16.07 Are things looking up in the eurozone? According to consumer
confidence figures, they could be, slightly.
Latest survey results show consumer morale improved more than expected in
July, rising to its highest level in almost two years. The European
Commission’s consumer confidence index rose to -17.4 in July from
-18.8 in June and -21.9 in May – the eighth successive monthly increase from
a three-and-a-half year low of-26.7 in November 2012.
This is still low by historical standards- as economist Howard Archer
points out, the long-term average between 1990 and 2013 stands at -13.2.
Nonetheless, he thinks the current reading is promising:
coming from muted inflation across the Eurozone (just 1.6pc in June) will
provide increasing support to consumer spending and help Eurozone economic
activity to stabilize and then finally start growing over the latter months
of 2013.
Even so, a marked overall pick up in Eurozone consumer spending still looks
unlikely in the near term at least. Despite being at a 23-month high in
July, confidence is still limited compared to long-term norms while Eurozone
consumers continue to largely face high and rising unemployment, generally
muted wage growth and tight fiscal policy. This is particularly, the case in
the southern periphery countries but it is also true for countries such as
France and the Netherlands.
15.43 The Royal baby will be worth £521 million to the UK economy,
according to Brand Finance.
The boost will come from a combination of a short term spending spree on
souvenirs, memorabilia, food and drink; a longer lasting uplift to related
products such as pushchairs and clothing; and the benefit of improved
consumer sentiment is behind the impressive figure.
They break it down as follows:
Source: Brand Finance
15.26 US markets are open and they have not all followed Asia and
Europe higher.
The Dow Jones is up 0.3pc but the SP 500 is down 1.5pc and
the Nasdaq is is down 0.3pc.
15.11 MA alert – US computer network giant Cisco Systems
has announced plans to buy cybersecurity firm Sourcefire in a deal
worth $2.7 billion.
Cisco will pay $76 per share in cash for Sourcefire and assume outstanding
equity awards for a total of $2.7 billion under the deal, which has been
approved by the board of directors of each company.
Cisco vice president Hilton Romanski said:
Sourcefire aligns well with Cisco’s future vision for security and supports
the key pillars of our security strategy.
Through our shared view of the critical role the network must play in
cybersecurity and threat defense, we have a unique opportunity to deliver
the most comprehensive approach to security in the market.
15.02 Some more positive news for the eurozone – in Ireland property
prices registered their highest monthly increase in June since the
housing market crashed more than half a decade ago.
Nationwide, residential prices rose by 1.2 per cent on May according to the
Central Statistics Office.
Compared to June 2012, prices were also up by 1.2 per cent, the first time
since 2008 that prices have risen over a 12 month period.
The June increase marked the third consecutive month of rising prices. That
followed four months in a row of declining prices.
The Ha’penny Bridge over the Liffey in Dublin
14.44 Markets in Europe have continued to climb in Tuesday’s trading,
most notably in the periphery.
In Spain the Ibex is up 2pc, after official data showed the economy
contracted by just 0.1pc, the smallest drop since late 2011.
In Portugal the PSI 20 is up 1.7pc.
In Italy the FTSE Mib is up 0.9pc
In Paris the Cac is up 0.2pc, as is the Dax in Germany.
In London the FTSE 100 is up 0.3pc
14.27 There is some more good news for Britain (see Bentley
story at 11.11) – Chevron has awarded £550m of North Sea contracts to
British oil service companies.
One of its projects, Rosebank (Chevron`s first deep water development
in the UK, about 80 miles north -west of the Shetland Islands), has been
awarded to OneSubsea (formerly Cameron Limited).
Three contracts have been awarded for the Alder project (about 100
miles from Scottish coastline), also to UK vendors – Technip, OneSubsea
and Aker Solutions.
Following the announcement of the contracts, Energy Minister Michael Fallon said:
our world-class supply chain. The North Sea is seeing a resurgence of
investment and it is great to see companies like Chevron recognising that
`made in Britain` is a hallmark for the highest quality.
From Aberdeen, Leeds and Newcastle this half a billion pound investment
will support hundreds of highly skilled jobs in engineering, design and
manufacturing.
The Rosebank and Alder projects are worth billions of pounds and will
unlock significant new oil and gas reserves. They demonstrate how
development in technology and the right relationship between government and
industry boosts production and provides energy security, jobs and investment.
Chevron project
14.03 George Osborne’s Help
to Buy is ‘very dangerous’, the Institute of Directors has
warned.
The Chancellor wants to underwrite £130 billion of mortgage lending with state
guarantees in an attempt to help people struggling to buy a property.
The first stage of Help to Buy was launched in April and offers loans
to give people the chance to buy a new-build home with a deposit of just 5
per cent.
The scheme has been credited with driving a surge in home sales and driving up
prices.
Graeme Leach, chief economist at the IoD, has attacked the scheme and
said it will “drive up prices”.
He said:
of this scheme is very dangerous,.
Government guarantees will not increase the supply of homes, but they will
drive up prices at a time when it seems likely that house prices are already
over-valued.
When the scheme is withdrawn any rise in prices that has taken place will
be undermined, with potentially disastrous results. There is a real risk
that the housing market will become dependent on the underwriting by
government, making it very difficult politically to shut the scheme down.
Mr Leach added:
be discussing endless taxpayer guarantees for mortgages.
The warning came after Osborne unveiled more, but somewhat limited, details
of the Scheme in a meeting at Number 11 with housebuilders and mortgage
lenders this morning.
Guarantees will only be available to borrowers who can afford the mortgages,
while those with impaired credit ratings will be excluded, the Treasury
insisted. It will include income checks and stress testing.
Guarantees will also not be available for second home purchases, and lenders
will be required to collect a declaration stating that the borrower has no
interest a property anywhere else in the world. It will not be able to be
used in conjunction with another state scheme.
Lenders will pay a fee to use the guarantee, based on loan-to-value banding –
although that fee has not been confirmed.
13.43 More on China. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says once
again, the country has “capitulated”.
Once again, China has concluded that it is too dangerous to let the Ponzi
Scheme collapse.
First we had an article in Xinhua saying that growth below 7pc would “not
be tolerated”.
Now we have a clear statement from Premier Li Keqiang that growth must not
fall below the government’s “lower limit” of 7.5pc for 2013, and 7pc
thereafter.
Already we hear talk of more investment on railway projects, social
housing, infrastructure, green energy, sewage, broadband and G4, the tried
and tested levers of fiscal stimulus.
Ting Lu from Bank of America calls it the “Li Keqiang Put”. That is
certainly what it looks like.
Moves last week to liberalise interest rates were seen by many in China –
though not all – as a disguised way to lower borrowing costs and avert a
wave of bankruptcies.
So there we are, the on-again off-again credit boom may soon be on once
more, even though each extra yuan of credit now generates less than 0.2 yuan
of growth compared to 0.85 before the Great Recession.
It all feels like last summer when the authorities responded to the sharp
slowdown (hard landing?) by cranking up stimulus.
13.17 More figures from the BBA (see 10.01) – net lending to
companies rose last month for the first time since January in a sign
that business confidence is improving as the economic recovery gathers pace.
Net borrowing by non-financial firms edged £172m higher in June against a
£2.7bn net repayment in May.
The BBA said the data, which also showed the number of mortgages approved by
banks to home buyers soared to a 17-month high in June, signalled progress
in the wider economy.
David Dooks, BBA statistics director, said:
as economic conditions improve the banks are providing the finance to help
growth.
The data fuels hopes that the Bank of England and Treasury’s Funding for
Lending Scheme (FLS) is starting to have a positive impact after it was
extended in April and tweaked to boost small business lending.
12.55 British drinks giant Diageo
is set to complete its acquisition of ShuiJingFang, a leading
manufacturer of China’s national drink baijiu, in a major coup for a
foreign company.
The maker of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whiskey has paid £233m to
buy the 47pc stake in ShuiJingFang HoldCo it did not already own,
sealing its place as sole owner.
The move is a major coup for a foreign company operating in China, where domestic
brands are closely guarded, and forms part of Diageo’s overall drive to
increase its presence in emerging markets.
Phil Carroll, analyst at Shore Capital., said:
deal should position Diageo well for the future.
Diageo has gradually increased its stake in the company since buying into it
six years ago, and became one of the first foreign companies to gain a
majority stake in a Chinese corporation in 2011. Back then, it raised its
holding from 49pc to 53pc in a hard-fought battle which involved intensive
lobbying by the British government.
Its sole ownership of ShuiJingFang HoldCo in turn raises its holding in the
associated listed entity, known as Sichuan ShuiJingFang, from 21.05pc to
39.71pc. Such a corporate structure, while unusual in the west, is typical
in China.
ShuiJingFang
12.41 Turkey’s central bank has been making some changes to its rates.
but…
12.21 NSI has cut
Premium Bonds for 22 million savers and has also changed the allocation of
prizes, making it harder to win bigger sums (I thought it was
already quite tough).
Personal finance editor Richard Dyson reports:
National Savings Investments will chop the total value of prize
money paid to Premium Bond investors from August 1. The “prize rate”
– the average return on the whole fund – will drop from 1.5pc of the total
invested to 1.3pc.
The news – predicted
by Telegraph.co.uk in June – will be a blow to the 22m investors in
the bonds, and is the latest grim news for depositors who are seeing rates
fall on all fronts.
From August the monthly value of Premium Bond prizes distributed will fall
from £57m to £49m.
Apart from the drop in overall payout, the spread of prizes is also being
tweaked – with the result that fewer larger prizes will be won. So although
one £1m prize will continue to be one each month, the number of £100,000
prizes will fall on average from five to three. And the number of £50,000
prizes will drop from nine per month to six.
Lower down the scale fewer prizes will also be won, but the drop is
smaller. The number of £25 prizes won per month, for instance, drops from
1.8m to 1.7m.
In total, the odds of a £1 bond number winning anything in any month drops
from 1/24,000 to 1/26,000.
NSI is cutting rates to deter depositors
12.11 Shares in bookmarker Ladbrokes are on the rise today,
having gained 1pc on the back of a bullish analyst note from Morgan
Stanley. The brokers’ betting experts lifted their rating on the group
to “equal weight” from “underweight” and said:
peers will be challenging, we think its online business will start to
improve sharply in 2014. We see Ladbrokes online starting to deliver
promising results from H2 2013, and with an improving economic outlook in
the UK suggesting some recovery in retail in 2014, we upgrade Ladbrokes to
Equal-weight.
11.44 Back to the Bentley factory in Crewe (see 11.11),
Dave has tweeted a picture of himself visiting the site.
David Cameron at the Bentley factory in Crewe.
11.36 Over to Greece – Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has
told key cabinet members in the two-party coalition to speed up structural
reforms in the state sector in order to meet the targets set by the
country’s international creditors.
ekathimerini.com
reports:
Meeting at his Maximos Mansion headquarters, Samaras, his coalition partner
and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos, and Finance Minister Yannis
Stournaras, called for more urgency from the ministers of Interior Yiannis
Michelakis, Administrative Reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Education
Constantinos Arvanitopoulos, Development Costis Hadzidakis and Health Adonis
Georgiadis.
The meeting addressed progress made so far in plans to streamline the
public administration with the induction of thousands of civil servants into
a so-called mobility scheme where they will get reduced pay ahead of
transfer or dismissal.
A plan for restructuring of Hellenic Defense Systems (EAS), the Hellenic
Vehicles Industry (ELVO) and the Larco mining company, was also on the
agenda.
According to sources, the prime minister and ministers expressed their
intention to avoid any more horizontal cuts and to focus instead of a
shake-up of all ministries, and especially that of Education.
The creditors want to see progress in agreed changes to the public
administration as a condition for releasing further life-saving funding.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras
11.23 Chinese police
have detained two more AstraZeneca employees, but the company
continued to insist it is not under wider investigation, our Beijing
correspondent Malcolm Moore has discovered.
He reports:
On Friday, police visited AstraZeneca’s main sales office in central
Shanghai and detained one employee for questioning.
That person has now been released, but two more senior employees, both
thought to be district sales managers, were taken away by police on Tuesday.
The move will raise fears that AstraZeneca could become embroiled into an
investigation into its sales practices.
“We still have no reason to believe that this is connected to any
other investigation,” said a spokesman for AstraZeneca. “The
information we are getting from the police is that this is an individual
case, but we are still in the process of getting more information,” he
added.
GlaxoSmithKline, which was the first company to be accused by the Chinese
government of bribing doctors in order to win sales, has moved to distance
itself from its four Chinese executives under detention.
Police in China have released on AstraZeneca worker and detained a more
senior staffer.
11.11 Some good news for the UK – luxury car maker Bentley is to
create more than 1,000 jobs with the development of a new model.
The SUV, the company’s fourth model, will be built at the firm’s site in Crewe
and will go on sale in 2016, with an investment of £800 million.
Dr Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the board of Volkswagen Group, said
it had chosen the UK as it was a “competitive location for industrial
production”.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited the factory today, said:
news for both Crewe and for the UK as a whole. It is another important
milestone in strengthening our economy.
One sector that we know is sprinting ahead in the global race is our
booming automotive industry.
One vehicle rolls off a production line somewhere in the UK every 20
seconds and we have just launched the Government’s Automotive Industrial
Strategy to help continue this success for years to come.
Business Secretary Vince Cable added:
car-maker. Our automotive industrial strategy proves this Government’s
commitment to working with world-class companies like Bentley to create jobs
and promote exports.
The new Bentley SUV will resemble the EXP 9 F concept car (pictured) that
was unveiled at the 2012 Geneva motor show.
11.02 George Osborne’s meeting with housebuilders and mortgage lenders
(see 08.55) has been “good”, according to the man himself.
Not very informative.
10.50 Back in the stock market, software company Sage Group, up
3.8pc, is currently topping the FTSE 100 after releasing an
encouraging trading update, in which it confirmed that recent trading had
matched expectations.
But chemical group Croda has lost 4.4pc, making it one of the heaviest
fallers, after issuing first-half results. Numis analyst Charles Pick
said the company’s second-quarter performance had been “slightly
disappointing”.
10.36 Over in France, industrial morale rose slightly more
than expected in July to its highest in over a year, offering more
evidence that a fragile recovery is taking hold in the euro zone’s
second-biggest economy.
The monthly industry morale indicator improved for the fourth month in a row
to reach 95 in July, from 93 in June, its highest point since May 2012,
according to the official statistics agency INSEE, beating
economists’ average expectation for 94.
There was more positivity for France when its Finance Minister Pierre
Moscovici declared the recession was over, pointing to forecasts
from the Bank of France and INSEE for growth of 0.2pc in the second quarter
compared to a contraction of 0.2pc in the first.
“Now we need to work to transform this exit from recession into a genuine
recovery,” he said on Europe 1 radio, citing recent measures aimed at
helping to finance companies.
French finance minister Pierre Moscovici
10.18 Some positive news for Spain – its economy shrank by
0.1pc in the second quarter – the smallest drop since the country slid
into recession at the end of 2011.
The Bank of Spain said:
improvement which could point to a more favourable domestic spending in the
next few quarters.
The government has said it expects the economy to emerge from recession by the
third quarter, though many economists are less optimistic, with the
International Monetary Fund seeing economic contraction into next year.
Spain’s economy has been in and out of recession since a property bubble burst
in 2008, with domestic demand dragged down by dire consumer and business
sentiment and only exports helping offset otherwise shrinking output.
10.01 The latest figures from the British Bankers Association
show that mortgage approvals hit a 17-month high in June.
In June 37,278 mortgages were approved, up from 36,290 in May and a 32.4pc
increase in the same month last year.
Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global, said today’s figured
added to the plethora of recent data and surveys which indicated that
housing market activity was “now really stepping up a gear”.
He said the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) has increased
mortgage availability as it brings interest rates on mortgages down.
the rest of 2013 and to then strengthen more markedly in 2014.
We believe that a strong upward move in house prices is unlikely for now
given a still challenging and somewhat uncertain economic environment
despite recent signs of improvement.
In particular, extended and ongoing very weak earnings growth argues
against a substantial rise in house prices for the time being while consumer
confidence is still relatively muted compared to long-term norms despite
reaching a 25-month high in June.
Housing market activity is also currently still limited compared to
long-term norms despite the recent pick-up in activity.
09.38 Shares in microchip designer Imagination Technologies are
under pressure and have slumped 8.1pc in the FTSE 250 after the
company lost out to rival ARM Holdings, up 0.1pc, to supply Samsung’s
new chip. Liberum Capital analyst Eoin Lambe said:
previous version used an Imagination’s GPU. Samsung is a high volume chip
vendor and is therefore an important customer. The loss of this socket plus
the slow down at Apple (Imagination’s largest royalty payer) will drag on
Imagination’s future royalty revenue.
Meanwhile, easyJet has shed 4.3pc after analysts at HSBC raised
concerns about the impact of Britain’s heatwave. They argued:
easyJet’s fourth-quarter profitability depends on the company’s ability to
maximise revenue from last minute bookings. We think demand for holiday
flights will be melting as fast the ice-creams on Clacton beach in the
current heat wave.
They cut their rating on easyJet to “neutral” from “overweight”,
which is undoubtedly an unwelcome move ahead of the group’s third quarter
trading update tomorrow.
09.26 Ryanair’s has issued a strongly
worded statement which it believes “fatally undermines”
the Competition Commission’s requirement that it sell its 29pc stake
in Aer Lingus which it has held for 6 and a half years.
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said that today’s offer to sell its stake was to “remove
any remaining shred of credibility from the CC process”, as the “only
remaining “concern” they can now dream up is that Ryanair’s 29pc
stake “might” prevent another EU airline buying Aer Lingus”.
minority stake to any other EU airline which makes an offer for, and
acquires more than 50.1% of, Aer Lingus shares, at the same price and terms
which are accepted by these other 50.1pc of Aer Lingus shareholders.
This remedy unconditionally removes any ability by Ryanair to block any
future takeover of Aer Lingus by another EU airline.
He added that this offer would “eliminate any doubt about this imaginary
albeit non-existent ‘concern’”.
Ryanair said the CC had been “reduced” to “inventing new and
fantastical ‘concerns’” to justify their “premeditated and biased
thinking” that Ryanair should sell down its stake in Aer lingus.
removing any requirement for a divestment of Ryanair’s 6½ year old minority
shareholding which even the CC now admits hasn’t given Ryanair any
influence, and Aer Lingus admits has led to intensified competition to the
benefit of the perhaps 1 or maybe 2 UK consumers who even fly Aer Lingus.
09.05 BREAKING: Low-cost airline Ryanair has offered to sell its
29pc stake in rival airline Aer Lingus.
08.55 Britain’s housebuilders and mortgage lenders have been
summoned to Number 11 today to discuss the second phase of the Chancellor’s
booming Help to Buy Scheme.
Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, Barclays and Nationwide are among the
group called by George Osborne to hear his plans to offer mortgages
to people with just a 5pc deposit from January.
The scheme, through which the Government guarantees loans, has boosted both
housebuilding and lending, but there are fears it could also be creating a
new version of the bubble that caused the crash in the first place.
So far £1.3bn of new houses has been subsidized, according to the FT this
morning. Sir Mervyn King, the former Governor of the Bank of England, said
it should not be extended. Pete Redfern, boss of Taylor Wimpey, has said the
scheme could be a “hazard to the economy” unless a clear exit plan
is laid out.
08.44 While the broader FTSE 100 has moved 0.4pc higher this
morning, exploration group Tullow Oil is the heaviest faller by a
wide margin, sliding 7.5pc on news of a dry well in French Guiana.
The company also said its exploration well off the coast of Mozambique had
found gas, although the discovery was not commercial, which has further
dented confidence in Tullow’s exploration prowess this morning.
08.38 Some corporate news this morning, as Louise Armitstead reports in
her City Briefing morning email.
Premier Foods, the owner of brands including Hovis bread and Mr
Kipling, has posted exceedingly good first-half results with underlying
trading profits up 50pc.
The company’s shares have recently jumped on takeover speculation although its
£875m of net debt and £350m pension deficit is seen as a stumbling block to
any deal.
Today Gavin Darby, chief executive, has said the results show “that
our turnaround strategy is delivering at the bottom line.”
Provident Financial, which provides credit to non-standard consumers,
has said pre-tax profits 7pc before exceptionals or 0.7pc on a reported
basis.
Croda International, the chemical company and one of the FSTE100′s
newer entrants,has reported pre-tax profits of 6.1pc to £68m.
Carpetright has said total sales dropped 3.3pc in the last quarter or
1.9pc on a like-for-like basis.
It’s the Vodafone annual meeting today which will be dominated by the
progress of its deal to buy Kabel Deutschland and the Verizon
question.
Other companies holding their AGMs include Bloomsbury, the Harry Potter
book publishers, and Hogg Robinson.
The interdealer broker Icap is holding an analysts and investors
meeting in London. And later in America, Apple will publish its third
quarter results.
08.22 European markets have had a strong start to Tuesday.
In Germany the Dax is up 0.3pc
In France the Cac is up 0.3pc
In Spain the Ibex is up 1.4pc
In Italy the FTSE Mib is up 0.9pc
In Portugal the PSI 20 is up 0.9pc.
08.17 The positive economic news from China and Japan (see 07.43,
07.55) has also helped lift market sentiment in London.
The FTSE 100 is up 28 points, or 0.4pc, at 6,651in early deals and the FTSE
250 has put on 34 points, or about 0.2pc.
With China the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals, mining shares
have received a boost and are dominating the risers. Anglo American
has gained 2.2pc, while Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have both
advanced 1.9pc.
08.04 Asian stocks rose following the announcements from China and
Japan, extending a two-month high.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 1pc. The Shanghai Composite Index
jumped 1.6pc.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.2pc.
Japan’s Topix added 0.5pc, while the benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed
0.8pc.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.3pc and Australia’s SP/ASX
200 rose 0.3pc. New Zealand’s NZX 50 advanced 0.6pc,
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 1.4pc and Singapore’s Straits
Times increased 0.6pc.
07.55 There was also positive news out of China – local media
report quoting Premier Li Keqiang as saying China’s “bottom line”
for GDP growth is 7pc and the nation can’t let growth go below that,
Beijing News reported today, citing Premier Li’s comments at a recent
meeting with economists and business people.
Li’s statement “helped to reassure investors,” Daphne Roth, Singapore-based
head of Asia equity research at ABN Amro Private Bank, told Bloomberg.
China could introduce some kind of fiscal stimulus to help stabilize the
economy. While there’s a likelihood the Fed will start tapering monetary
stimulus in September, we don’t expect the Fed to start raising rates until
the end of 2014. We remain overweight on equities.
Comments from Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli also helped. He reiterated the
country’s commitment to take decisive measures to support reasonable
infrastructure and social welfare investment to develop the export sector,
service industry and small firms.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
07.43 Overnight in Japan, the government upgraded its view on
the economy for a third straight month, saying deflation was easing and
growth was picking up due to massive monetary fiscal stimulus.
Still, plenty of work is needed to repair public finances.
Japan’s public debt is the largest among major industrialised nations at more
than twice the size of its 500 trillion yen (£3.3 trillion) economy, and the
sales tax hike is considered a test of the government’s commitment to
reform.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
07.30 Some good new for Britain – export
activity is at an all-time high as confidence continues to return to
the UK economy.
Export orders for Britain’s service sector, which drives more than three
quarters of UK output, increased for 50pc of firms in the second quarter
this year – the highest figure since records began in 2007 – according to
data compiled by DHL and the British Chambers of Commerce.
The DHL/BCC Trade Confidence Index rose to 118.12 in the quarter,
compared with 114.8 in the previous quarter and a long-run average of 100.
The survey of 1,700 businesses also showed that 48pc of exporters said sales
increased in the three months to the end of June, compared with 10pc which
said they decreased.
More firms expect to hire this year, the survey showed, with 31pc of
respondents stating they would employ more staff in 2013.
07.20 The Telegraph had revealed that three
senior Network Rail executives are set to pocket £900,000 for
not leaving their job.
Our transport editor David Millward reports:
Patrick Butcher, the group finance director; Robin Gisby and Simon Kirby
respectively the managing directors for network operations and
infrastructure projects will each get £300,000 “retention payments” next
year if they stay in post.
The proposed “golden handcuffs” rekindled the row over executive bonuses a
the company which is responsible for running the country’s track
infrastructure.
Last week Network Rail rubber stamped a series of bonus payments for the
three men along with Sir David Higgins, the chief executive and Paul
Plummer, the group strategy director.
The bonuses included a new long term incentive package, first disclosed by
The Daily Telegraph, worth 100 per cent of the five men’s annual salary,
which would be paid in 2015 if performance targets are met
This is in addition to the annual performance bonuses worth up to 60 per
cent of salary along with substantial pension and other benefits which,
according to Network Rail’s accounts, cost the company just over a million a
year in addition to their salary.
07.10 In The Telegraph‘s business section, Szu Ping Chan
reports that painful
eurozone austerity measures have failed to reduce the ballooning debt piles
of bailed-out nations, with official figures revealing that the
17-nation bloc’s debt burden hit an all-time high in the first three months
of the year.
Total eurozone debt as a proportion of annual gross domestic product (GDP)
stood at a record €8.75 trillion (£7.5 trillion) in the three months to the
end of March, or 92.2pc of GDP, up from €8.6 trillion in the previous
quarter and €8.34 trillion the year before.
Bailed-out nations Greece, Portugal and Ireland saw some of the biggest
rises, even after implementing austerity measures imposed by Brussels in an
attempt to balance the books.
Greece’s debt rose to 160.5pc of GDP from 156.9pc in the first quarter
compared with the final three months of 2012, while Portugal’s debt burden
rose to 127.2pc from 123.8pc. Germany and Estonia were the only countries to
reduce their public debt.
Meanwhile, Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho ruled out a snap
election and confirmed he would make junior coalition party leader Paulo
Portas his deputy, sending the country’s benchmark borrowing costs down 0.5
percentage points, to 6.31pc. Total eurozone debt as a proportion of annual
gross domestic product (GDP) stood at a record €8.75 trillion (£7.5
trillion) in the three months to the end of March, or 92.2pc of GDP, up from
€8.6 trillion in the previous quarter and €8.34 trillion the year before.
Bailed-out nations Greece, Portugal and Ireland saw some of the biggest
rises, even after implementing austerity measures imposed by Brussels in an
attempt to balance the books.
Greece’s debt rose to 160.5pc of GDP from 156.9pc in the first quarter
compared with the final three months of 2012, while Portugal’s debt burden
rose to 127.2pc from 123.8pc. Germany and Estonia were the only countries to
reduce their public debt.
Meanwhile, Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho ruled out a snap
election and confirmed he would make junior coalition party leader Paulo
Portas his deputy, sending the country’s benchmark borrowing costs down 0.5
percentage points, to 6.31pc.
07.05 A quick look at the business pages this morning.
The Times reports carries the story that the former
Bank of England governor will return to the world of academia this autumn
when he takes up a visiting professorship for a term in Manhattan.
In his first appointment since leaving the Bank at the end of last month, Lord
King of Lothbury has taken up a temporary post at the New York University
Stern School of Business and New York University School of Law.
The Independent reports that local
communities are set to lose control over key environmental decisions
affecting whether fracking can go ahead within their midst, it is
claimed.
Campaigners opposing the industrial-scale exploitation of shale gas reserves
in the British countryside said the Government has removed key democratic
controls in its dash to bring unconventional energy resources on stream.
The Financial Times reports that the UK
housing market has been given a sharp jolt by the government’s flagship Help
to Buy scheme, subsidising an estimated £1.3bn-worth of house
purchases in the past four months
Nearly 7,000 new-build homes have been reserved through the scheme since its
launch in April by George Osborne as a centrepiece of the chancellor’s 2013
budget moves to revive the economy. This is equivalent to more than a third
of sales of such property over this period, according to estimates by industry
insiders
07.00 Good morning and welcome to our daily business and markets live
blog, your one stop shop for all the breaking business stories of the day.
Business news and markets: live
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét