A bizarre night of telly to match the result May 7, 2010 BOB Hope memorably described the Oscars as “two hours of entertainment spread out over four hours”. You have to wonder what he’d have made of election night TV, which started when polls closed last night and is still going on. David Dimbleby presided over his eighth election night for the BBC, holding forth in a [...]
Bolland takes the helm as M&S chief May 4, 2010 A NEW era was ushered in at Marks & Spencer yesterday as former Morrisons chief Marc Bolland took the hot seat at the retailer. The Dutch executive faces the pressure of living up to a £15m remuneration package as he takes on the challenges of shaking up the company’s clothing range. Modernising the stock while [...]
Glencore sees Xstrata tie-up May 3, 2010 SWISS mining and commodities trading powerhouse Glencore is working on a £55bn merger with Xstrata, the London and Geneva-listed metal extraction giant. Advisers to Glencore are understood to be drawing up plans for the privately-held company to join the public arena through a reverse takeover of Xstrata. Glencore, which already owns 34.4 per cent of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 26, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES FISHMEAL PRICES SCALE ALL-TIME HIGH The price of fishmeal, the key feedstuff for salmon and shrimp aquaculture, has surged to an all-time high after an earthquake wiped out processing plants in Chile, the world’s second-biggest exporter of the commodity, this year. The blow comes as the industry is already battling a supply squeeze [...]
Osborne takes a break from the campaign trail to talk to the City April 26, 2010 LAST YEAR, the future looked very different for George Osborne. With the Tories enjoying a seemingly unassailable lead in the polls, few doubted he would become the next chancellor. Privately, Tory strategists even whispered the word “landslide”. Now nearly all the polls point at a hung parliament and Osborne, who is also the Tories’ election [...]
Farepak to pay customers back April 25, 2010 FAREPAK customers who lost money when the Christmas savings group went into administration will now receive 15p for every pound they lost. The group’s directors have agreed to pay up £4m from their own pockets in compensation to the 150,000 customers who subscribed to their savings scheme. The number marks a small portion of the [...]
Top execs quit Game Group as profits dive April 21, 2010 THE chief executive and chief operating officer of Game Group stepped down yesterday after the retailer said that full-year profits had fallen by nearly a third to £90m and sales had continued to tumble. Game, which in January issued a second profit warning just over a month after poor Christmas sales, said Lisa Morgan had [...]
WILL THE WORLD CUP ENABLE PACE TO BEAT EXPECTATIONS IN 2010? April 19, 2010 JONATHAN IMLAH | ALTIUM “Pace’s quarter one management statement confirms that trading has continued in line with expectations against a backdrop of robust demand for the company’s products. With regard to margin outlook, the statement confirms that gross margins are expected to increase.” IAN ROBERTSON | SEYMOUR PIERCE “ High definition and 3D are seasonal [...]
Beatty wins £95m BSF contract April 13, 2010 Balfour Beatty has beaten rival Kier Group to the £95m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contract in Hartlepool. The infrastructure group said it had been awarded the contract by Hartlepool borough council to rebuild and replace six schools over the next five years. The first school construction project begins this summer and finishes in [...]
Eurostar bounces back after bleak Christmas April 12, 2010 EUROSTAR has recovered from the breakdowns which blighted the business at the close of last year to record a profits and passenger number boost in the first three months of this year. The Channel Tunnel rail operator hit sales revenue of £178m in the first three months of 2010 – up more than five per [...]