Inflation The Consumer Price Index — the official measure of inflation — rose to a seven-month high of 2.2 per cent in January, up from 2.1 per cent in December. The increased cost of fuel, with oil nudging $100 a barrel last month, prompted the rise, along with higher food prices. This was backed by figures from the British Retail Consortium, which showed that like-for-like sales rose by 2.6 per cent in January, a four-month high. At the same time, in a separate report, the Office for National Statistics said that the price of goods leaving factories had jumped by 5.7 per cent last month, the largest rise since 1991.
Mortgage payments First-time homebuyers found life more difficult in December as higher mortgages claimed 20.7 per cent of the average income, compared with 17.9 per cent a year ago. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the five rises in interest rates from August 2006 to July 2007 meant that borrowers were paying 3.38 times a typical salary for their mortgage in December, up from 3.34 times a year earlier.
GDP European Finance Ministers in Brussels have warned the Government that the country’s deficit was in danger of breaching the 3 per cent of GDP ceiling in the coming financial year. The problem stemmed, the ministers agreed, from “a significant deterioration in the United Kingdom’s budgetary position, coupled with a probably weaker macroeconomic context than envisaged”. They called on the Chancellor to strengthen the pace of fiscal improvement to address the increased risks to the long-term sustainability of the public finances.
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Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, has emerged relatively unscathed from the global credit crunch — despite booking a further SwFr1.3 billion (£604 million) writedown relating to the global credit crunch. The figure takes the bank’s total credit crunch losses in the second half of last year to SwFr3.5 billion. This pushed the bank’s fourth-quarter pre-tax profits down by 49 per cent to SwFr1.33 billion, but for the full year profits were up by 4 per cent at SwFr14.9 billion.
Hargreaves Lansdown, the private client investment manager and stockbroker, said that fears of a recession in Britain could adversely affect the forthcoming Isa season as retail investors shun savings products despite the looming tax year-end.
Standard Chartered Deloitte, the accountancy firm, has been appointed as the receiver of Whistlejacket, the $7.1 billion (£3.6 billion) structured investment vehicle of Standard Chartered, the Asia-focused British banking group. The receivers had their first meeting with Whistlejacket investors yesterday.
Berkshire Hathaway, the US investment vehicle of Warren Buffett, the word’s third-richest man, has offered to prop up the beleaguered bond insurance market by reinsuring $800 billion worth of local American government securities.
Northern Rock SRM Global, the hedge fund manager, said that its stake in Northern Rock had increased to 10.8 per cent, after it bought 116,000 shares in the troubled bank at 96.06p each.
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Non-domicile taxes Alistair Darling has executed a partial retreat over his tax clampdown on foreigners domiciled in Britain, making it clear that there was no intention to tax non-domiciles on foreign income or gains not sent to the UK. In addition it was explained that the tax treatment of offshore trusts would not apply retrospectively to gains accrued or realised before the changes come into effect.
Grainger, Britain’s largest residential landlord, said that its margins have held up during the four months to January 31, despite sales volumes being lower because of a reduced number of property vacancies and a slowing of the sales process. The company sold 207 properties for £38.8 million, 4.5 per cent over its September valuations, but warned that market conditions will continue to make trading and growth from asset valuation increases more challenging.
Balfour Beatty, the construction group, unveiled its latest bid for US expansion after buying a military housing company for $350 million (£179.3 million). The cash buy follows the company’s acquisition a year ago of Centex, the US construction company.
Carillion, the construction group, said that it has completed the acquisition of Alfred McAlpine, the support services group, following the clearing of the deal by the Office of Fair Trading.
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London office rents The price of occupying a square metre of prime office space in the West End of London stands at £2,277 per metre, three times the cost of taking the equivalent space in Manhattan, twice the cost of Paris and four times the cost of Frankfurt, according to figures from Cushman & Wakefield, the agents. The West End retains the top slot for the most expensive area, followed by Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bombay and Moscow. Paris is sixth and mid-town Manhattan tenth.
Scottish & Newcastle, the brewing group, confirmed plans to close its Berkshire Brewery, near Reading, by early 2010, putting 362 jobs at risk and saving £13 million a year in costs.
Royal Grolsch, the Dutch brewer that is about to be taken over by SABMiller, said that its UK joint venture with Coors Brewers had suffered a decline in volumes of more than 10 per ecnt in 2007.
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General Motors, the US carmaker, recorded the second-worst loss in corporate history last year when tax revaluations pushed it almost $39 billion (£20 billion) into the red. The company also announced plans to offer redundancy terms to about 74,000 of its workforce, a move which could cost it more than $4 billion.
Sanofi-Aventis, the French pharmaceuticals group, reported that full-year earnings had risen in line with its target by 5.9 per cent to €5.17 per share, up from €4.88 in 2006. as tight cost controls helped to offset nearly flat sales of its core lineup of drugs.
BAS, the German chemicals group, has filed for regulatory approval of its experimental Kixor weed killer in North America and Australia, and said that it is expecting annual sales to reach as much as €100 million (£74.6 million).
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Cashcade, the online gaming company behind Foxybingo.com and Getminted.com, said that it is considering a possible sale or stock market flotation during the next 12 months as it seeks to raise about £100 million for expansion.
888 Holdings, the internet casino and poker operator, reported a 55 per cent jump in fourth-quarter gaming revenues to $63 million (£32.4 million), on the back of a 60 per cent increase to $35 million in its casino arm.
HarperCollins, the original publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and the Tolkien Trust, the writer’s estate charity, are suing New Line Cinema, the American film studio that released the trilogy based on Tolkien’s books, claiming that the company has not paid them a penny from the $6 billion (£3.7 billion) that the films, DVDs and other products have taken worldwide.
Global Radio, owner of the Heart and Galaxy radio stations, said that it was keeping all its options open about a possible bid for GCap Media, its rival — including going higher than the 190p per share that it had mooted in an approach earlier this year.
Virgin Radio Bids for Virgin Radio are due today amid concerns that the SMG-owned station will struggle to achieve the hoped-for £70 million price tag.
Rio Tinto, the mining group, has started to sell its non-core assets — including a $750 million (£392.4 million) mine in Alaska — and is hoping to raise a further £200 million when it puts its London headquarters on the market. Rio is the subject of a £75 billion takeover approach from BHP Billiton, its rival.
Imperial Energy Corporation, the oil company, said that it has started flowing oil from the Snezhnoye field in western Siberia into the Transneft national transport system and added that it has secured the necessary regulatory consent for its third pipeline project in Russia.
DSG International, the struggling electrical goods retailer and owner of Currys and PC World, saw its offices raided by European Union officials amid an investigation into possible market abuse. DSG said that the raids related to a continuing investigation by the European Commission into Intel, the American microchip maker.
Marks & Spencer has given out 800,000 vouchers offering 20 per cent off certain goods to its staff — both current and retired — in a bid to improve sales in the closing weeks of the retailer’s financial year. A spokeswoman said it was a “staff perk” and “common practice in the industry”.
Intertek, the quality and safety services provider, said that it has acquired Bioclin Research Laboratories, the Irish pharmaceutical testing laboratory, for an initial €3.2 million (£2.4 million).
AEA Technology, the energy and climate change consultancy, said that it continues to make good progress and remains on track to meet management expectations for this financial year.
Pickfords, the loss-making removals group, is trying to sell some or all of its business as it seeks to secure additional funding to help to pay staff and creditors. The company managed to pay its January wage bill two weeks ago with a £350,000 cash injection from Sirva Incorporated, its troubled US parent, according to company filings.
Micro Focus, the software company based in Newbury, Berkshire, said its second-half revenues would be slightly better than forecast and added that it expected to achieve double-digit organic growth for the full year.
Detica, the IT services and information intelligence company, said that the Trusted Borders consortium, of which it is a member, has extended its contract with the Home Office for the e-Borders project, the national security programme. The value to Detica of this extension is about £25 million.
Yahoo! Legg Mason, the fund manager which owns 6.6 per cent of Yahoo!, said that Microsoft will have to increase its bid significantly for the US internet search engine to about $40 a share if it is to succeed in its takeover offer.
Orange, the France T?l?com unit, and Nokia, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker, have formed a partnership for location-based services, maps, mobile advertising and gaming. The announcement was made during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Ryanair, the low-cost airline, will close its website down for three days after missing a deadline set by the Office of Fair Trading to remove misleading prices from the site. The shutdown could cost the carrier £20 million in lost revenue.
Iberdrola Renovables, the Spanish renewable energy company, has signed a contract with Eolica Dobrogea (Schweix) to acquire the rights for some 50 wind farm projects in Dobrogea, Romania. Iberdrola said that the total price could reach about €300 million (£223.8 million).