BA turns to old staff to cover strike February 10, 2010 British Airways yesterday asked staff whose temporary contracts expired last year to cover expected upcoming strike action. Former staff have been offered six month contracts worth £1,000 a month with an additional £2.40 an hour flying allowance. The staff would have to undergo a week long refresher course that would begin on 22 February. BA’s [...]
Vacancies lure bankers into new role hunt February 10, 2010 The jobs market in the City got off to a good start this year, with job opportunities in financial services jumping by 60 per cent last month. Newly available job vacancies surged to 4,646 from 2,898 a year ago, when hiring in the sector hit a low point. Following the usual seasonal dip in hiring [...]
Britain’s last chocolatier sets down a gauntlet for his Kraft successor February 10, 2010 WARTIME is over for Roger Carr. Having held up his head defiantly throughout a five-month hostile bid battle from US food giant Kraft, the former Cadbury chairman is looking considerably more relaxed in demeanour nowadays, though his bruised rhetoric speaks volumes. Carr, in a speech on “Hostile Bids and Takeovers” at the Saïd Business School [...]
Top US brands win as results beat forecasts February 9, 2010 AMERICAN brand giants McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Walt Disney reported stronger-than-expected results yesterday, though the food and drink profits are increasingly coming from outside the US . McDonald’s beat expectations with a 2.6 per cent increase in January sales compared to a year earlier. The US market, which fell 0.7 per cent, was propped up by [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 9, 2010 ICAP Bank of America Merrill Lynch adds ICAP to its “Europe 1” buy list saying its current share price ignores the company’s strong portfolio of assets. Despite its revised earnings guidance for the third quarter, it believes its recent share price fall has been overdone. It notes half ICAP’s profits will come from electronic businesses [...]
FIT FOR A KING February 8, 2010 IT’S HARD to say whether a picture of a City grandee has ever tickled The Capitalist quite as much as this gem, which shows Bank of England governor Mervyn King taking a ride on a dog sled at the G7 summit last week in the remote Arctic city of Iqaluit in Canada. Our Merv, kitted [...]
Halfords mulls Hobbycraft deal February 8, 2010 BIKE retailer Halfords is mulling making acquisitions within the retail sector as part of ambitious expansion plans, it emerged yesterday. Halfords, which saw like-for-like sales jump 15 per cent over the Christmas period, is understood to be looking at crafts chain Hobbycraft, according to Sky News. Hobbycraft is undergoing a thorough strategic review by accountancy [...]
Ocado bullish about spring public listing February 7, 2010 ONLINE grocer Ocado will launch an audacious IPO in May which could value the company at £1.2bn. The firm, which delivers Waitrose food to doorsteps, hopes to raise an initial £160m from the flotation. This will wipe out its £55m debts and provide it with £100m to build a new distribution centre. A source close [...]
FOOTBALL FUND LAUNCHES OUT TO CHAMPION THE BEAUTIFUL GAME February 7, 2010 GIVEN the City’s penchant for all things football-related, it’s something of a miracle that the new London Nominees Football Fund has managed to keep its launch virtually entirely under wraps – particularly as it’s got some of the beautiful game’s best known names on board. The fund officially launched at the beginning of the month, [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY February 7, 2010 AFTER the Bank of England announced that it would be pausing, at least for now, its quantitative easing policy, the big event in the UK this week will be the quarterly inflation report on Wednesday morning. The Bank is expected to revise down its growth forecast while revising up its inflation predictions and will give [...]