US housing results bring down stocks October 20, 2009 US stocks retreated from 12-month highs yesterday as disappointing housing and inflation data prompted investors to book recent gains despite strong results from bellwethers including Apple and Caterpillar. New construction of US homes rose less than expected in September and US producer prices posted an unexpected decline, both pointing to an anemic economic recovery. DuPont [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 19, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES FURTHER VAT RISES LIKELY AS EUROPE SETS THE PACEBritain will be levying the fifth-lowest value-added tax rate in Europe after it reverts to 17.5 per cent in January, according to a survey that is likely to reinforce expectations of further rises after the general election. A survey by KPMG, the professional services group, [...]
Crystal Amber cuts JJB stake and takes profits October 19, 2009 CRYSTAL Amber Fund, one of JJB Sports’ largest shareholders, yesterday said it had cut its stake from 14 per cent to just under eight per cent, ahead of the retailer’s £100m fundraising. Crystal Amber made a 45.3 per cent profit on the sale of 13.6m shares that it bought when the stock was 22.4p a [...]
Crystal Amber cuts JJB stake and takes profits October 19, 2009 CRYSTAL Amber Fund, one of JJB Sports’ largest shareholders, yesterday said it had cut its stake from 14 per cent to just under eight per cent, ahead of the retailer’s £100m fundraising. Crystal Amber made a 45.3 per cent profit on the sale of 13.6m shares that it bought when the stock was 22.4p a [...]
Four insiders plot MBO at KBC Peel Hunt October 18, 2009 NO LESS than four separate internal management teams are hard at work plotting a buy-out of stockbroking and corporate finance house KBC Peel Hunt after its Belgian banking owner KBC put the division up for sale last month, City A.M. can reveal. KBC Peel Hunt chief executive Simon Hayes was revealed last month to be [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 18, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday Telegraph £5.5BN PLAN FOR POWER STATIONA £5.5bn planning application, the largest ever in central London, will be made today when Ireland’s Real Estate Opportunities and Treasury Holdings reveal their blueprint for the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station. Plans for the mixed commercial and residential site, which developers say will be as iconically [...]
AB InBev sells nine breweries for $3bn October 15, 2009 BEVERAGES giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) sold nine Central European breweries to buyout house CVC in a deal worth as much as $3bn (£1.8bn) yesterday. The sale, under which CVC will get the rights to sell brands like Stella Artois, Becks and Hooegaarden in the region, is the third by the firm in recent months. [...]
Maybe ITV would do better without a chief exec October 14, 2009 CRISIS? What crisis? That was the line that Michael Grade, the outgoing executive chairman of ITV, took when being questioned by a House of Lords committee yesterday. Hitting out at media coverage of the broadcaster’s bungled attempts to find a replacement chairman and chief executive, he said ITVwas a business in fine fettle. In a [...]
Maybe ITV would do better without a chief exec October 14, 2009 CRISIS? What crisis? That was the line that Michael Grade, the outgoing executive chairman of ITV, took when being questioned by a House of Lords committee yesterday. Hitting out at media coverage of the broadcaster’s bungled attempts to find a replacement chairman and chief executive, he said ITVwas a business in fine fettle. In a [...]
Sterling falls to six-month low on grim outlook for UK economy October 13, 2009 STERLING is once again the whipping boy of the forex markets. It fell to a six-month low against the euro on Monday after a report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) suggesting that sterling could hit parity versus the single currency. And despite relatively healthy retail sales and house price data, inflation [...]