Glencore avoids investor revolt and vows to hire female director May 20, 2014 MINER-TRADER Glencore Xstrata saw off a protest vote at its annual shareholder meeting yesterday, with a pledge to hire a female board member by the end of the year. Glencore is the last FTSE 100 company with an all-male board, attracting criticism from major shareholders. Yesterday business secretary Vince Cable said the firm has “consistently [...]
FTSE at a record high as miners lifted by metals – London Report March 23, 2015 BRITAIN’S blue-chip share index set a record high yesterday as mining stocks rallied with firmer metals prices, outpacing weakness in shares such as Weir Group. The UK mining index gained 2.2 per cent as copper hit a two-month high, driven by a weaker dollar on expectations the US Federal Reserve will stay accommodative for the [...]
General Election 2015: A Labour government could send Royal Mail boss Moya Greene elsewhere April 15, 2015 She might hail from Canada, but I’d bet that Moya Greene will be keeping a closer eye than many Britons on the outcome of the General Election. Eighteen months after its contentious privatisation, the boss of Royal Mail may face the prospect of a full parliamentary term with UK government ministers behaving as an irritatingly [...]
Viiv Healthcare IPO: Banks onboard for GlaxoSmithKline’s £17bn pharma float February 4, 2015 Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has hired banks to analyse the pros and cons of a float of its HIV medicines business next year, in what would be the one of the UK’s biggest initial public offerings of the last decade. Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said banks, believed to be Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan [...]
Property shares weigh on FTSE due to bond rise – London Report March 9, 2015 Britain’s top share index yesterday extended its retreat from record highs, pulled down by property shares as a rise in gilt yields eroded the appeal of interest rate-sensitive stocks. The blue chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.5 per cent at 6,876.47 points, extending Friday’s decline and pushing the FTSE further away from a record [...]
Housing data shows lending and price rises – London Report March 1, 2015 HOUSING data due this week is likely to show increases in both prices and the number of mortgages being taken out. Bank of England mortgage approval figures, out today, are forecast to show that the number of housing loans rose modestly for a second month running in January after falling for five successive months to [...]
Glencore’s plan to appoint new female director comes too late May 19, 2014 GLENCORE Xstrata is set for a shareholder attack at today’s annual meeting, as it remains the only FTSE 100 company without a woman on its board. A number of major institutional investors are expected to oppose the miner trader’s annual report. Earlier this month, the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which represents 60 UK public [...]
FTSE climbs in late rally as BA owner IAG soars – London Report March 4, 2015 BRITAIN’S top share index rebounded late yesterday, helped by a surge in British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) due to strong traffic figures and by rallies in broadcaster ITV and bank Standard Chartered. The FTSE 100 snapped a three-day losing streak to end 0.4 per cent higher at 6,919.24 points after trading as low [...]
Glencore Xstrata confirms ex-BP boss Tony Hayward as chairman May 8, 2014 GLENCORE Xstrata yesterday named Tony Hayward as its permanent chairman, meaning the miner trader remains the only FTSE 100 firm with an all-male board. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which represents 60 pension funds in the UK, said it is advocating an oppose vote to Hayward’s re-election at May’s annual meeting on the grounds [...]
Copper market chaos hammers mining stocks January 14, 2015 COLLAPSING copper prices and the continued decline of the oil market hammered stocks in the commodities sector yesterday. Copper fell as much as eight per cent to a five-year low of $5,522 per tonne, a move that analysts attributed to growing excess supply in the market, with China accounting for 40 per cent of global [...]