Economics
Non-domicile status Americans in Britain have complained to the
Government that they will be singled out under its plan for a new tax on
foreign workers.
Britain has overtaken the US to become the biggest donor to the World
Bank. The UK pledged £2.1 billion to the global body for the coming three
years, up 49 per cent on its previous three-year commitment, and larger in
dollar terms than the $3.7 billion pledged by the US. Rich nations pledged a
record $25.1 billion to tackle poverty in the developing world.
US consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in more than two years
last month, damping hope of further US interest-rate cuts. The consumer
price index leapt 0.8 per cent in November, its biggest rise since September
2005, as energy costs leapt 5.7 per cent.
Eurozone inflation, as a result of increases in oil and food costs,
rose even higher in November than initially estimated, to its highest in six
and a half years, new data showed. Consumer prices rose 0.5 per cent over
the month and were up 3.1 per cent year-on-year, Eurostat said. That
compared with an initial estimate of 3 per cent. It equalled the rate hit in
May 2001, which was the highest since the series began in 1997.
Banking
& finance
HSBC has made a belated push into the Taiwanese banking market with a
takeover of a lender that collapsed earlier this year after a run on
deposits.
Mortgage lenders are leading a dash for deposits by UK banks to
improve their liquidity amid market uncertainty, with high-paying savings
accounts offered.
Close Brothers has said it has had several takeover approaches on top
of one by Cenkos Securities last month, and Orix Corporation, the Japanese
financial services group, has emerged as a favourite to buy the company.
Barclays said its share buyback programme will be extended to January
31. It said the aim of the programme is to counter the dilutive effect of
the share issue to China Development Bank and Temasek on existing
shareholders.
Kiln, the Lloyd’s insurer, said it has agreed a £442.2 million cash
acquisition by the Japanese insurer Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance,
part of Millea. The deal, at 150p a share, represents a 40.8 per cent
premium to Kiln’s closing price of 106½.
Old Mutual said its talks with Royal Bafokeng for a sale of a
controlling interest in Mutual & Federal Insurance are continuing, but
it does not expect to make any announcement before 2007 ends.
Anglo Irish Bank Corp has agreed to sell its Swiss private banking
unit, Anglo Irish Bank (Suisse), and its affiliated Portuguese branch, Anglo
Irish Bank-Sucursal em Portugal, to St Galler Kantonalbank, a Swiss bank.
Citigroup’s new chief executive, Vikram Pandit, has put his bank
under further financial strain by bringing $49 billion (£24 billion) of
high-risk off-balance sheet investments onto its books just as new analysis
predicts it will need to take a $30 billion writedown on its loan portfolio
next year.
Banking is being taken by a charity to some of the most remote parts of
the world to help some of its poorest people.
Construction
& property
Property is attracting Anthony Bolton. The Fidelity International fund
manager is calling the bottom for property shares.
Land Securities has raised more than £200 million in equity so far for
its Trillium PPP Investment Partners and is 83 per cent of the way to
meeting an initial capital target of £1.136 billion with additional debt
funding of about £600 million.
Home Information Packs have become the latest weapon of homebuyers
seeking a cut in asking prices, with a survey reporting that nearly half of
buyers are ready to use the packs’ energy reports to demand a discount.
Summit Germany is to buy four German properties for €34 million (£24
million). The AIM-listed German commercial property investment company said
that it is well financed going forward.
Capital & Regional said that it estimates the net effect of fee
clawback on full-year net asset value per share to be 30p to 50p a share.
The co-investing property asset manager said Mall Fund’s underlying
valuation was 7.9 per cent down in the year to date, and Junction’s was down
13.6 per cent.
Consumer
goods
Northern Foods, the maker of Fox’s biscuits, said it will implement a
share buyback programme for up to 5 per cent of its shares. The shares
acquired under the programme will be held in treasury and the buyback will
be financed from existing bank facilities.
Electrolux said it is closing its Spennymoor factory in the UK and
switching some production to Poland to boost competitiveness. The Swedish
group said it will incur a one-off charge of 390 million kronor (£29.6
million) on the closure and the loss of its 500 jobs.
Engineering
VT, the shipbuilding and support services group, said it has finalised
its second Building Schools for the Future contract after completing
negotiations with the Lewisham local authority in London. Under an initial
PFI contract worth more than £120 million to VT, VT Education and Skills —
working with Costain as Learning21 — has teamed up with Lewisham.
Siemens has revoked the appointment of Hannes Apitzsch as chief
financial officer for the industry sector after investigation of records at
the Nuremberg public prosecutor’s office about the AUB case.
Health
GlaxoSmithKline’s new breast cancer pill, Tyverb, has received a
European Medicines Agency recommendation for conditional approval. The pill,
for advanced breast cancer, is already sold in the US, marketed as Tykerb.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals, the Middle East medicine manufacturer and
supplier, said full-year revenue will rise 40 per cent this year after
growth in its core Middle Eastern and North African markets.
Industrials
Yule Catto, the chemicals group, said trading conditions in the year’s
second half were in line with its guidance. It said it will achieve
“satisfactory” improvement in profits in its Polymer Chemicals unit because
of volume growth and action to mitigate difficult raw-material conditions.
Leisure
PartyGaming, the internet gambling operator, said fourth-quarter
trading was in line with its expectations and announced a licensing deal
with Paramount Pictures to create internet slot machine games based on the
films Top Gun, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever and Mission: Impossible.
Gala Coral, the gambling group, has won a licence to open what would be
China’s first bingo club.
Laurel Pub Company, the pub and restaurant operator controlled by
Robert Tchenguiz, is in talks with its banks about restructuring its debt
facilities.
Visit London, the capital’s official visitor organisation, has teamed
up with TripAdvisor to provide user-generated reviews of hotels and
attractions on its website.
Led Zeppelin could make more than £100 million if the band re-formed
for a tour next year after this week’s reunion gig.
Kuoni Reisen, the Swiss holiday company, is parting company with its
chief executive after a dispute over strategy. Armin Meier, chief executive
since 2004, will step down at the end of the year. Max Katz, chief financial
officer, will take charge till a successor is found.
Media
DIC Entertainment, the children’s brand management group, saw its
shares fall 50 per cent in early trading as properties such as Trollz failed
to deliver.
The Competition Commission yesterday confirmed it has sent its verdict
on BSkyB’s 17.9 per cent stake in ITV to the Government.
United Business Media said that overall trading for the second half is
in line with market expectations, with revenue accelerating against the
first half. November was the most profitable month of trading in the past
five years.
Ten Alps, the factual media company, reporting slightly lower
first-half profits, said trading is strong and that it is on track to meet
market expectations for the year.
Natural
resources
Global oil consumption will rise 2.5 per cent next year because of
booming demand for energy from China and the Middle East, despite the threat
of a recession in America, according to the International Energy Agency.
Aurelian Oil & Gas said it is pressing ahead with plans to put the
Trzek-1 gas well in central Poland on production test after testing
operations. Interpretation of data from the testing operations showed “no
evidence of reservoir boundaries or depletion during the test period”, the
group said.
Braemore Resources has signed an agreement with Pan Palladium to form a
joint venture to evaluate, develop and mine the platinum group metal/nickel
Grass Valley Platreef project in South Africa. Braemore will take a 50 per
cent stake in Pan Palladium’s 75 per cent interest in the project on
completion of a prefeasibility study within 18 months and a definitive
feasibility study within 30 months.
Retailing
John Lewis Partnership, the staff-owned retailer, said sales in the
week to December 8 by its Waitrose supermarket chain rose to £84.5 million,
up 5.3 per cent on the same week last year. The figures exclude a
contribution from a new food hall at the John Lewis store in Oxford Street,
London.
Support
services
Inspicio, the testing and inspection company working on the 2012
Olympics site, is to be sold to an investment vehicle of 3i, the private
equity group.
Davis Service Group, the textile maintenance business, said it expects
full-year revenue growth to exceed 15 per cent after positive developments
in its main markets. Davis said it has experienced good momentum in revenue
and trading but expects higher interest costs associated with acquisitions
made in the first half of the year.
Xchanging, the business process outsourcing company, said full-year
trading will be in line with its expectations and that it continues to
experience a high level of activity as clients seek higher efficiency and
service levels.
Technology
Google is to go head-to-head with Wikipedia, the web’s largest
reference work, in a clash of two of the internet’s biggest names.
Trakm8 fell to a first-half pre-tax loss on lower revenue and higher
operating costs, but said it expects an improved operating performance
because of increased sales and cost cuts in the second half.
Telecoms
Numericable, the French cable operator, and Eiffage and Neuf Cegetel
will be celebrating their consortium being picked to install a high-speed
fibre-optic internet network in the Parisian suburb of Hauts-de-Seine,
according to local press reports.
Transport
BBA Aviation said its businesses have traded robustly over the past
year. It said it expects to have made good underlying progress for 2007. The
group said its flight support division, Signature, has continued to trade
well, and that fuel volumes have been largely unaffected by recent high oil
prices and economic uncertainty.
Utilities
Centrica, owner of British Gas, gave the clearest sign yet that energy
bills are on their way up as it gave warning of a tough environment for
energy suppliers.
E.ON still aims to expand in Spain after efforts to buy Endesa failed,
a management board member, Lutz Feldmann, told local newspapers.
