FTSE steady as investors eye US jobs data January 6, 2012 The FTSE 100 was steady in early trading with media and telecoms gains offsetting weak financial services and retail sectors. Investors were focusing on US jobs data out later while the Eurozone debt crisis continued to dampen sentiment. Analysts’ fears that Eurozone countries and banks could struggle to tap markets for capital this year continue [...]
Blacks Leisure heads for prepack administration January 6, 2012 Blacks Leisure has it is to temporarily to enter administration ahead of a takeover deal. The prepack arrangement will wipe out the value of existing shares, which have now been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange. The retailer said it was mulling offers for the business and that a deal was likely to [...]
JJB enjoys an uplift in sales for Christmas January 5, 2012 SPORTS retailer JJB, which was on the verge of collapse last year, has battled its way through the crucial Christmas period, reporting a five per cent lift in like-for-like sales in December. JJB’s second-half like-for-like sales fell by 7.8 per cent while margins fell by 3.2 per cent, it said yesterday. But this was still [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 3, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES MINISTER ATTACKS GREEN LOBBY The climate change minister has rounded on the “environmental Taliban” of green campaigners, insisting they are wrong to accuse the government of abandoning its commitment to a low carbon agenda. Greg Barker said: “There is nothing environmental about exporting manufacturing jobs abroad.” Barker has led the contentious efforts to [...]
Bidders tune in for fire sale of HMV Live January 3, 2012 THE EVENTS group behind the Reading, Leeds and Latitude festivals is set to battle investment group Oakley Capital for the live music arm of ailing retailer HMV. City A.M. understands Festival Republic, run by Melvin Benn, is interested in a deal and could make a move in a matter of days. There is no guarantee, [...]
Commuters return to hike in train prices January 2, 2012 COMMUTERS returning to work today have been hit by yet another hike in rail fares, after the average ticket price rose by 5.9 per cent with the new year, sending season tickets rocketing. The increases will see the average single ticket rise from £5 to £5.30, and season passes for some popular commuter routes rise [...]
That was the year that was January 2, 2012 22 FEBRUARY The revolution in Libya was the most striking incarnation of the Arab Spring, which also toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. Just eight months later, Colonel Gaddafi was killed, while his family were captured or exiled. 14 MARCH With a death toll near 16,000, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami was truly devastating. Disrupted [...]
PROPERTY NEWS December 22, 2011 SAVILE ROW LEASE SOLD TO JOINT VENTURE Great Portland Estates has exchanged contracts to sell the long leasehold interest in 28/29 Savile Row to a joint venture between Aerium Finance and Allied London for £16.25m. The deal, which works out at £1,017 a square foot, is for a basement, ground and five upper floors. The [...]
20 of the world’s largest donors December 21, 2011 1 BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION US The William H Gates Foundation was created in 1994 to work to improve global health. Created with an original stock gift of $94m (£60.5m), the foundation merged with the Gates Learning Foundation in 2000 to create the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The largest philanthropic organisation in the [...]
Banking reform should rule out more bailouts December 21, 2011 THE rescue of Northern Rock, and the subsequent injections of taxpayers’ money into RBS and the forced merger of HBOS and Lloyds, stemmed from a clear failure of Ed Balls and Labour’s tripartite regulatory structure for financial services. And when a Liberal Democrat trade secretary and a Conservative chancellor came together to try to agree [...]