BA holds frank talks with union October 19, 2009 Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, held “open and frank” discussions with union leaders yesterday, in the latest step to avoid a ballot on strike action. Unions and the embattled airline have been locked in talks over BA’s cost-cutting measures, which involves axing up to 3,700 jobs over the next year. BA wants [...]
Post unions in rage over hiring plan October 18, 2009 TRADE UNIONS warned employment agencies wanting to get involved in the Royal Mail dispute that they might face crippling fines, exacerbating already fraught tensions between the two sides. The GMB joined the Communication Workers Union (CWU) – which has called for national strikes over modernisation objectives – in slamming Mail plans to hire in 30,000 [...]
Moulton set to do it Better October 18, 2009 JON Moulton, who sensationally quit former private-equity firm Alchemy just two months ago, has bounced back by launching a new firm, Better Capital. Moulton yesterday told City A.M. that he had most of his new team in place, but would nail down the rest “over the next few weeks”. He added: “We’re talking about human [...]
THE TIPSTER MACRO DATA KEY TO THE WEEK AHEAD October 18, 2009 WITH a slew of macroeconomic data on the way, sterling-US dollar – otherwise known as cable – is sharply in focus this week. Although the pound made some solid gains at the end of last week, these may well be reversed on Friday when the UK third quarter GDP figure is released. Forecasts have been [...]
Range of large cap firms set to give markets an overview October 18, 2009 THERE is a mixed bag of companies reporting this week, but the diverse selection will give investors plenty to digest. FTSE 100 software company Autonomy will post its third quarter results tomorrow, though its management have already signalled that it will be another strong performance. It said earlier this month that it expects to report [...]
West End delivers boost for London sales growth October 18, 2009 LONDON retail sales in September had their strongest growth since August last year due to a wave of renewed consumer confidence, according to figures out today from the London Retail Consortium. Retail sales in central London were 7.5 per cent higher on a like-for-like basis in September than a year ago, when sales nosedived to [...]
Post strikes will do most damage to Royal Mail October 18, 2009 IF THIS week’s postal strike goes ahead from Thursday, as expected, the Square Mile will not come to a grinding halt. The rise of the internet, email and electronic trading platforms mean that the Royal Mail’s integral role of facilitating business between City firms are long gone. I suspect that more damage will be caused [...]
FREE (DELIVERY) TO A GOOD HOME October 13, 2009 Amazon UK is offering free delivery on everything in the run up to Christmas, scrapping the previous £5 threshold to qualify for the service. Free delivery will apply for all items until January 1, but does not apply to goods from third party sellers trading on Amazon. Amazon UK, along with Argos and eBay, is [...]
RYANAIR’S CHIEF O’LEARY PROVES HIMSELF A SUCKER FOR PUBLICITY October 13, 2009 RYANAIR boss Michael O’Leary isn’t exactly renowned for taking criticism lying down, so the BBC’s Panorama programme will probably have seen yesterday’s tirade coming. After Monday evening’s programme on the airline, Ryanair unleashed a campaign to maximise publicity from the episode – offering 1.1m free flights, labelling the show a “hatchet job” and slamming 11 [...]
Intel results offer hope to tech sector October 13, 2009 INTEL, the chipmaker and tech sector bellwether, yesterday gave an upbeat outlook as it announced third quarter results that shattered expectations, boosting its shares six percent and fueling hopes of a tech sector recovery in the run up to Christmas Analysts said Intel’s rosy forecasts for revenue and margins, both of which exceeded expectations, and [...]