoare Govett, appointing Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley in their place. BAML’s position had been precarious ever since the bank parted company with corporate broker Andrew Osborne in November. Osborne, whom Tullow described [...]
BarCap’s mandate on $5bn float shows its growing clout February 2, 2012 BARCLAYS Capital’s claims to be one of the major players in the world of equity capital markets will only have been enhanced by its inclusion as one of the book-runners in Facebook’s $5bn flotation. It is the only UK-based bank on the list and that alone can act to reinforce the view that it picked [...]
Easy, tiger January 29, 2012 IN the chilly darkness, I climb into the passenger seat of the open-top Tata 4×4, with binoculars, camera, hot-water bottle and blanket, for the dawn game drive. The birds are fully awake as the dry teak forest of Pench National Park emerges in the soft amber-pink light. We hear the single, punctuated note of a [...]
Miners fuel FTSE gains as Fed eyes growth January 26, 2012 The FTSE was boosted by the US Federal Reserve’s promise to keep interest rates – and therefore bond yields – ultra-low for the next couple of years while positive results from miners also contributed to gains. Fed chief Ben Bernanke said that it may consider further monetary easing and would keep rates near zero until [...]