Green dreams: a Moon Race for the 21st Century July 19, 2009 FORTY years ago today Neil Armstrong jumped off the ladder of his Eagle landing module as the US finally won the decade long battle with Russia to put the first man on the moon. NASA won, not by luck, but because it put in place a countrywide programme costing over $100bn (£61bn) in today’s money [...]
The lady with the power of heeling July 16, 2009 FOR more than a century, we have been heeling exceptional people,” says Olga Berluti, doyenne of the bespoke shoe business and maker of some of the most sought-after men’s footwear around. You sense she could mean “healing” too – she has an almost moral belief in the value fine shoes bring to her customers. For [...]
RHJ plans offer of 300m for a stake in Opel July 14, 2009 RHJ INTERNATIONAL, a rival bidder to frontrunner Magna for German carmaker Opel, is planning to offer around €300m (£256.9m) for a stake of just over 50 per cent in the group, it emerged yesterday. RHJ’s bid comes in below the €660m that Beijing Automotive (BAIC) intends to invest for a 51 per cent stake in [...]
New stock value for Facebook July 13, 2009 Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian investment firm that invested $200m in Facebook this spring, is offering $14.77 (£9.09) a share for stock in the social network, in a deal that values it at around $6.5bn. The new valuation is lower than the $10bn valuation at which DST originally invested, as well as the $15bn [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 12, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphFOCUS DIY CHAIN FACES TOUGH CREDIT REVIEWA review of Focus DIY’s financial position will be delivered by Ernst & Young (E&Y) to the group’s lenders this Friday to help them to decide whether to continue backing the DIY retailer. Although the lenders, GMAC and HBOS, have agreed in principle to renew a [...]
Government helps drive up Chinese vehicle sales July 9, 2009 CAR sales in China jumped emphatically by 48.5 per cent for the month of June, bucking the worldwide trend, the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers announced yesterday. China recently overtook the US to become the world’s largest car market, and the nation’s thriving industry stands in stark contrast to car markets in the West which [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 8, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES ARCELORMITTAL ATTEMPTS TO EASE DEBT BURDENArcelorMittal has started talks with its banks about making conditions for re-paying its $26bn (£16.2bn) of debt less onerous, in a bid to reduce financial pressure on the company as the global downturn continues. The world’s biggest steelmaker has taken this step as an insurance policy against its [...]
Europan Union fines E.on and GDF Suez 1bn for collusion July 8, 2009 UTILITY giants E.On and Gaz De France (GDF) Suez were fined a total of almost £1bn by the European Commission’s competition regulators yesterday, who said the pair had divided up gas markets and deprived customers of price competition. Germany’s E.On and France’s GDF Suez were fined €553m (£477m) each, after it emerged that they had [...]
Arsenal keep Usmanov at arm’s length by rejecting proposal for rights issue July 8, 2009 ARSENAL’S second largest shareholder Alisher Usmanov last night responded frostily after the Premier League club rejected his proposal of a rights issue. Gunners chief executive Ivan Gazidis said yesterday that the board had discussed the fund-raising exercise but concluded it would not greatly improve their financial position. Usmanov, who owns a 25 per cent stake [...]
Chinese BAIC joins bid for GM Europe July 7, 2009 CHINA’S Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) yesterday offered to invest €660m (£570m) in GM Europe in return for a 51 per cent stake. The state-owned Chinese group’s offer is likely to involve plans to expand operations inside China, the world’s largest car market. The deal would need €2.64bn of state-guaranteed loans. BAIC would also look [...]