What the other papers say this Morning December 3, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES EDF cost rises damp nuclear hopes EDF, the French utility, said the cost of its new nuclear power station in northern France had increased by a third, raising fears that its planned UK plant may also be vulnerable to a similar budget blowout. But EDF Energy, the company’s UK subsidiary, insisted that the [...]
Online retailers prepare for busiest day ever December 2, 2012 HIGH street shops and online retailers will face one of their fiercest battles yet for customers this Christmas, with today set to mark the busiest internet shopping day of the year. UK online sales will peak today – dubbed Mega Monday by City analysts – with Visa Europe expecting 6.8m transactions worth £320m to be [...]
Should we be worried that zombie firms will worsen the effects of the recession? November 29, 2012 YES Jon Moulton We should be afraid of zombie companies that eat away at good assets and valuable finance. Allowing bad business models to persist spurns one of the very few positive effects of a recession: clearing out the economically unproductive companies to make way for strong, innovative ones. Forbearance is a nice phrase, but [...]
Better Capital’s £10m shareholder payback November 27, 2012 LISTED private equity firm Better Capital, founded by UK venture capitalist Jon Moulton, is expected to pay its first dividend to shareholders early next year after announcing plans for a £10.4m payback from its first investment fund. The turnaround specialist, which owns fashion retailer Jaeger and publisher Reader’s Digest among others, said it anticipated a [...]
Less than 1pc of firms go bust during October November 25, 2012 FEWER and fewer firms are being forced into insolvency, data out this morning suggested, despite continued economic pressure on business. Just 1,685 firms went insolvent during October, according to data from Experian, down 8.7 per cent on October 2011, to make up just 0.08 per cent of the total business population. Nearly all firm sizes [...]
Paragon profits soar as bigger lenders cut back on buy-to-let November 20, 2012 MORTGAGE firm Paragon increased profits by 22.5 per cent in the last 12 months, according to full-year results published yesterday. The specialist buy-to-let and consumer finance group reported record pre-tax profit of £95.5m, up from £80.8m in the previous year. Paragon benefited from bigger lenders cutting back credit, allowing it to expand. The results allowed [...]
City Moves | Who’s switching jobs November 13, 2012 Alvarez & Marsal The professional services firm has announced three appointments. Dan Murphy joins as a managing director from Alix Partners. He has also held roles at Ernst & Young. Ian Woosey and Lynn Evison join as senior directors. Woosey was previously director of retail consulting at Summit, and Evison was a partner at Kurt [...]
Who’s switching jobs November 12, 2012 KNG Securities The fixed income product provider has appointed Andrea Podesta as managing partner and head of fixed income. He joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was managing director and head of southern Europe fixed income sales. BNY Mellon The financial services firm has appointed Alan Cottam as regional business head for [...]
BTA poised to seize oligarch’s assets after appeal thrown out November 6, 2012 MUKHTAR Ablyazov, a fugitive oligarch accused of embezzling more than $5bn (£3.1bn), was labelled “devious” and “cynical” by judges yesterday as his former Kazakh bank BTA prepared to pounce on his assets. On the eve of his fraud trial, the Court of Appeal threw out Ablyazov’s attempts in absentia to overturn a 22-month jail sentence [...]
Credit Insurance Explained November 1, 2012 JULIE PALMER BEGBIES TRAYNOR The Christmas trading period is a “Russian Roulette” quarter for retailers, Julie Palmer, a partner at law firm Begbies Traynor explains. “The retailer has to decide to what level they are going to stock their stores, which places heavy demand on their cash flows to fully stock if the suppliers won’t [...]