Booker raises profits while PwC decides fate of stake May 28, 2009 CASH-and-carry company Booker Group said yesterday its full-year pre-tax profits soared by 30 per cent, and that it expects to know the future of bankrupt bank Kaupthing’s stake in its business within days. The 22 per cent stake was previously held by Kaupthing Capital Partners but, following an Isle of Man court hearing on Wednesday, [...]
More pain for restaurants as firms cut back on Christmas November 12, 2009 THE number of restaurants falling into insolvency is set to rise again next year after one of the quietest corporate Christmases on record. The industry’s woes over the financial crisis have been well publicised by the difficulties experienced by the UK’s celebrity chefs. Gordon Ramsay revealed earlier this year that his restaurant empire had teetered [...]
Watchdog to bare teeth with PwC audit of RBS May 17, 2009 THE Financial Services Authority has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to investigate former board members of Royal Bank of Scotland as part of its inquiry into the banking crisis. The FSA has asked PwC to look into whether the bank’s board gave sufficient information to the stock market in and around the period of its £12bn rights [...]
MARKS AND SPARKS BOSS ROSE SUFFERS A SARTORIAL SETBACK January 5, 2010 IT’S a good job Marks and Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose can look forward to updating the market later today on his firm’s encouraging trading over Christmas, since The Capitalist can reveal he’s about to suffer a disappointment in the style stakes. Rose, you see, has a reputation in the City for being one of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 21, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BONUSES FOR LEHMAN LONDON STAFF Lehman Brothers, the collapsed Wall Street investment bank, is hiring bankers and paying generous bonuses in London to stop employees defecting. Lehman’s European business is recruiting middle and back office staff to help administrators PwC wade through the millions of transactions that must be reconciled with clients and [...]
Government must tighten finances by an extra 26bn October 12, 2009 THE government could balance its books by the year 2015/6 via additional fiscal tightening measures equivalent to £26bn in the next three years, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers will claim today. The report will say the government has a responsibility to put the public finances back on a sustainable footing by 2015/6, two years ahead of [...]
BANKS TO DISCLOSE ALL PAY OVER 1M November 25, 2009 THE government will today announce plans to implement in full the recommendations of the Walker review, paving the way for a massive shake-up of corporate governance and much greater openness over pay at the City’s largest financial institutions. From 2010 onwards, FTSE-100 banks and comparable financial institutions such as large building societies will be forced [...]
Grant Thornton lags the Big Four November 19, 2009 GRANT THORNTON saw turnover fall four per cent over the past financial year as profit per partner dived nearly 20 per cent on costs related to its troublesome merger with rival Robson Rhodes. The fifth-biggest accountancy partnership said revenue fell 4.1 per cent to £378.2m in the year to 30 June. Chief executive Scott Barnes [...]
Copenhagen meeting ends on flat note December 20, 2009 British businesses have slammed the Copenhagen climate summit as a “missed opportunity” as fears grow that London’s leading position in the carbon trading market is under threat. CBI director-general Richard Lambert said the climate-change meeting was “a disappointing conclusion” to two years of negotiations. “Business needs a clearer sense of direction if it is to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 17, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES STRICKEN SCOTTISH AIRLINE’S £30M IN QUESTION Administrators of Globespan, the collapsed Scottish airline that has left thousands of passengers stranded abroad, were investigating last night why £30m of its funds were being held by E-Clear, the company that handles its credit card transactions. Bruce Cartwright, of PwC, said he understood that about half [...]