UK industrial output dips August 6, 2010 UK industrial output fell by 0.5 per cent in June compared the previous month, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics said industrial output fell 0.5 per cent in June, confounding forecasts for a 0.2 percent rise, after oil and gas output fell 6.0 percent on the month, its biggest fall in just [...]
Bankruptcies fall 21pc but overstretched borrowers find other ways to go bust August 4, 2010 PERSONAL bankruptcies fell to pre-recession levels in the second quarter, but the headline drop masked a rush by troubled consumers for alternative ways to resolve their woes. Despite a 21 per cent year-on-year decline in bankruptcies, 380 people entered into insolvency every day during the three months, according to accountancy firm RSM Tenon. Debt relief [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 28, 2010 Collins Stewart The financial advisory group has appointed a new equity research, sales and corporate broking team, focused on the mining sector and headed by John McGloin (pictured). McGloin has worked as an analyst for the past eight years at Beeson Gregory and Evolution. He is joined by mining analysts Tim Dudley and Andrei Kroupnik; [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 25, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph FUND CHIEF SLAMS OFWAT One of Britain’s leading investors in the UK’s water industry has said that Ofwat is “dysfunctional” and should be merged with the electricity regulator, Ofgem. Neil Woodford, leading fund manager for Invesco Perpetual, said that the water regulator did not understand the equity market and that [...]
Asprey boss leaves luxury jeweller July 25, 2010 The chief executive of Asprey, jeweller to the Royal Family, is understood to have quit the company as it undergoes a turnaround process. Robert Procop is believed to have left after two years with the Bond Street retailer, which was rescued from insolvency in 2006 by investment houses Sciens Capital and Plainfield Capital. Procop joined [...]
UK insolvency down as business picks up July 18, 2010 INDICATIONS that the UK’s business community is starting to stabilise have come from new data that shows the number of company insolvencies in June has declined by more than 13 per cent from last year. Information from data services group Experian shows that 1,771 UK businesses failed last month down from the 2,044 that became [...]
Pension trustees wait for court to decide what happens if BT goes bust July 14, 2010 Pension trustees at BT were last night awaiting a High Court ruling over how much of the telecom giant’s liabilities would be guaranteed by the state if it were to collapse. The former state telecoms monopoly was given a guarantee when it was privatised in 1984 that the government would back its pension scheme in [...]
Public sector building slump raises double-dip fears July 12, 2010 A SHARP drop in public sector building activity caused commercial development to fall to the lowest monthly level in nearly a year in June, according to property advisor Savills. The company said its Commercial Development Activity Index showed a net balance of minus 2.8 percent in June, the lowest reading in 11 months, down from [...]
Financial companies left behind in upturn July 11, 2010 STRESS levels are mounting at financial services firms even as corporates across the board begin to recover, according to the latest monthly City A.M./Begbies Taynor health monitor for the Square Mile. While companies in Greater London showed a marked improvement in June, with 23 per cent fewer suffering from serious problems, woes continued to pile [...]
Nortel group is fined £2.1bn July 8, 2010 REGULATORS yesterday took the unusual step of ordering administrators of the insolvent Nortel group to provide up to £2.1bn in financial support to help bail out its 42,000 pension fund members in Britain. The Pensions Regulator issued a Financial Support Direction against 25 companies in the telecoms equipment group, which was put into administration in [...]