| CATEGORY: PRESS ROUND-UP SHORT SECTOR: TRAVEL & LEISURE |
Friday newspaper round-up: Easyjet, Barclays, BT |
|
Fri 14 Nov 2008
|
LONDON (SHARECAST) - EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic are teaming up to back a £2.5bn bid for Gatwick Airport, The Times has learnt.
The two airlines are talking to financial backers about forming a consortium, with the carriers pledging to base a large number of aircraft at Gatwick to ensure its future income. Virgin and easyJet would not contribute financially to the bid, but they would guarantee long-term revenue.
The state’s £37bn stake in Britain’s part-nationalised banks will be held at arms-length with no direct boardroom representation, according to the two men charged with managing the investments. In an article in Friday’s Financial Times, Sir Philip Hampton and John Kingman emphasise giving the banks commercial freedom to “protect and create value for the taxpayer”. They write: “We must operate on a commercial basis at arm’s length ... our job [is] to manage the taxpayer’s investments, not to manage the banks.”
The Barclays shareholder revolt appeared to be fizzling out last night after Gulf investors putting £6bn into the bank refused to countenance any watering-down of the terms. The favoured Gulf investors – Qatar Holding, Challenger Universal and Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed al-Nahyan – have made it plain to Barclays that they will not accept any rewriting of the deal, reports the Times.
Clive Cowdery, the insurance entrepreneur, is pressing ahead with the planned initial public offering of his new vehicle, with a prospectus expected to be published within the next two weeks and a listing before the year end. Mr Cowdery has been meeting with investors over the past couple of weeks and has secured commitments from a number of institutions to participate in a £600m to £1bn fundraising, reports the FT.
House prices across the UK have already fallen far further than official data and market indicators suggest, Rightmove, the online estate agent warned yesterday, as it revealed that up to 300 estate agents were quitting its service every month, reports the Independent.
The pound has taken another hammering as fears over the UK economy accelerated and analysts warned that it will fall further over the coming weeks and months. Sterling slumped to a 12-year low against a basket of currencies and a new record low against the euro, as the gloomy comments made by the Bank of England's Governor on Wednesday and expectations of further cuts in interest rates hit home, reports the Telegraph.
BT chief executive Ian Livingston has signalled he is ready to axe more jobs on top of the 10,000 announced yesterday to maintain profits through the looming recession. He said the decision to reduce BT's global headcount by about 6% was "long planned" and not a "knee-jerk" reaction to the financial crisis. Mr Livingston said he expects the economy to be in recession for two years but he will do everything he can to ensure the company continues to deliver healthy profits, reports the Telegraph.
The board of Citigroup moved to quell suggestions that the banking conglomerate is considering ousting chairman Sir Win Bischoff, taking the unusual step of offering him its full support after reports to the contrary. A report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal claimed several senior Citigroup staffers were unhappy with Sir Win's oversight of chief executive Vikram Pandit and his management team, and suggested that Dick Parsons, the bank's senior independent director, was possibly being lined up to replace Sir Win, writes the Telegraph.
Some of the world’s top-earning hedge fund managers told Congress on Thursday that they broadly agreed that largely unregulated financial vehicles ought to be subject to greater disclosure, though they warned of excessive regulation. The statements by George Soros and others suggested that hedge fund executives and lawmakers were reaching a consensus in the wake of the credit crisis that the status quo, in which the funds largely escape scrutiny, was no longer tenable, reports the FT
Nearly 30 local newspapers are closing as the industry faces its biggest financial crisis for a generation. Their publisher, Trinity Mirror, said that more would go next year as it grappled with a plunge in advertising revenues of 21% between July and October. Among the 28 titles forced out of business are the Bridgend Post and Staines Gazette, weekly freesheets that became unprofitable as property advertising fell by 43% and job and car adverts by a quarter, reports the Times.
|
|
| |
|
 |
Archived Stories |
 |
|
Front Page Stories |
|
|
