Model citizens can get the best deals May 13, 2010 THE turmoil of the past two years has been unforgiving for first time buyers. In the boom times they were falling over themselves to snap up properties before prices shot up further, fuelled by a plethora of mortgages that offered 100 per cent borrowing and sometimes even more than that (thank you, Northern Rock). By [...]
Deutsche Post upbeat for 2010 May 11, 2010 Deutsche Post delivered an upbeat 2010 outlook after improved shipping volumes and restructuring helped turn around its express business in the first quarter, leading to forecast-beating earnings. “We had a very good start to 2010 and we are on our way toward reaching our 2010 targets,” chief financial officer Larry Rosen said yesterday. Europe’s biggest [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK May 9, 2010 PLENTY of food for thought for these eight accountants on Friday lunchtime, as they headed to Farringdon’s Vivat Bacchus restaurant for a post-election discussion of the results and possible implications for British politics. Our connoisseurs fed their debate with foie gras, asparagus and ostrich carpaccio for starters, rack of lamb, springbok, beef and sea bass [...]
A Lab-Lib deal would be terrible for Britain May 7, 2010 AMONG all of the uncertainties of our first hung Parliament in 36 years, a few definite trends can now be discerned. The first, and most important, is that we are now in coalition talks. Gordon Brown wants to cling to power and do anything he can to create a coalition with the Lib Dems and anybody [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS (AND SOME OF THE BLOGS) SAY TODAY May 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ELECTION ENDS IN HUNG PARLIAMENT David Cameron was facing the prospect of a constitutional stand-off with Gordon Brown on Friday morning over who would get the keys to Number 10 as a hung parliament in the UK appeared inevitable. The Conservative party leader insisted that Labour had “lost its mandate to govern” as [...]
ITV warns of an uncertain time ahead May 7, 2010 ITV, the commercial broadcasting group, has warned investors that the outlook for the second half of the year – post the election – was “highly uncertain” after disclosing that revenues for the first half were up by a healthy six per cent. The group, which is now headed by former Post Office chief Adam Crozier, [...]
What an astonishing night May 6, 2010 4.20AM: WHAT an election night. The early results have been all over the place. Clearly, the public has rejected the Labour government and the Tories have had more votes than anybody else; but everything else is much more murky. Swings have been hugely variable. Here are a few early thoughts about what has happened. 1) [...]
Choosing the most suitable card is not a zero-sum game May 6, 2010 WHEN Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank announced earlier this week their offer of 0 per cent interest on balance transfers for the first 16 months, it threw the cat among the pigeons. The two banks, both UK subsidiaries of National Australia Bank, leapt straight to the top of the best-buy comparison tables with the deal, [...]
French foray for Compass May 5, 2010 COMPASS Group, the world’s biggest caterer, bought French food service business Caterine Restauration for an undisclosed sum yesterday. The French caterer, which specialises in the provision of services in the education and healthcare sectors, posted revenues of €41.8m (£35.8m) for the 12 months to 31 August 2009 with gross assets valued at €34m (£29m). Compass [...]
Fixed income drives UBS to robust profits May 4, 2010 SWISS banking giant UBS yesterday went some way towards putting to rest stubborn fears over its financial health, smashing City expectations with its strongest set of profits in three years. UBS – which took a mighty hammering in recent years from the financial crisis, heavy withdrawals and a bitter US tax fraud investigation – posted [...]