WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 15, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CVC STRUGGLES WITH TERRIBLE RESULTS IN ASIA When CVC raised a $4.12bn Asian buy-out fund in 2008, Marc St John, its head of investor relations, referred to the private equity group’s record in the region when he said investors “like what they see”. A few years and a financial crisis later, investors are [...]
Rebellion threatens to topple besieged leader Berlusconi November 3, 2011 PRESSURE rose on Italy’s besieged Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to quit yesterday, as six former parliamentary loyalists called for a new government and the squabbling cabinet failed to agree an urgent economic reform programme. European leaders have tried to push Berlusconi into bringing the country’s finances under control to avoid exacerbating the euro crisis. The [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 1, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BIG AREAS STILL LACK 3G, SAYS OFCOM Nearly 90 per cent of the UK’s land mass and a quarter of buildings are unable to receive all five 3G phone networks a decade after the introduction of the mobile licences, according to the telecoms regulator. In its first report on the UK’s communications infrastructure, [...]
Tensions flare on eve of Europe summit October 25, 2011 A flare-up over the European Central Bank and political turmoil in Italy have kept the Eurozone on edge on the eve of a summit meant to confront the currency bloc’s worsening sovereign debt crisis. Just 24 hours before European leaders are due to adopt a plan to reduce Greece’s debt burden, fortify European banks to [...]
CONFERENCE WHISPERS October 2, 2011 Second class MPs Journalists and MPs haven’t been the best of friends recently. So political hacks on the train to Manchester yesterday morning were more than happy to engage in a bit of petty one-upmanship. Virgin Trains were offering £10 upgrades to First Class, where passengers can use the WiFi connection for free. Allowing for [...]
Gold drops by more than five per cent as equities spring back August 24, 2011 GOLD plummeted by over five per cent yesterday — its sharpest decline in nearly three years — as some investors cashed in on its recent surge and switched to equities ahead of Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s hotly-anticipated speech at Jackson Hole. The precious metal – which soared to over $1,900 an ounce earlier in [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 27, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES INSURANCE COST AGAINST US DEFAULT HITS RECORD The cost of buying insurance against a default by the US rose to a record on Wednesday, in a sign of growing unease that gridlock in Washington over raising the federal debt ceiling may result in the Treasury failing to pay interest to bondholders. The market [...]
Kingfisher sales hit by weak UK July 21, 2011 Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvement retailer, posted a small fall in underlying second-quarter sales as a hit to its British business from the closing down sale of a rival outweighed solid growth in France. The group, which runs market leader B&Q in Britain as well as the Castorama and Brico Depot chains in France and [...]
City: government should review cuts to defence budget in light of Libya conflict July 3, 2011 VOICE OF THE CITY THE government should have taken more account of the cost of going to war in Libya and must now review its plans to cut defence spending, according to the City A.M./PoliticsHome Voice of the City Panel. Although a majority of panellists (63 per cent) thought the government was right to go [...]
Only 4.9pc of government sector jobs set to be cut June 28, 2011 FEWER than one in 20 government sector jobs are set to be cut under the coalition’s austerity plans, a Westminster think tank claims today. Private sector job creation will be “far larger” than the reduction in government employees, the Centre for Policy Studies expects. Around 7.53m people work in government-provided services. The Office for Budget [...]