Police arrest 1,200 in knife crackdown July 3, 2008 Police have arrested 1,214 people in London during a six-week crackdown on knife crime, Scotland Yard said yesterday. Officers found 528 knives after conducting nearly 27,000 searches during Operation Blunt 2, launched after Boris Johnson was elected London Mayor in May pledging to tackle knife crime in the capital. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair announced [...]
Tsvangirai snubs unity talks July 3, 2008 Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday rejected talks on a unity government, saying President Robert Mugabe must first stop violence and accept him as the rightful election winner. African Union leaders called at a summit on Tuesday for the two sides to negotiate to end the crisis after Mugabe’s re-election in a 27 June ballot [...]
BA snaps up French carrier for £54m July 3, 2008 British Airways struck a deal to buy French business-class rival L’Avion for £54m yesterday to boost its new OpenSkies subsidiary, which flies between continental Europe and America. BA will add L’Avion, which began flying between Paris and London last January, to its OpenSkies unit, which began operations last month. The flag carrier’s OpenSkies service is [...]
Apprentice boss Sugar to quit Amstrad July 3, 2008 Sir Alan Sugar, the entrepreneur and star of the BBC reality TV show The Apprentice, has stepped down as chairman of Amstrad, the electronics firm he founded at the tender age of 21. Though Sir Alan, now 61, said the move had been “planned for a while”, the self-made multi-millionaire is adamant he is not [...]
CRH hit by sharp fall in house building July 3, 2008 Irish building materials firm CRH said yesterday that it expects a “high single percentage” drop in pre-tax profits this year, blaming a downturn in its key markets and a weakening dollar. It forecasts pre-tax profits to 30 June of €600m (£478m), compared with €670m in 2007. Following the news, shares in the second largest provider [...]
FSA clamps down on CFD investors July 3, 2008 Rules forcing contract for difference (CFD) holders to disclose long positions of three per cent have had a mixed reaction in the City. A clampdown by City watchdog the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has long been anticipated due to fears that investors are using CFDs, which give exposure to a share for a fraction of [...]
It pays to be aware when the pressure is on July 2, 2008 Managers need to take care of stressed staff — especially now, writes Jeremy Hazlehurst When times are hard in the markets, it’s easy to forget sometimes that it’s not only the bottom line that suffers. Managers also ought to be aware that their human capital can feel the pinch as well. As the FTSE has [...]
Games fans lift HMV fortunes July 2, 2008 HMV, the UK’s leading music retailer, reported yesterday a 25 per cent jump in pre-tax profits. The company told investors its recovery is on track after the first year of its three-year turnaround plan. Strong video game sales helped pre-tax profits soar to £56.6m, up from £45.2m in 2007. Games and technology sales rose 7 [...]
Tanfield dives after profits warning July 2, 2008 Electric vehicle maker Tanfield crashed more than 80 per cent after warning its profits would be drastically hit by the economic slowdown. Stunned City investors questioned the management’s credibility after the Tyne and Wear-based company gave no hint of what was to come in a statement issued on Friday in response to its share price [...]
Falling share prices set to fuel activism July 2, 2008 A wave of shareholder activism is expected to hit companies in the coming months as falling share prices galvanise shareholders into action. Tim Stocks, a leading city lawyer at law firm Taylor Wessing, told Morning Wire he was already instructing on several activist shareholder cases and expected the numbers to increase rapidly. Stocks, who said [...]