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Economics
Trade balance: Official figures due tomorrow are expected to show that
the trade balance deficit narrowed to £2.1 billion in September, from £2.3
billion in August.
House prices: The Department of Communities and Local Government will
release its house price index tomorrow, which is expected to show a 4.6 per
cent decline for the year to September, compared with a 5.6 per cent slide
in the year to August.
Employment: The latest employment figures, due on Wednesday, are
expected to show that the number of claimants increased by 20,000 in
October, after a rise of 20,800 in September.
Average wages: Official data due out on Wednesday are forecast to show
a 1.5 per cent increase in average wages for September, compared with a 1.6
per cent rise in August.
Eurozone production: The latest eurozone purchasing managers’ index,
due on Thursday, is forecast to show that industrial production rose by 0.6
per cent during September, after a 0.9 per cent increase in August.
Eurozone GDP: The preliminary reading for the eurozone’s third-quarter
GDP, due on Friday, is expected to show a 0.6 per cent rise in output,
compared with a decline of 0.2 per cent in the previous three months.
German GDP: The initial forecast for Germany’s third-quarter GDP, due
out on Friday, is expected to show a 0.8 per cent increase in output.
French CPI: The latest consumer prices index reading for France, due
out on Friday, is forecast to record a 0.1 per cent rise in October,
compared with a 0.2 per cent decline in September.
International Monetary Fund: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is
exploring the idea of making banks pay insurance fees to fund future rescues
in the sector. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s managing director, said
that such a tax would be in line with a proposal by Gordon Brown, who has
urged governments to consider such a levy on banks.
US trade: Official figures showing the US trade balance for September,
due on Friday, are expected to record a deficit of $31.9 billion (£19.2
billion), from a $30.7 billion deficit in August.
US unemployment: The latest initial American jobless figures, due on
Thursday, are expected to be 515,000 for the week to November 7, from
512,000 in the previous week.
Banking
&
finance
Dubai Finance Department: The ministry said that the city-state had
repaid an Islamic bond worth $1 billion (£602 million), the latest sign that
it is reducing its debt burden of at least $80 billion.
UBS: Authorities in Britain and Australia have requested information
from the Swiss bank after it agreed in August to disclose 4,450 client names
to settle an American tax case. The US investigation has hurt the bank’s
reputation and prompted offshore customers to withdraw their assets.
Barclays: The banking group will give a third-quarter trading update
tomorrow, which is expected to show underlying profits for the period at
more than £1.5 billion. Full-year profits will also be boosted by the sale
of Barclays Global Investors, the fund manager, to BlackRock, the American
group, which is expected to reap a windfall profit of about £5 billion. The
profits surge will lead to bumper bonuses, despite public pressure for
banking pay restraint. (The Mail on Sunday)
Lloyds Banking Group: The lender is being kept afloat with £165 billion
of loans and guarantees from the Bank of England and other central banks
around the world, acccording to a document. This says that the bank is still
“heavily reliant” on government funding. Lloyds also says it would face a
“materially higher refinancing risk” if the funding was not available. (The
Sunday Times)
Construction
&
property
Urban & Civic: The new commercial property business of Nigel Hugill
and Robin Butler, the former directors of Chelsfield, is being backed by GI
Partners, the American private equity group. It has bought a former American
airbase in Cambridgeshire for £27.5 million, which will be used for
distribution warehouses. (The Sunday Times)
Consumer
goods
Campaign for Real Ale: The consumer group said that it was considering
taking legal action or even issuing another super- complaint in an attempt
to force the Office of Fair Trading to reconsider its position on the beer
tie. Camra has accused the OFT of failing to take “reasonable steps” to
understand the pub market.
Cadbury: Kraft, the American food group, is poised to launch a hostile
takeover bid for the confectioner at, or slightly above, its original offer
made in September, which valued Cadbury at £10.2 billion. The Takeover
Panel’s “put up or shut up” deadline expires at 5pm today.
Engineering
General Motors: Senior executives from the American carmaker will come
to London this week to present their detailed business plan for the future
of Vauxhall. Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has agreed in principle
to offer loan guarantees as GM seeks to re-establish its business just
months after emerging from bankruptcy protection.
Health
Elan: The Irish pharmaceuticals group and Biogen Idec, its American
peer, have amended the label of Tysabri, their multiple sclerosis treatment,
to reflect the increased risk of patients contracting a brain infection.
Leisure
InterContinental Hotels: The Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza operator is
due to publish its third-quarter results tomorrow showing a pre-exceptional
operating profit of about $100 million (£60.2 million), from $150 million a
year ago. Analysts believe there are signs that US occupancy and room rates
are beginning to stabilise.
Las Vegas Sands: The American gaming company is set to raise up to
HK$25.95 billion (£2 billion) through an initial public offering of shares
in its Macau business, according to reports.
Euro Disney: The theme park operator is expected on Thursday to report
a sharp decline in full-year revenues, taking it from net profit into loss.
The company, which runs the Disneyland Paris resort in France, has been
battered by the economic downturn as more holidaymakers have stayed at home
and the pound has reached record lows against the euro. (The Sunday
Telegraph)
Media
Trinity Mirror: The newspaper publisher is joining the list of
companies closing their final- salary pension schemes to existing members.
It is entering a two-month consultation with staff after concluding that it
can no longer afford the scheme. In the past eight years Trinity has paid
£259 million into the final-salary scheme, but the deficit has still risen
from £37 million to £275 million. The scheme was closed to new members in
2003. The deficit accounts for 70 per cent of the group’s debt. (The
Sunday Times)
Natural
resources
Rusal: Bank of America Merrill Lynch has replaced Goldman Sachs as a
key adviser on the $30 billion (£18 billion) stock market listing of the
Russian aluminium group. Goldman had been named as joint bookrunner on the
draft prospectus, the document that is used to file a flotation. Rusal is
looking to list by December and will also have a secondary listing on
Euronext, the Paris-based exchange. (The Independent on Sunday)
Regal Petroleum: The controversial Ukraine-focused oil and gas explorer
is considering a move to the main list of the London Stock Exchange. With a
market capitalisation of nearly £300 million, Regal is one of the biggest
players on the Alternative Investment Market, the junior stock exchange. A
move to the main board would offer access to more funds, but regulation
would be tighter. (The Independent on Sunday)
Anglo American: South Africa’s biggest workers’ union said that it
would hold a strike at the mining group’s coal unit if company officials
failed to respond to demands for better working conditions and benefits,
according to local reports.
Retailing
BrightHouse: Earnings at BrightHouse, the hire-purchase furnishings
group, increased by 23.7 per cent to £14.6 million, before interest, tax,
and depreciation. It is on course to open 20 stores this year and 20 next
year. The chain belongs to Vision Capital, the private equity group that
owns First Quench, the stricken off-licence chain.
J Sainsbury: The supermarket group will tell an Environment Agency
conference that it plans to switch to carbon dioxide fridges in all its
stores by 2030. Such fridges are far less harmful to the environment than
the hydrofluorocarbon units in general use. Sainsbury’s says that switching
to CO2 fridges will reduce its carbon footprint by about a third.
Limited Brands: The American company is planning overseas expansion for
its Victoria’s Secret lingerie chain and its Bath and Body Works, with a
flagship Victoria’s store in Britain and a European online operation. It is
also seeking European franchises for Bath & Body Works. Limited has
reported total sales so far this year of $5.6 billion (£3.4 billion), from
$6 billion in 2008. (The Observer)
Aurum: The private jewellery business — with brands including Mappin &
Webb and Goldsmiths — is believed to have agreed a refinancing with its
lenders that will cut its debt by more than a third. Borrowings of £42
million, mostly owed to Landsbanki, of Iceland, will be converted to equity,
leaving the retailer owing about £55 million. (The Mail on Sunday)
Support
services
USwitch: The price comparison website, based in London, is close to
sealing a sale, but the price tag is thought to be less than half the £210
million that Scripps Networks, its American owner, paid three years ago.
Technology
Playfire: The social networking service for computer game players,
which tracks scores and rankings on the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation3
and tells users what their friends are playing, has received £1.3 million in
investment. It is run by Kieran O’Neill, who previously set up a
video-sharing website called Holy Lemon when he was studying for his GCSEs.
It was sold for £750,000 when he was 19. Playfire, set up in February last
year, has 250,000 members. (The Sunday Times)
Sony: The Japanese group is offering an animated film from the Sony
Pictures studio, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, free to US buyers
of its internet-connected televisions and Blu-ray players until the film is
released on DVD and Blu-ray disc in January.
Telecoms
Vodafone: The London-listed mobile phone group will report its
half-year results tomorrow, when it is expected to announce deeper
cost-cutting to compensate for sluggish sales growth. It is also expected to
warn that a price war in India is harming its prospects there. Separately,
Vodafone has been given until November 16 by the Indian tax authorities to
explain why it has not settled a $2 billion (£1.2 billion) tax bill left
over from the $11.2 billion acquisition that gained it entry to the country
in 2007. Vodafone claims that it was an offshore deal and may request an
extension to the deadline. (The Sunday Times)
Transport
British Airways: Unions representing cabin crew at the airline have
said they would hold a strike ballot next week, with the result to be
announced on December 14. The timing makes it likely that any strikes will
take place around Christmas. BA wants to cut the equivalent of 2,000 jobs
through voluntary redundancy and part-time working. On Friday the airline
announced a half-year loss of £292 million, the biggest in its history. (The
Sunday Times)
Utilities
Dong Energy: The Danish power group, also Britain’s biggest developer
of offshore wind farms, has hired NM Rothschild to sell stakes in its
projects because it cannot afford to build them. The move casts fresh doubt
on the Government’s carbon reduction plans six months after it raised
subsidies to keep the offshore wind sector afloat. (The Sunday Times)
Scottish and Southern Energy: The utility has formed a consortium with
Borealis Infrastructure, the Canadian construction group, to bid for
Britain’s biggest electricity network. They have appointed Credit Suisse and
RBC Capital Markets as advisers on the £4 billion auction. (The
Sunday Times)
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