Tesco April 20, 2010 THE LATE Jack Cohen, who founded Tesco in 1924, was fond of telling staff “you can’t do business sitting on your arse”. It’s a slogan that clearly resonates with the current management team, who show no sign of losing their expansionary zeal. Tesco has grown much further and faster than domestic rivals like J Sainsbury [...]
Citigroup April 19, 2010 IT IS hard to overstate the symbolic importance of Citigroup’s first quarter earnings, which have smashed analyst expectations. Of those banks that managed to survive the banking crisis, it was by far the biggest casualty. “On the brink” is a phrase that is used far too much in the wake of the near-meltdown – but [...]
Africa oil exploration market is set to boom April 13, 2010 TULLOW yesterday moved one step closer to drawing oil from its Kasamene field in Uganda. News that it has found oil over 2km from the original discovery well suggests that the field could end up producing far more than expected. Elsewhere in Africa, things are also looking good. It is in talks to buy two [...]
New piracy law is not a magic bullet April 8, 2010 THE thud of the Digital Britain bill hitting the statute books yesterday drowned out a collective sigh from the music industry. They shouldn’t be so relieved. Legislating to punish pirates will do nothing to address the massive challenges that record labels face in a digital age. Forcing internet service providers like TalkTalk to disconnect customers [...]
Better load factor is key April 8, 2010 AT LAST, there is sun on the horizon for the beleaguered airline industry. Easyjet yesterday said its passenger numbers were up 13.5 per cent in March compared to last year, a similar result to Ryanair, which carried 13 per cent more passengers last month. Although both companies said they saw increased business thanks to the [...]
Sky will have to play defensively March 31, 2010 PERHAPS Sky should have remembered the advice of Marx brother Chico when it bet the house on premiership football rights back in 1992: “If you win today, you’ll only lose tomorrow. A sure thing is no fun.” Having had the premium sports TV space to itself for the last eight years, the media regulator is [...]
BANK OF ENGLAND BOFFIN KNOCKS THE SPOTS OFF THE COMPETITION March 31, 2010 WHEN it comes to pepping up weighty speeches with witty references to popular culture, the boffins from the Bank of England aren’t exactly known for being trailblazers. But Andrew Haldane, the Bank’s executive director for financial stability, tore his peers’ stuffy image to shreds in a speech in Hong Kong this week by managing to [...]
Network Rail to seek strike injunction March 31, 2010 A LEGAL standoff between Network Rail and trade union RMT has been pushed back to today, after the rail operator threatened to seek an injunction against a proposed strike by signalling staff. The two will meet this morning in front of a High Court judge to push for an injunction to prevent a three-day walkout [...]
City hits out at new loan cop March 25, 2010 BANKS have slammed government plans for a credit adjudication service to force them to lend more money to businesses, describing the idea as “just another layer of bureaucracy”. Alistair Darling used Wednesday’s Budget to announce the creation of a watchdog which would be able to intervene when a company felt it had been unfairly refused [...]
Network Rail staff to strike March 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S railways are set to descend into chaos in the four days immediately after Easter, after rail union RMT yesterday called a crippling national rail strike for the first time in 16 years. Strikes are set to go ahead on each of four days between 6am and 10am and between 6pm and 10pm, starting on [...]