Monday September 7, 02:20 AM
Glance-PRESS DIGEST - Financial Times - Sept 7
Financial Times
MIGRANTS TO FACE TIGHTER WORK RULES
Responding to concerns that foreign workers could undercut
British employees during the current period of economic
uncertainty, the home secretary will today announce plans to
tighten
'tier two' of the government's points-based immigration
programme. The government will accept all 16 of the proposals
put forward by the Migration Advisory Committee, including
increasing the amount of time a job must be advertised in a
local JobcentrePlus before it can be given to a migrant worker.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 'GRIM', WARNS BCC
The British Chambers of Commerce has warned that despite
entering the early stages of a recovery, the UK economy faces a
'grim' outlook with a high chance of relapse. While upwardly
revising its growth forecasts for 2010, the BCC noted that a
sustained recovery would be dependent on stronger consumer
spending, investment and net exports, before going on to list
why the signs were not promising.
ONLINE RESEARCH SHOWS CONSUMER CONFIDENCE BOOST
Online search behaviour suggests UK consumer confidence is
improving. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) 's Barometer, which tracks a basket of 50
positive and 50 negative keywords, shows consumer sentiment
improving six percent since the start of the year. Searches for
terms such as 'gifts' or 'ski holiday' show positive indicators
and searches for 'gyms' are expected to increase six percent in
January 2010. The findings are backed up by positive data from
other online indicators, such as online jobsite Monster's
employment index.
FIGHT IS ON FOR T-MOBILE UK
Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) and Telefonica (Madrid: BTEF.MC - news) have both made
informal cash offers worth about four billion pounds for
Deutsche Telekom (Xetra: 555750 - news) -owned T-Mobile UK. If Vodafone's
offer is successful it would create the largest mobile operator
in the UK. Deutsche Telekom has held talks with France Telecom (Paris: FR0000133308 - news) about a possible merger with Orange UK. Robin
Bienenstock of analyst Bernstein said any buyer of T-Mobile
should be in a good position to secure an exclusive deal with
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL - news) for the use of its iPhone on its network, a deal Apple
currently holds with O2.
BARCAP PLANS WEALTH FUND ALLIANCES TO SNAP UP NATURAL
RESOURCE ASSETS
Barclays Capital aims to team up with sovereign
wealth funds to buy natural resources assets in a move that
indicates a renewed appetite for physical commodities. Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news)
plans to build a multi-billion dollar fund that would acquire
assets in Africa, Asia and South America valued between 50 and
100 million dollars before reselling them to other natural
resources groups over a period of three to five years. Barclays
has currently invested one billion dollars in its natural
resources unit over the past four years and is in advanced talks
for a 400 million dollar investment from South Korea's Natural
Resource Fund.
NEW BANK TO FOCUS ON SMALLER BUSINESSES
Panmure Gordon's Sandy Chen is part of team that has held
talks to raise more than 100 million pounds through an Aim
market listing to establish a new retail bank for small and
medium sized businesses struggling to obtain funds. The business
would run along traditional banking lines -- taking deposits to
cover lending -- and offer attractive rates of interest. Sir
Peter Burt, former chief executive of Bank of Scotland, is being
lined up to become its chairman, with remaining board members
said to be experienced bankers and risk managers.
THOMAS COOK TO REVIEW BOARD AFTER PLACING
Thomas Cook is to review the make-up of its board
and future options for raising capital after this week's
expected placing of a 44 percent stake held by creditor banks of
Arcandor (Xetra: 627500 - news) , the insolvent German retailer. Thomas Cook's
management believes the placing as the best option to remove the
threat of one investor holding a substantial chunk of the stake
and allow the group to continue with acquisitions. Analysts
expect the placing to push up the share price, but it may be
short-lived as Thomas Cook last month reported wider losses for
the year.
RAMCO TO FOCUS ON OFFSHORE WIND POWER
Ramco Energy (LSE: ROS.L - news) is preparing to announce a shift in
strategy that will see it concentrate on offshore wind power.
The move, which will establish the stock market's only offshore
wind company, represents the biggest response to the
government's promise of a 'new North Sea' investment boom. The
Aberdeen-based group will now be called SeaEnergy, which is the
name of the subsidiary it set up in 2006. The expansion of
offshore wind power will be crucial to the government's aim of
generating 30 percent of the UK's electricity from renewable
sources by 2020.
MONK'S AIM LIST CHALLENGE
Andrew Monk, ousted chief executive of specialist
stockbrokers Blue Oar, has re-emerged as head of a software
distributor that he hopes to use for acquisitions. Monk paid
200,000 pounds for a 24 percent stake in Formjet (LSE: FMJ.L - news) , which
currently distributes Ability Office -- business software that
aims to rival Microsoft Office, and a remote access package
known as Be Anywhere. Monk expects the business to be profitable
next year and plans to add on other software companies. Broader
plans involve taking over a wider variety of Aim-listed and
private companies that need help with financing.
LAB901 GAINS FUNDING BOOST
Scottish start-up Lab901 has raised 2.4 million pounds in
its latest round of equity funding. The company, which makes
automated testing equipment for the life science industry, was
established by former Motorola (NYSE: MOT - news) employees Joel Fearnley and
Stuart Polwart. The founders have developed ScreenTape, an
automated platform that means processing times are drastically
reduced and labour-intensive scientific instruments are reduced
to the size of a desktop printer. Lab901 has an annual turnover
of 2.5 million pounds and expects to be profitable in 2011.
Prepared for Reuters by Durrants.
Keywords: PRESS DIGEST Financial Times Sept 7
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