Interesting

Supergroup's rapid expansion boosts sales


The rapidly growing fashion retailer almost doubled sales in the three months to the end of January as it expanded into the Westfield Centre in London and the Trafford centre in Manchester
India's business titans are losing their lustre

For every underpriced mining or telecoms licence there is an entrepreneur only too happy to cash in, writes David Pilling



Rio buyback disappoints, wary on commodity boom
10 FEB 2011 13:57 GMT
MELBOURNE/LONDON (Reuters) - Rio Tinto's smaller than expected $5 billion (3 billion pounds) share buyback and caution over the sustainability of a commodity boom overshadowed record profits from the mining giant.



Mexico: growth up, inflation down - Beyond brics



Fuelling corn’s relentless rise back toward record levels

As the primary usage of the US corn crop switches to fuel from food, Javier Blas looks at some of the implications
FBI probes Chinese cyberattacks on oil groups

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing a series of cyber-espionage attacks on at least five major oil, gas and petrochemical companies by hackers based in China
 
 
 
Activision pulls cord on 'Guitar Hero'


The Los Angeles-based company is abandoning its music game franchise after a dramatic collapse in sales over the past two years in spite of high ratings from reviewers


PetroChina in $5.4bn Canada gas buy


PetroChina has agreed to pay C$5.4bn (US$5.4bn) for a 50 per cent stake in a large natural gas field in western Canada owned by Encana, the Calgary-based oil and gas producer, the FT reports. The investment is one of the biggest by a Chinese company in the North American energy industry and comes on the heels of several others in the Alberta oil sands.
 
 
Ambani seeks probe as Reliance shares fall


Anil Ambani’s Reliance ADAG holding group has filed a complaint with India’s market regulator urging a probe of alleged illegal trading in its companies’ shares, which tumbled as much as 18.8 after reports that they were being investigated by the nation’s top accounting body, the FT reports. The move comes a month after Mr Ambani agreed not to trade Indian equities until the end of 2011 as part of a settlement with the market regulator over charges that his group misrepresented its financial statements in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

 

Ambani seeks probe as Reliance shares fall
Anil Ambani's group said its listed subsidiaries were being illegally targeted as stocks in the companies controlled by the Indian billionaire plunged as much as 18.8 per cent
 
 
 
 
 
 
Vodafone hits at spectrum price plan


Vodafone and India’s Bharti have criticised a proposal by the country’s telecoms regulator to increase the price of mobile spectrum, saying it discriminates against older operators,the FT reports. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended a steep increase in the prices of second-generation spectrum that would also see companies holding more than a 6.2 megahertz spectrum paying a one-off fee for the extra bandwidth.
 
 
 
China developers move beyond Shanghai, Beijing, defy curbs


Chinese developers are building more homes in cities across the nation away from Shanghai and the capital Beijing, which may be the hardest hit by government measures to curb property prices, Bloomberg reports. China Vanke Co., the country’s biggest developer by market value, said an expansion into central and western Chinese cities, including Wuhan and Chengdu, helped 2010 revenue exceed 100 billion yuan ($15 billion), while Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. counted on towns in the nation’s interior to boost sales.
 
 
Tullow strikes oil and gas in Ghana

British oil major Tullow Oil has struck lucky in Ghana with an oil and gas discovery at its Teak-1 exploration well.
 
 
 
Britons hit by rising bills for local services

10 FEB 2011 11:42 GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - Parking your car, burying a dead relative and even renting a beach hut are set to get ever more expensive as local councils drive up charges to compensate for tighter budgets.
 
 
 
Rio Tinto H2 profit soars

10 FEB 2011 08:39 GMT
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto surprised investors by more than doubling its full-year dividend and promising to return $5 billion (3 billion pounds) to shareholders by 2012, looking to soak up bumper cashflows after it reported a record second-half profit.



Crematorium to heat water for town's swimmers

08 FEB 2011 14:52 GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - A local authority has given the go ahead for a swimming pool to use energy created by the next-door crematorium to heat its water.



Berlin walks away from real estate firm sale

09 FEB 2011 10:11 GMT
BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin city council has decided not to sell its real estate management firm, Berliner Immobilien Holdings GmbH , to a UK-based fund because of transparency concerns, a city official said on Tuesday.
 
 

Shell vulnerable; Lloyds, Hiscox to gain - Octopus
08 FEB 2011 10:45 GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - Energy major Royal Dutch Shell looks vulnerable as new oil discoveries prove tough, while Hiscox and Lloyds Banking Group should outperform in 2011, the manager of an Octopus long-short equity portfolio said.


Guy Hands among Chaucer bidders

08 FEB 2011 10:22 GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity tycoon Guy Hands is among potential bidders for Chaucer , Sky News reported after the Lloyd's of London insurer said on Monday it had received takeover approaches.



Hermes BPK aiming to triple assets in 5 years
08 FEB 2011 10:20 GMT
TOKYO (Reuters) - The fund of hedge funds arm of Hermes aims to boost its assets by three times to $5 billion (3.1 billion pounds) in five years by tapping growing demand for alternative investments in countries including Japan, the head of the company said.


Cheap Egypt assets attractive but not yet

07 FEB 2011 10:38 GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - Cairo financial markets, reopening from a prolonged closure and a steep selloff, cannot look forward to much support from overseas portfolio managers who want more clarity on Egypt's economic and corporate outlook before venturing back to the country's newly-cheap securities.



Blog campaign to trace children grips China

Yu Jianrong’s Microblog to trace abducted children and reunite them with their families receives a rare stamp of approval from Beijing government



Le Pen daughter applauds Cameron on multiculturalism

New leader of France’s far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, congratulates UK prime minister for what she claims is endorsement of her party’s views



Paris and Berlin display lack of tact

‘Economic government’ is the buzzword for the eurozone coming from France and Germany, but no-one is sure what it means, let alone if it will work


Piracy ‘out of control’ after hijack near Gulf

Somali piracy is ‘spinning out of control into the entire Indian Ocean’ after a tanker was hijacked in one of the vital sea lanes carrying oil supplies out of the Gulf



Peugeot plans expansion into India

The French carmaker is looking to build a mid-size saloon car as part of a broader plan to grow its business overseas and reduce its reliance on Europe's anaemic car market



Emerging markets drive demand for cars

Germany's premium carmakers BMW, Audi and Daimler are struggling to meet rocketing global demand, with sales also picking up in the US and Europe



Detroit mayor encourages police to return

Motown's mayor unveiled a plan this week that allows police to buy abandoned homes in two middle-class but deteriorating districts for as little as $1,000 apiece


Toyota

Exchange rates were causing far more hand-wringing at headquarters than the highly-publicised recalls

 
 
 
Pentagon will not support big defence mergers

The Pentagon will not support mergers between the largest US defense contractors and will carefully examine any divestments that create 'weaker standalone' companies
 
 

Changed outlook for Xchanging
The outsourcing company has lost £370m of its market capitalisation inside six months as investors' hopes have been dashed amid the group's struggles



Solution from Torotrak set to raise eyebrows

Transmissions maker is not only reducing the size of its board to bring costs down to a more appropriate level, but the remaining directors are to take a cut in pay


Toyota's throttle systems cleared

A US investigation into unintended acceleration in the Japanese carmaker's vehicles, which caused a number of fatal crashes, has found no flaws in the electronic systems