Stealth hike in inheritance tax not the answer to care crisis February 10, 2013 ONCE again, I find myself disagreeing with the government. The coalition is about to introduce a £75,000 cap on the cost of social care for the elderly, in an attempt, or so it claims, to ensure that people no longer have to sell their homes to pay for help when they become very old. It [...]
Administrators to HMV to close first 66 stores February 7, 2013 HMV, the high street’s last major music retailer, is to close a third of its stores and cut 930 jobs across the country, administrators confirmed yesterday. Deloitte said the closure of 66 lossmaking stores, including four in London, will take place over the next two months in a move that will leave the embattled retailer [...]
UK wind fund blows onto LSE in £205m float February 6, 2013 INFRASTRUCTURE fund Greencoat UK Wind is hoping to raise at least £205m through a government-backed float that will jettison it to the main London market. Managed by Greencoat Capital, the fund has bought interests in six wind farms from utility firms SSE and RWE. Closed-end investment company Greencoat, which will be fully invested from launch, [...]
St Modwen ups asset value by nine per cent February 5, 2013 ST MODWEN said yesterday it has agreed terms with Swansea University to develop the first £150m phase of its New Science and Innovation Campus as it revealed a rise in full year profits. The property developer said the first phase of the £300m scheme will consist of 700,000 square feet of development including 430,000 sq [...]
FTSE flips back to rally mode after fresh data February 5, 2013 THE FTSE rebounded yesterday from a steep fall in the previous session, with investors encouraged by forecast-beating earnings and improving economic data from the Eurozone. The index closed 0.6 per cent, or 35.92 points, higher at 6,282.76, after suffering its biggest one-day in three months on Monday as political uncertainties in Spain and Italy and [...]
LondonMetric starts spending February 4, 2013 LondonMetric Property has moved quickly to boost its property portfolio following the merger of London & Stamford and Metric Property Investment last month. In its first interim management statement, the firm said that between 1 October last year and 1 February it has exchanged contracts for six retail warehouses worth £92.4m, as well as further [...]
EnQuest hits output targets February 4, 2013 Producer EnQuest hit its production targets for 2012, it said yesterday, producing an average 22,802 barrels a day. The FTSE 250 explorer, which last month became the first oil company to launch a retail bond, had given guidance of between 20,000 and 24,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. EnQuest added that the first oil [...]
Avoid getting in a spin about the great rotation February 4, 2013 AS THE equity markets surge onwards, many are calling the beginning of the great rotation – the point when retail investors finally rotate out of the perceived safety of cash and bonds, and back into the stock market. Talk of the great rotation has occasionally made it into analyst notes over the last couple of [...]
Osborne bashes banks February 3, 2013 THE GOVERNMENT is undermining banks’ stability and hitting lending to businesses and households by threatening to break up the institutions, banks warned last night. Chancellor George Osborne will today announce his plan to electrify the ring fence that will sit between banks’ retail and investment operations. Under the proposal, banks that try to dodge this [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 3, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES London skyscraper faces downgrade The Pinnacle – the partly built skyscraper that was planned as the tallest in the City of London – could be knocked down and built from scratch. With work started on just seven of the planned 63 storeys and progress stalled for more than a year, the developers are [...]