Schaeffler bid divides Conti board July 21, 2008 German ball bearings maker Schaeffler yesterday said it was still seeking friendly talks with tyre maker Continental, for which it has launched an unsolicited £9bn takeover bid. But insiders say the Conti board are split over whether or not to engage with the rival firm. Schaeffler reiterated its aim for a stake of 36 per [...]
WTO talks could ease trade crisis July 21, 2008 World Bank president Robert Zoellick yesterday urged trade ministers to push for a breakthrough in this week’s World Trade Organization talks, saying it was “now or never” to reach a deal. Zoellick said progress on agricultural issues in the meeting opening in Geneva today would bolster confidence in a world economy strained by soaring food [...]
BP fight over divi cut July 21, 2008 British oil giant BP has blocked a $1.8bn (£900m) dividend payment due to four Russian billionaire shareholders of its strife-torn joint venture TNK-BP. But while the move was seen in London yesterday as proof that the UK giant was fighting back, the oligarchs claimed that there was no disagreement. They too had voted not to [...]
Reprieve for foreign profit taxation plan July 21, 2008 Chancellor Alistair Darling is considering axe-ing unpopular plans to reform the taxation of foreign profits that threatened to drive businesses away to tax havens outside the UK. Since the Treasury set out proposals last year to clamp down on tax avoidance, including introducing UK taxes on foreign profits and passive income, several companies have already [...]
HBOS suffers rights issue humiliation July 21, 2008 Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort to lose tens of millions of pounds on the deal High street banking group HBOS is today expected to announce that as few as 10 per cent of investors took up its £4bn share offer, making it one of the biggest rights issue failures in corporate history. Shareholders, who were [...]
Ditch the crystal ball and just keep on trading to win July 21, 2008 It’s impossible to call the market’s bottom, so stick to trading its actual moves, says Sandy Jadeja Has the market reached an important low, and are stocks cheap? That’s a crucial question, but given present market conditions, also a tricky one. For several weeks now I have been arguing that the FTSE 100 would need [...]
Rising food costs getting you down? Try a spread bet July 21, 2008 A spread bet on commodities offers you an excellent opportunity to get even, according to Katie Hope You would have had to have spent the past year in a cave not to be interested in commodities. For car drivers, the price of petrol is an ever-growing concern, while rising food prices have caused riots in [...]
Brown calls for release of five Britons July 21, 2008 Gordon Brown called for the release of five British hostages held in Iraq yesterday, after the release of a video claiming that one had killed himself. earlier this year. The prime minister, who is visiting Israel, described the video as “abhorrent”. He said: “I call on the hostage-takers to release those people who have been [...]
Harley Street might help steer ITV back to good health July 18, 2008 At least you can’t accuse ITV of not trying. The colour advertising spreads promoting its new drama Harley Street were everywhere yesterday. We will know today whether ITV has managed to engineer that increasingly rare phenomenon, a new drama hit. At least the Radio Times made it Pick of the Day and noted that while [...]
Anger as government admits it will miss carbon target by huge margin July 18, 2008 The Government admitted yesterday what experts have been saying for some time — that it will miss by a large margin its own target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010. New projections from the Department of the Environment (DEFRA) put CO2 emissions in 2010 at only 15.5 [...]