WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 25, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES TOYOTA WANTS MORE NIMBLE FIRMAkio Toyoda, the new chief executive of Toyota Motor, yesterday pledged to bring a looser, more nimble management style to the carmaker, which is facing its biggest crisis since Sakichi Toyoda – his grandfather and Toyota’s founder – ran the company six decades ago. Mr Toyoda promised “to do [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 26, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES CHEVRON EXPECTED TO COME UNDER FIRE OVER LAWSUIT IN ECUADORChevron is expected to come under fire from shareholders over its environmental record in Ecuador, which has left the world’s third-largest oil company facing potential liabilities of $27bn. Investors, as well as indigenous and farming communities from Ecuador’s Amazon, are set to attack Chevron [...]
Council of regulators led by chancellor to monitor risks to the financial system July 8, 2009 A NEW Council for Financial Stability (CFS), composed of representatives from the tripartite authorities, will be handed responsibility for monitoring emerging risks in the financial system, chancellor Alistair Darling announced yesterday. The CFS, to be chaired by Darling himself, will see figures from the Treasury, Bank of England and FSA meet regularly to discuss and [...]
Nationwide in 69 per cent profit fall on protection fees May 27, 2009 NATIONWIDE, Britain’s largest building society, reported a 69 per cent drop in full-year pre-tax profits yesterday, blaming the decline on the costs of the government’s deposit protection scheme for savers. The mortgage provider and lender offered little sign of optimism in its outlook, warning of further loan loss provisions to come.The group said it was [...]
Darling’s report: good in parts but flawed overall July 8, 2009 THERE will be no return to business as usual, not by any stretch of the imagination. But yesterday’s Treasury white paper also confirms that financial capitalism as we know it is here to stay. The authorities want to reform global finance to make it work better and to try and avoid extreme booms and busts; [...]
REALITY CHECK AS UK DEFICIT SOARS May 21, 2009 TENTATIVE signs of a recovery in the UK economy were dramatically overshadowed yesterday when credit ratings agency S&P downgraded its outlook on UK debt and the scale of the crisis in the public finances was laid bare. S&P lowered its outlook on the UK’s prized AAA credit rating to “negative” from “stable”, giving a one [...]
Q&A: BUYING May 14, 2009 Q. Dear Camilla, I’m looking to buy a property but have we reached the bottom of the market or do prices have further to fall? A. Prices have fallen between 15 and 20 percent since the peak of the market, which was March 2008 for London. At the beginning of this year most analysts were [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 31, 2009 THE SUNDAYSTHE SUNDAY TIMES SKY SAYS NO TO SETANTASports organisations including the Scottish Premier League may be forced to stomach deeper-than-expected cuts to their TV income after shareholders in Setanta failed to stump up enough cash to keep the broadcaster alive. Setanta’s financial position was so parlous this weekend that it asked arch-rival BSkyB for [...]
Q&A: SALES May 21, 2009 Q. Dear Russell, I’ve put an offer in on a property that I really like but so has another party. The vendor has said that he wants to do a contract race in order to decide. What does that mean?A. A contract race is very much first-past-the-post – basically the first party to have read [...]
Q & A : WHAT DOES S&P’S DECISION MEAN FOR THE UK May 21, 2009 Q. WHAT EXACTLY HAS STANDARD & POOR’S DONE?A. It has downgraded its rating on Britain’s AAA rating, to “negative” from “stable”. Q. WHAT IS MEANT BY AN OUTLOOK DEFINITION?A. An S&P rating outlook assesses the potential direction in which a rating will move over the next six months to two years. “Negative” means it may [...]