Enter the corporate entrepreneur: Britain’s best hope for real recovery October 17, 2010 CO-FOUNDER, MARKET GRAVITY THE UK’s recovery from the deepest recession in eighty years is dependent on sustained private sector growth. Corporate earnings may be recovering, but too much is due to cost cutting, not real growth, and this trend is not sustainable. Recent analysis from Market Gravity illustrates that while 75 per cent of FTSE [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES UK AND FRANCE IN TALKS ON TRIDENT MAINTENANCE An agreement being negotiated by the UK and France would see British nuclear warheads serviced by French scientists and break with half a century in which neither country has collaborated on its independent deterrent. Ahead of a summit in three weeks, the governments are close [...]
BP to develop gas fields in Azerbaijan October 6, 2010 BP is expected to close a deal with Azerbaijan’s national oil company today to explore and develop a huge natural-gas field in the Caspian Sea. The field, Shafag-Asiman, has estimated reserves of 17 trillion cubic feet, according to the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar). If confirmed, that would make it almost as [...]
Energy firms take a battering September 20, 2010 A SPATE of Aim-listed oil and chemical stocks fell yesterday, as poor results and disappointing discoveries spooked investors. Sterling Energy said its wells in Kurdistan had produced less gas than expected, sending its shares on the Aim market down 39 per cent to 78.5p. Its two Sangaw wells had initially produced 4m cubit feet of [...]
Tullow buys six exploration licences in East Africa to repeat Ugandan oil find September 2, 2010 OIL explorer Tullow is buying 50 per cent stakes in six exploration licences in Kenya and Ethiopia as the hunt for oil in East Africa gathers pace. Tullow said yesterday the positions it is acquiring are in the East African Rift Basin, which has a similar geology to Uganda’s Lake Albert Rift Basin where it [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 1, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MEAT PRICE SURGE FUELS FEARS OF FOOD INFLATION Global meat prices have hit a 20-year high as robust demand from emerging countries has coincided with a drop in production by exporters such as the US and Australia, fuelling concerns about rising food inflation. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s index of meat prices [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 31, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES DEMOCRATS FACE MIDTERM MELTDOWN Barack Obama’s Democratic party faces a series of dramatic defeats at every level of government in Washington and beyond in the November midterm elections, according to leading analysts and opinion polls. The University of Virginia’s widely monitored Crystal Ball will today forecast sweeping setbacks on Capitol Hill and the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 24, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CIVIL SERVANTS IN PLEA OVER JOBS CULL John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, is being urged to stop ministers from rushing through legislation that will slash redundancy terms for civil servants and clear the way for a cull of up to 100,000 jobs. Francis Maude, cabinet office minister, has asked Mr Bercow to approve [...]
Cairn August 15, 2010 CAIRN’S Indian assets are certainly attractive. The sites bought for a mere $7m (£4.5m) from Shell in 1997 now trade on the Mumbai exchange at a market value of $14bn. Cairn’s flagship oilfields in Rajasthan are predicted to churn out 90,000 barrels a day in 2011, rising to 125,000 barrels the year after. Vedanta is not [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BARCLAYS REFUSES TO USE TARGETS The head of Barclays’ small business division has firmly refused to sign up to UK lending targets in a move that could fuel government criticism of the industry’s willingness to ease credit constraints in the economy. Speaking to the FT after Barclays broadened the remit of its business [...]