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New M&S chairman to be paid Ј500,000

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:00:24 +0000

By Graham Ruddick
Published: 6:41PM BST 22 Aug 2010

Robert Swannell: helped guard M&S from a hostile takeover attempt by Sir Philip Green in 2004

The retailer is believed to have ~ing in advanced talks with Robert Swannell about a deal that decree see the veteran investment banker paid a salary of around &shut up;500,000.

Sir Stuart, the present chairman, collects £875,000 a year and his compensation has been controversial with shareholders.

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M&S has refused to comment about its potential new chairman but an announcement could be made this week.

Mr Swannell is the constructer vice-chairman of Citigroup and helped defend M&S from a adverse takeover attempt by Bhs-owner Sir Philip Green in 2004. During his 33 years at Citi, Mr Swannell acted with regard to P&O Princess when it was taken over by Carnival in 2003 and advised Roman Abramovich in c~tinuance his takeover of Chelsea Football Club.

He also defended Safeway at the time that the grocer was under siege from a number of rivals prior to it was finally sold to Wm Morrison.

Mr Swannell’s other roles embody the chairmanship of HMV, the retailer that owns the music supplies and Waterstones bookshops.

He is also a non-executive director of special equity group 3i and British Land, the property company.

His appointment would form the last piece of a senior management jigsaw at the retailer after Marc Bolland was named chief executive last November.

Paper clip budget

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:00:21 +0000

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M&S chief creates top jobs in bid to boost overseas and online sales

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:00:12 +0000

Marks & Spencer has ordered headhunters to make a ~ning a search for two new directors to focus on the online and between nations business.

The changes are part of a board restructuring by supreme executive Marc Bolland, who arrived from Morrisons in May.

Bolland wants to agree the gap between Marks & Spencer ‘s market share in the internet clothing market of 5.6 per cent and its dominance of the High Street clothing market, which has more than double the online share.

Savers must gamble and pay premium for top cash Isa deals

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:00:08 +0000

You be obliged to take a gamble to receive the best rates on ready money Isas. Banks and building societies are prepared to pay a premium to those who are minded to tie their money up in longer term fixed-rate deals.

Many economists forebode. the base rate will rise in the coming months, but possibly not until 2011, and even then increases are expected to subsist modest.

This week National Counties building society launched a five-year Isa profitable 1 per cent over inflation. The starting rate will be the deal out in small portions prices index (RPI) from this July, and the final date the compute in July 2015. Savers receive the difference plus 1 per cent.

Business Bullet: Markets, Dana, Look ahead, Australia

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:50:01 +0000

Published: 11:56AM BST 20 Aug 2010

Robert Miller by the latest City and business news on a see-saw period of week trading session for Europe’s markets; Korean National Oil Corporation goes at variance on Dana Petroleum; a look ahead to companies reporting next week and investors become nervous ahead of Australia’s general election.

You can also watch Business Bullet forward your iPhone when you download the Telegraph App from Apple’s App Store.

Korea’s KNOC makes Ј1.87bn hostile bid for UK oil explorer Dana Petroleum

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:50:00 +0000

By Rowena Mason
Published: 12:06PM BST 20 Aug 2010

Dana Petroleum

The Korea National Oil Corporation announced the &bray;18-a-share cash offer on Friday, taking it straight to shareholders on the model of Dana’s board rejected an approach at this level last week.

KNOC related it had the support of investors which an interest in 48.6pc of the shares, including holders of 21.2pc of the equity and a further 27.4pc held by hedge funds with CFDs (contracts on account of difference).

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Aberdeen-based Dana’s board angered some of its biggest shareholders by rejecting the proposed offer.

Dana’s largest investor Schroders, through stake 15.47pc, has backed the deal after earlier urging the treatment to consider a deal seriously and engage with the Koreans.

BlackRock (3.16pc) and JPMorgan Asset Management (2.58pc) are the other shareholders.

The fence funds holding long-only positions in the company via CFDs comprise Eton Park (3.43pc), Jabre Capital (3.28pc) and Davidson Kempner European PArtners (3.2pc).

The London-listed oil crew’s share rose to £17.90 in early trading steady Friday.

The £18-a-share offer is a near 60pc meed to the Dana share price when the approach was first revealed in betimes July.

The shares fell more than 12pc, to below £15 a part, after it announced that it had ended talks. Talks stalled following meetings in Calgary, at what place KNOC last year bought Canadian explorer Harvest Energy for C$1.7bn (&comminute;1.1bn).

Dana insisted that it was unable to open its books exclusively of a confidentiality agreement from KNOC and said the offer undervalued its possessions.

Dr. Seong-Hoon Kim, senior executive vice president of KNOC, declared in a statement on Friday: “We believe that our offer of 1,800 pence by share fully and fairly reflects all of Dana’s lately announced and ongoing developments, together with its exploration potential.”

On Friday, Dana urged shareholders to take not at all action ahead of its interim results on August 27, when “the partnership will give a full operational update on its current production, progression in a continuously ascending gradation and exploration activities”.

Dana has underperformed its exploration and production peers in excess the past 12 months, but some City analysts have argued that its scrutiny potential has been undervalued.

The oil company has been releasing a brook of news about small drilling successes since the bid. However, pair of its biggest potential discoveries have turned up dry in fresh months.

Self-service paying-in machines could put your money at risk

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:49:57 +0000

A ~ized loophole is leaving bank customers who use self-service paying-in machines at danger, experts warn.

The machines, which require customers to post cash using some envelope, do not issue receipts – meaning there is no legal up~ to demand it back if the cash goes missing.

Hundreds of populate a year are denied compensation by their bank after claiming they be the subject of lost money deposited in their account this way, says the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Blow for Barclays as customers complain about sale of risky investments

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:49:47 +0000

Almost 2,000 customers a sunshine are complaining to Barclays, many related to the sale of risky investments to vigilant savers.

The High Street bank (down 2p at 317.4p) believed 259,266 complaints in the first six months of the year –the remarkable majority about its retail banking arm.

Some 7,053 were cognate to investments.

Prime Minister David Cameron rents out home for up to Ј72k a year

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:49:46 +0000

David and Samantha Cameron are pocketing up to Ј6,000 a month through renting out their London home while they live in No 10.

In 10 Downing Street and the magistrate country retreat of Chequers, the Prime Minister has the use of pair grace-and favour properties.

But the couple have now decided to coin in on the luxury London property market by letting their Ј2.7million protect in Notting Hill.

Cut taxes not spending, says ex-Monetary Policy Committee member Blanchflower

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:49:43 +0000

By Philip Aldrick, Economics Editor
Published: 6:18AM BST 19 Aug 2010

of Images

David Blanchflower reported the danger was that the Coalition’s policies would push the plan back into recession Photo: REUTERS

David Blanchflower said the danger was that the Coalition’s policies would push the management back into recession Photo: REUTERS

Mr Blanchflower, a staunch opponent of the stiffness consensus, has urged the Coalition to abandon its spending cuts and, in place, offer workers a tax holiday to stimulate spending and fuel sprouting. He has called for a reduction in employees’ National Income contributions (NICs) from 11pc to 5pc in opposition to two years and across all income groups “immediately”.

“This would abet individuals to spend more, and companies would boost hiring because of the grow dark price of labour,” he said.

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“The peril is the Coalition’s policies will push the economy back into recession… Cutting the people spending and raising taxes at this point in the cycle is unavoidably going to lower economic growth and raise the number of jobless. It’s that neat.”

By scrapping “the austerity Budget and its planned tax increases” and awarding workers a brace-year “holiday” on NICs, public spending would be roughly £28bn higher than planned this year and &crush;35bn higher in 2011.

The extra borrowing required would inevitably propel the budget deficit above its current forecast of £149bn this year and &bray;121bn in 2011. The Coalition has made deficit reduction a central plank of correction as it seeks to wrestle back control of the bloated men finances.

Mr Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, challenged everyday wisdom by arguing that tax cuts “would revive economic growth and in likelihood reduce the size of the budget deficit in the long elapse as it would increase Government revenue”.

In a column for Bloomberg, he uttered his biggest concern is the recent plunge in household and transaction confidence and urged ministers to stop “talking the economy down”. “Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said the UK economy is ‘bankrupt’ and ‘shattered’, which it clearly is not,” Mr Blanchflower stressed.

Chancellor George Osborne would city Mr Blanchflower in his “deficit deniers” camp, along with Alistair Darling, the Shadow Chancellor, who has warned that the jeopard of a “reckless style of austerity economics has always been that it demise hit confidence and hit jobs”.

Mr Blanchflower prescribed a similar astuteness for the US, where “unemployment remains worryingly high at 9.5pc [and] the lately announced trade figures were ghastly”, recommending an extension of the “such-called Bush tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of the year”.