Firms say new tax watchdog needs teeth July 20, 2010 BUSINESSES yesterday gave a warm welcome to the launch of a new body charged with stripping the fat from Britain’s bloated tax code, but warned it would need teeth to take on the Treasury. The chancellor launched the Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) yesterday morning, and said one of its first tasks would be to [...]
IG Group smashes profit forecasts July 20, 2010 FINANCIAL trading firm IG Group announced yesterday that pre-tax profits jumped by more than 25 per cent for the year ending 31 May, beating most analyst expectations. Shareholders will also get their slice of the pie after the company announced a 13.5p dividend, which brings the total dividend for the year to 18.5p, a 25.5 [...]
Sweden’s failed Tobin tax experiment July 18, 2010 BAD ideas have a habit of never really going away. There were renewed calls at the weekend for a Tobin tax on financial transactions, a deeply flawed concept which remains popular in influential circles. Supporters should acquaint themselves with an excellent study published in the mid-1990s by the Canadian government’s depository services programme, which remains [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS July 14, 2010 HSBC WELCOMES NEW BRAZIL ETF The global investment bank has decided to increase its suite of ETFs and now offers one that tracks the Brazilian stock index. This is the first BRIC ETF launched by HSBC. However, it plans to increase its range further to include the other emerging powerhouses in coming months. The fund [...]
SMEs will save the UK… but my kids are all learning Spanish just in case July 12, 2010 WOL KOLADE, managing partner at Isis, is worried. The future of private equity – and the UK economy as a whole – is at a turning point, he says, and he’s not sure which way things will go. And when Kolade worries, people should listen – he knows what he is talking about. He joined [...]
FORMULA ONE CHIEF UNLEASHES TAX FURY July 7, 2010 WITH all the hubbub about capital gains tax rates in the run-up to the recent Budget, investors are no stranger to vituperative attacks on their profits, but it does come as a surprise when the abuse comes from someone who’s supposed to be on their own side. The latest high-profile character to get vocal about [...]
Uganda gives Tullow Oil green light to acquire Heritage’s sites July 6, 2010 Uganda yesterday gave conditional approval for the sale of Heritage Oil’s assets there, paving the way for Tullow Oil to start a $10bn (£6.6bn) project for Uganda’s oil reserves. Tullow and Heritage have been waiting since January for Uganda’s approval, which will see Tullow buy Heritage’s stakes in two exploration blocks on the shores of [...]
Barclays sees forecasts cut July 1, 2010 ANALYSTS slashed their forecasts for Barclays yesterday after the British bank warned of weakness in second quarter investment banking revenues and difficulties in Spain. Barclays shares fell 5.6 per cent to 255p following guidance from finance director Chris Lucas that “investment banking market conditions in May and June have been softer, in particular reflecting lower [...]
SELLING July 1, 2010 Russell Hunt MANAGING DIRECTOR AT PROPERTY HUNT Q. Dear Russell, has the abolition of home information packs (Hips) helped the London property market? A.I think that the removal of Hips has definitely been a positive thing because people just don’t like putting their hands in their pockets and paying for something up-front with no guarantee [...]
Housing market is looking healthier June 28, 2010 THE long upwards run for house prices has ground to a halt. The recent history of UK house prices has confounded many commentators: values plunged when the credit crunch hit, albeit not as much as in the US, then regained over half of their losses over the past year. The present return to stagnation makes [...]