Pesky regulators dash hope of top line growth May 10, 2012 IT SHOULD come as no surprise that BT chief Ian Livingston, a well-respected former bean counter, can cut costs. Operating costs fell by six per cent last year, enabling the group to grow earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) by three per cent to £6.1bn. That means the company has met its £6bn [...]
M&B sales growth slows September 27, 2011 British pubs & restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers reported slowing sales growth in the fourth quarter, giving prospective suitor Joe Lewis more ammunition to stake his claim. The group, which has rejected two approaches from the billionaire currency trader and and said sales growth at pubs and restaurants open more than a year slowed to [...]
Shell’s execs get bumper pay awards March 15, 2012 SHELL’S record profits led to bumper pay-outs for its top staff last year, its annual report showed yesterday. The company beat eight of its 14 performance targets, thanks to the soaring price of oil that pushed up its profits 54 per cent to £18bn, allowing it to “increase… the overall remuneration quantum” for the year. [...]
Joe Lewis pulls takeover offer for troubled M&B October 13, 2011 MAVERICK investor Joe Lewis withdrew his offer for pub chain Mitchells & Butlers yesterday, blaming poor trading and higher risk in the business. Lewis’s investment vehicle Piedmont, M&B’s biggest investor, said it had dropped the informal 230p-per-share bid to buy the company at below its market value. “After careful consideration, Piedmont has decided not to [...]
Joe Lewis pulls takeover offer for troubled M&B October 13, 2011 MAVERICK investor Joe Lewis withdrew his offer for pub chain Mitchells & Butlers yesterday, blaming poor trading and higher risk in the business. Lewis’s investment vehicle Piedmont, M&B’s biggest investor, said it had dropped the informal 230p-per-share bid to buy the company at below its market value. “After careful consideration, Piedmont has decided not to [...]
Williams out in first round as Nadal dazzles May 29, 2012 SERENA Williams was yesterday knocked out at the first round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career after losing 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to world number 111 Virginie Razzono in the French Open. Williams, the 2002 champion and this year’s fifth seed, squandered a 5-1 lead in the second set tie-break [...]
All aboard the magnificent Orient Express August 19, 2012 ITALY’S in debt, you say? Well, I’m on the Orient Express headed straight to Venice – fiddling while Rome burns, you might say – and there’s no sign of the Italian economy crashing here. As if to prove my point, the flamboyant Massimo shows me another popular purchase from the train’s on-board shop. “These diamond [...]
Wall St treads water despite surge in M&A February 14, 2013 THE S&P 500 eked out a small gain for a third straight session yesterday, helped by a flurry of merger activity, though investors see no catalysts to lift the market further with major averages near multi-year highs. The market’s slowed advance took the S&P 500 to its highest intraday level since November 2007 on Wednesday. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 1, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES BSkyB begins board overhaul Two key independent directors at BSkyB are set to leave as the pay-TV company embarks on an overhaul of its board that could weaken its unanimous backing of James Murdoch as chairman. Dame Gail Rebuck, chief executive of Random House, the publisher, and Lord Wilson of Dinton, former cabinet [...]
RAPID responses April 26, 2012 Bonus control Andrew Haldane, a Bank of England official, has suggested that bonus deferral and claw-back periods should be extended to 10 years or more for bank executives. While we sympathise with the view that regulation is not sufficient, this proposal is unworkable and counterproductive. Who would work on that basis? 10 years is a [...]