Chelsea FC have received over £1bn Roman Abramovich loans in 12 years May 14, 2015 Roman Abramovich's loans to Chelsea have risen above the £1bn mark. Chelsea's billionaire Russian owner has loaned a total of £1,041,243,000 to Fordstam, the company through which he owns the Premier League champions. According to Fordstam's latest accounts for the full financial year ended 30 June 2014, Abramovich's loans to the club rose by £60m [...]
Centrica almost triples UK gas supply volume May 13, 2015 THE UK’s dependency on gas from Russia just increased, after Centrica signed a deal with state-owned giant Gazprom to ramp up the amount of energy it buys from the firm. Centrica has increased the volume of gas it is buying from Norway’s Statoil as well. Centrica, which owns British Gas, first struck a deal with [...]
UK to get more gas from a Russian firm as Centrica extends deals with Gazprom May 13, 2015 The UK's dependency on gas from Russian firms just increased, after Centrica signed a deal with state energy giant Gazprom – as well as Norwegian rival Statoil – to ramp up the amount of gas it buys from the companies. Centrica, which owns British Gas, said it had extended its contracts with Statoil and Gazprom [...]
ITE Group share price jumps as it shakes off Russia woes May 11, 2015 A sign of the times? Exhibitions and conferences business ITE Group, whose largest market is Russia and Ukraine, says it's back on form. The figures Alright, so the company's pre-tax profits fell 3.9 per cent to £17.5m in the six months to the end of March, while revenues dropped from £71.2m in 2014 to £56.1m. And net debt rose to [...]
L1 Energy looks into UK North Sea asset sale May 10, 2015 THE NORTH Sea is likely to undergo significant change over the next few years, as a number of the big players move to offload their interests in the region. L1 Energy, a subsidiary of Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman’s Letter One Group, is reported to have appointed Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale of its [...]
As EU leaders say Grexit would be catastrophic, can we expect a deal sooner rather than later? May 7, 2015 Christian Schulz is senior economist at Berenberg, says Yes Syriza’s devastating reform reversals and reckless negotiating have weakened Greece so much that it will soon have to accept Troika demands. Empty public coffers, record deposit outflows, dwindling taxpayer morale, the Tsipras recession and the predictable failure to get Russian or Chinese funding have left Athens [...]
Pieces of a failed Russian spaceship could fall down to earth on Friday May 6, 2015 Fragments of a failed Russian spacecraft are expected to fall to Earth later this week, according to space agency Roscosmos. The Progress resupply ship was sent up into space at the end of last month to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), but was unable to reach the correct orbit and went into an [...]
Russia’s Rosneft keeps Sechin on with a £3.1m a year packet May 5, 2015 RUSSIAN state-owned oil firm Rosneft has revealed that chief executive Igor Sechin earns at least around 240m roubles (£3.13m) a year. The move comes just months after the county’s president Vladimir Putin encouraged greater transparency around wages. While the company did not reveal Sechin’s total pay, it said that he earns at least 15-20m roubles [...]
The General Election fight, Mayweather Vs Pacquiao fight, s**t trains and marathons: What got us talking this week May 1, 2015 This was the week when everyone became completely pumped about the General Election. No? Well, David Cameron did, anyway, so we were told. The entire political establishment (and even self-styled revolutionaries) really ramped things up in the vote-hunting stakes as the parties square up. Anyone would think there was an election next week. Skip your [...]
Bank of Russia cuts rates more than expected April 30, 2015 The Bank of Russia has cut rates more than expected, from 14 per cent to 12.5 per cent, citing “persistent risks of considerable economy cooling”. Although a cut was widely expected, consensus had put the reduction at one percentage point, taking the country's base rate to 13 per cent. Rates peaked at 17 per [...]