Chelsea feel pain in Spain November 2, 2005 Chelsea suffered a first defeat in open play for six months, and damaged their Champions League chances in the process, as Real Betis ambushed Jose Mourinho’s side in Spain. It was a far cry from last month’s reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea went top of Group G with a 4-0 win. The Spanish [...]
Time for England to wake up in Pakistan November 2, 2005 England needed a wake-up call and the alarm bells were pretty loud in their first tour match in Pakistan. But despite a generally awful batting display, Marcus Trescothick’s fine century apart, there’s nothing to get too worried about. Two top-order failures in two days may not have been exactly what Michael Vaughan or coach Duncan [...]
Dial M to turn the wheels November 2, 2005 The new BMW looks fabulous, goes like a dream and costs £80k, but you need a computing degree to drive it. There are few cars that cook tarmac as well as those engineered in BMW’s “M” division, and the new £80,000 M6 is no exception. With a 500bhp V10 stuffed under the bonnet it’s been [...]
Debt firm rakes in fees November 2, 2005 Britain’s largest provider of personal debt advice, Debt Free Direct (DFD) has seen its fees top £1m a month for the first time, due to the growing number of people veering towards bankruptcy. The number of people turning to the Lancashire-based company for help in setting up Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) has risen to 266 [...]
US spending aids Pearson November 2, 2005 Pearson, the publishing group, enjoyed a strong third quarter as the American government ploughed funds into education. The group that publishes the Financial Times posted a 20 per cent increase in operating profit as sales moved ahead 10 per cent in the nine months to 30 September. Its key education division posted a 13 per [...]
Tom Hunter in court November 2, 2005 Newly-knighted Scottish venture capitalist Tom Hunter will be accused of acting in bad faith in the High Court this morning by his former partners in the Gadget Shop, highly-successful UBS trader John Woods and Freeserve founder Peter Wilkinson. Hunter and his sidekick Chris Gorman could end up paying out as much as £150m in damages [...]
Sales slide at Matalan November 2, 2005 Value retailer Matalan yesterday insisted that it was holding market share despite reporting deteriorating trading conditions. Group like-for-like sales tumbled 10.6 per cent in the nine weeks to 29 October. The retailer said clothing like-for-like sales were down 7.6 per cent implying homewares sales had fallen by as much as 20 per cent. Chief executive [...]
LSE bidders given the green light November 2, 2005 The Competition Commission cleared the way for European bourse operators Euronext and Deutsche Börse to launch independent bids for the London Stock Exchange yesterday. After a seven-month inquiry, the Commission said both Germany’s Deutsche Börse and Paris-listed Euronext could bid, but only if they complied with strict conditions. Those conditions relate to the watering down [...]
Co-op will vote against BSkyB at AGM November 2, 2005 Pay TV broadcaster BSkyB suffered a fresh blow to its share buyback plans after shareholder Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) announced it would vote against the proposal at what is expected to be a stormy AGM this Friday. The insurer, which joins a growing list of institutional investors who have threatened to scupper the plan, said [...]
Hopes for rate cut dashed as house prices begin recovery November 2, 2005 The odds on the Bank of England cutting interest rates for the second time in four months lengthened yesterday after the release of a raft of better than expected economic data. The latest snapshot of the housing market by leading lender Nationwide showed prices jumped 1.3 per cent, the fastest rate in 15 months, bringing [...]
