News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

Hochtief eyes up 1bn IPO in its concessions business arm

November 22, 2009

GERMAN construction group Hochtief aims to raise as much as €1bn (£989m) by floating a minority stake in its concessions infrastructure business in what would be Germany’s biggest IPO in two years. The issue will be Germany’s first major initial public offering (IPO) since diesel engine maker Tognum’s €2.1bn listing in 2007, before markets were [...]
Business confidence at six-year peak but higher VAT to test sales

November 22, 2009

BRITISH business confidence is at a six-year high, according to a new survey by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW). The Business Confidence Monitor, out today, climbed to 24.6 for the fourth quarter, up from 4.8 in the third quarter. This is the highest reading since the series began in 2003 and will boost expectations [...]
BIGBITEOFMOVIESUCCESS

November 22, 2009

The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a film sequel in which British actor Robert Pattinson stars as a vampire, broke the all-time record for opening day takings in America at the weekend. The blockbuster took £72.7m (£44m) at the US box office on Friday, and a whopping $258.8m worldwide in its first three days. In the [...]
&65279;’GOD’S WORK’ GOLDMAN SETS ITS SIGHTS ON THE SALVATION ARMY

November 22, 2009

JUST when we thought Goldman Sachs couldn’t get any more holier-than-thou, up pops a gem to prove us all wrong. Just weeks after chief executive Lloyd Blankfein claimed his army of smartly-dressed minions were “doing God’s work”, it now appears that a raft of the bank’s staff in New York have signed up to be [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK

November 22, 2009

THE show-stopping lunch is back with a bang, if this short-but-sweet receipt from the restaurant at The Capital hotel in Knightsbridge is anything to go by. Our pair of well-heeled diners chose the £33 three-course lunch menu – including such gems as a tiger prawn and coconut risotto, seared scallops with calf feet and braised [...]
Buckingham’s 80m from Ugandan sale

November 22, 2009

HERITAGE OIL is expected to announce today that it has agreed to sell its Ugandan fields to Italian rival Eni SpA, in a $1.5bn (£909m) deal which will earn chief executive Tony Buckingham around £80m. Buckingham is a former partner in South Africa-based private military company Executive Outcomes, where he worked closely with Simon Mann, [...]
Bank of America to extend job hunt

November 22, 2009

BANK of America may extend its search for a new chief executive into next year if its board is unable to pick a candidate in the next four days, according to a report on Bloomberg News. The story cites unnamed people familiar with the matter who had spoken ahead of a November 20 meeting about [...]
Myspace signs landmark deal with the indies

November 22, 2009

MYSPACE has settled a year-long dispute with independent record companies in a landmark deal that will allow artists including Artic Monkeys to charge for tracks on the social networking site’s music service. Myspace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corporation, launched its music service in the US last year – but it [...]
Tax hits UK airports

November 22, 2009

AIRLINEShave cancelled more routes out of London than any other city in Europe as a direct result of the British government’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax, according to figures released by insurers. APD will rise from £10 to £11 in November and industry insiders are worried it could add to the 76 routes already cancelled [...]