Coalition’s lack of courage threatens a triple-dip recession July 23, 2012 SOMETHING quite astonishing happened yesterday – and no, I’m not referring to the gorgeous weather, or to Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de Force. The real miracle was that supermarkets opened for much longer than they are normally allowed to on a Sunday, with shops describing these as “summer opening hours” (out of fear of being prosecuted [...]
Coalition’s lack of courage threatens a triple-dip recession July 22, 2012 SOMETHING quite astonishing happened yesterday – and no, I’m not referring to the gorgeous weather, or to Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de Force. The real miracle was that supermarkets opened for much longer than they are normally allowed to on a Sunday, with shops describing these as “summer opening hours” (out of fear of being prosecuted [...]
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR August 5, 2012 SINCE City A.M.’s last awards ceremony in 2011, the legal sector has undergone one of the biggest shake-ups in recent years with the introduction of the Legal Services Act. The introduction of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) on 3 January was a formal acknowledgment of the ripples of change that have been spreading across the legal [...]
Diamond feared nationalisation July 4, 2012 BOB Diamond yesterday told MPs that he feared Barclays could have been nationalised if the bank did not reduce its Libor interest rate submissions in October 2008. At that time Barclays was reporting funding costs at the top end of the scale, even though other banks were in much worse condition. “They might say to [...]
Obama’s healthcare victory could prove a poisoned chalice in November July 4, 2012 FOLLOWING the ratification of the US Constitution, Benjamin Franklin quipped that “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Due to the creative jurisprudence of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, President Barack Obama can be thankful that the death of his health care reforms has been [...]
Shares plunge at Homeserve on FSA probe May 22, 2012 AROUND £200m was wiped from the value of repairs group Homeserve yesterday after it said the City regulator had launched a probe into mis-selling claims. The stock closed down by nearly a third after it confirmed the Financial Services Authority would investigate “certain historic issues”. The inquiry, which Homeserve said would take “a number of [...]
Honda doubles quarterly profit April 27, 2012 Honda posted a more than doubling in quarterly operating profit, as production recovered from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, and it forecast a 38 percent rise in global sales in the year ahead as it makes up for lost time. The company, which has lagged a recovery from the effects of disasters [...]
Woodford ends unfair dismissal fight with former firm Olympus May 29, 2012 EX-OLYMPUS boss Michael Woodford has won a settlement, thought to be worth millions of pounds, from his disgraced former employer, camera maker Olympus. The British businessman, 51, agreed a deal after a night of negotiations triggered when he took his unfair dismissal claim to a London employment tribunal. It appears to end for Woodford a [...]
Big Yellow hit by tax raid on storage space May 22, 2012 STORAGE giant Big Yellow yesterday reported annual losses of £35.6m – triggered by writedowns linked to an impending tax rise. The government is planning to slap VAT on self storage payments, which means that storage costs could shoot up as much as ten per cent. The company’s losses in the year to the end of [...]
FUND MANAGER OF THE YEAR July 30, 2012 Our fund manager of the year award, sponsored by S&P Capital IQ, will go to a company or individual who has demonstrated strong performance or has taken a headline-grabbing stance during a high-profile corporate issue. Well-judged deals against a complex economic backdrop, a commitment to shareholder activism or a canny ability to weather the near-constant [...]