NEWS FROM IATA AIRLINE INDUSTRY CONFERENCE June 7, 2011 Boeing says it will defend the supremacy of its 777 BOEING vowed yesterday to defend its successful 777 wide-body aircraft and signalled it feels under no immediate pressure to respond to a reported challenge from European rival Airbus. Industry sources revealed on Monday that Airbus planned to place a bigger engine on one variant of [...]
Why planning laws must not damage the City June 5, 2011 IT is easy to forget that between the tall buildings and the state of the art office blocks and in amongst the fashionable bars and high-end restaurants, substantial parts of the Square Mile are hundreds of years old. But while the City of London Corporation is rightly proud of the City’s heritage and goes to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 2, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES FORMER TESCO CHIEF PUTS MONEY INTO NICOTINE A medical devices group developing non-tobacco nicotine delivery systems has won the backing of Sir Terry Leahy in the latest private investment by the former Tesco chief executive since he retired in March. Sir Terry has put an undisclosed sum behind Kind Consumer, a start-up that [...]
BAT in $452m swoop to buy Protabaco May 26, 2011 BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) said yesterday it had agreed to buy the privately owned Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, the second largest cigarette company in Colombia, for $452m (£277m). The London-based second biggest cigarette maker in the world said the deal will elevate it to second from third place in Colombia, Latin America’s fourth largest cigarette [...]
BAT in $452m deal for Protobaco May 26, 2011 British American Tobacco said it had agreed to buy the privately owned Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, the second largest cigarette company in Colombia, for $452m (£277m). The London-based second biggest cigarette maker in the world said the deal will elevate it to second from third place in Colombia, Latin America’s fourth largest cigarette market with [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 23, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES UK BUILDERS SEE VALUE OF ORDERS COLLAPSE The value of work awarded to UK construction companies crashed during the past year, raising concerns that the impact of government spending cuts will be far worse than previously feared. The total value of new work awarded to the UK’s 50 leading construction companies fell by [...]
UK launches probe into “big four” auditors May 17, 2011 Competition authorities are to probe the stranglehold of the world’s biggest accountancy firms on British blue-chip company audits after finding evidence of anti-competitive behaviour. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said dominance of the sector by the so-called “Big Four” threw up barriers for rivals and made it hard for firms to switch auditors. The [...]
Here’s to some green shoots in M&A May 12, 2011 Now I’m not one to want to follow inadvertently in the footsteps of Shriti Vadera, who famously said she had noticed the green shoots of recovery shortly after the banking crisis had reared its head in 2009. Vadera, who was then business minister to the Brown government, was roundly criticised for calling the recovery a [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 2, 2011 Brookland Partners The investment bank has appointed Griff Winkler as a director, where he will focus on expanding the firm through identifying investment opportunities from capital providers and other JV partners. Winkler joins from Hatfield Philips, where he was vice president of the non-performing commercial real estate loan group. He also brings five years of [...]
Tesco wages war on British banks April 19, 2011 TESCO’S new chief executive yesterday set the retail giant on course for a showdown with Britain’s banks, as he made growing his financial services unit one of his top priorities. Philip Clarke, who replaced Sir Terry Leahy at the helm of Britain’s top supermarket last month, said Tesco’s bank would become a “big part” of [...]