Archive for August, 2009

Ashley’s Push For Last-Gasp Goal

Mike Ashley is a man on a mission. He wants to sell Newcastle United. He wants £100m. But he has, as yet, been unable to find a buyer. Is it becoming mission impossible?
I think not. There are THREE parties speaking to the owner of Newcastle – not two as reported by many media organisations.
Let’s start [...]

Punters’ Lucky Run Hits Paddy Power Profits

A string of punter-friendly results in the first half of the year shrank bookmaker Paddy Power’s profits by more than a quarter….
Irish rugby’s most successful season ever hit the company hard, as did a consistent showing by the English Premier League’s ‘big four’ clubs.
Meanwhile jockey Ruby Walsh’s record seven winners at the Cheltenham horse racing [...]

Magners Brewer Gulps Down Tennent’s Lager

Scotland’s best-selling lager, Tennent’s, has been snapped up by the brewer of Magners cider in a deal worth £180m.
The proposed sale by brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev to Magners owner C&C includes Glasgow’s Wellpark Brewery, where Tennent’s lager is brewed.
Tennent’s accounts for 55% of lager volumes sold to Scottish pubs and clubs and around 30% of [...]

City Watchdog’s Big Bank Bonus Backdown

The City watchdog has been forced to backdown on some of its toughest measures to curb big bank bonuses.
The Financial Services Authority said banks should spread two-thirds of the bonuses of senior employees over three years.
But its code of practice, to be introduced next year, excludes specific measures on deferred bonuses as well as the [...]

Low rates accelerate housing rebound

UK house prices rose in August for the fourth consecutive month, amid signs that low interest rates were bringing stability to the market.
The closely watched Nationwide House Price Index recorded a 1.6 per cent rise in August. The three-month-on-three-month rate of change – considered a smoother indicator of price movement – went up by 3.3 [...]

Shell beats Wal-Mart as top firm

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has replaced US retail group Wal-Mart as the world’s largest company, the latest annual survey by Fortune magazine says.
There are also fewer US corporations in the list of the 500 biggest firms than at any time since the publication started keeping records in 1995.
The annual survey ranks the largest companies [...]

Oil falls back below $74 a barrel

Oil prices have fallen back below $74 a barrel after reaching a ten-month-high of almost $75 on Monday.
The price drop was linked to falls in the Asian stockmarkets and anticipation of weaker demand following the end of the summer driving season in the US.
US light sweet crude futures fell 54 cents to $73.83 a barrel [...]

U.S. deficit to hit $9 trillion by 2019

White House raises estimate by $2 trillion, raising fears economic growth is in jeopardy
WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama’s domestic policy proposals will face the reality of skyrocketing deficits tomorrow when officials release two government reports projecting huge budget shortfalls over the next decade.
The White House budget office and the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan arm [...]

Financial, gold stocks pull TSX lower

The Toronto stock market closed lower yesterday as financial stocks turned negative a day before the big Canadian banks start reporting quarterly earnings, while energy stocks were flat even as oil prices continued to climb.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 41.21 points to 10,789.97.
The financial sector ended the session 0.7 per cent lower a day before [...]

Volcker: Money funds weaken financial system

Money-market mutual funds undermine the strength of the U.S. financial system and should be regulated more like banks, Bloomberg reported former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker as saying in an interview.
“Banks remain the functioning heart of the financial system, and they are protected and regulated,” Volcker, an economic adviser to the Obama administration, told the [...]