After ten years of oil deficits – is now the time for shale gas? January 9, 2014 It has been over a decade since the UK was a net oil exporter, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. In November, the balance on trade in oil was in deficit by £0.9bn. The figures further confirm the long decline of North Sea oil production. North Sea oil can no longer [...]
RBS to cut jobs to reduce costs January 8, 2014 ROYAL Bank of Scotland is expected to announce job cuts next month as part of plans to reduce its cost base. Chief executive Ross McEwan, who took the helm last October, said he wanted to cut the group’s cost base, reducing its cost to income percentage target to the mid 50s from its current 65 [...]
HSBC plans share payments in response to Brussels’ bonus cap January 7, 2014 TOP STAFF at HSBC will receive quarterly payments of shares as part of their salaries, it emerged yesterday, as part of a plan to pay employees within the EU’s new bonus cap. The bank wants to pay some employees mainly in bonuses so it can vary pay easily depending on performance and can claw back the [...]
France’s failed socialist experiment is turning into a tragedy January 7, 2014 FRANCE is still France – and that, tragically, is why that great country and its wonderful people are doomed to decline further this year, and why even more successful French business folk, entrepreneurs and professionals will move to London over the next 12 months. While many other countries are recovering strongly, France is sinking again, [...]
France’s failed socialist experiment is turning into a tragedy January 6, 2014 FRANCE is still France – and that, tragically, is why that great country and its wonderful people are doomed to decline further this year, and why even more successful French business folk, entrepreneurs and professionals will move to London over the next 12 months. While many other countries are recovering strongly, France is sinking again, [...]
Business groups pan migrant crackdown January 6, 2014 BUSINESS leaders have condemned Ed Miliband’s plan to prevent employers paying low wages to migrant workers, calling it “misguided,” after a day in which both the Prime Minister and leader of Ukip Nigel Farage also toughened their rhetoric on migrant labour. The Labour leader vowed to close an opt-out allowing employment agencies, which can employ [...]
Woodford goes boutique with new fund plans December 19, 2013 THE UK’s most powerful investor Neil Woodford will swap his role running £33bn of cash next year to join serial entrepreneur Peter Dubens’ low key private equity venture. Woodford, who owns major stakes in a host of FTSE 100 firms, will join boutique outfit Oakley Capital when he quits his current role at fund giant [...]
Ofcom rules for BT Openreach to improve service December 19, 2013 OFCOM has proposed a set of stricter rules for BT’s Openreach division that will require 80 per cent of fault repairs to be made within two working days, regardless of factors such as severe weather conditions. Sky and TalkTalk – who offer phone and internet services to their customers over BT’s network infrastructure – have [...]
Serco raises cost estimate of tagging probe December 19, 2013 Another blow for embattled outsourcing company Serco. The group is currently the subject of an investigation into whether it overcharged the government for its electronic tagging of prisoners, and it's now upped its estimate of how much the review will cost it – from £12m to £17m, with accounting and other one-off costs increasing from [...]
Inside Track: My top tip for 2014: Deutsche Post will buy Royal Mail December 18, 2013 IT wouldn’t be the final column of a calendar year without some predictions for the next 12 months. Here are my top three: Royal Mail will complete a journey from being wholly-owned by the UK state to wholly-owned by a German enterprise within little more than 12 months. Deutsche Post won’t get it delivered cheap, [...]