The Sky News Business Round-Up And Look Ahead

Sky's Naomi Kerbel offers a round-up of what's coming up in the week's business news.

:: Monday October 7

The Help-to-Buy mortgage guarantee scheme launches this week, three months earlier than planned following David Cameron's announcement at the Conservative Party conference.

:: Tuesday October 8

Tuesday is the deadline for applications for institutional and retail investors to make offers to purchase shares in the Royal Mail. It is expected the offer will be between 260p and 330p per share which would give it a market capitalisation of between £2.6bn and £3.3bn.

:: Wednesday October 9

Greggs, the UK high street bakery releases its interim results on Wednesday. It has 1,671 shops with its best seller being the sausage roll, selling approximately 140 million each year.

:: Thursday October 10

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet in  Washington DC on Thursday. The U.S economy and budget deadlock is likely to dominate the agenda.

:: Friday October 11

Royal Mail Group is expected to announce the offer price and size for its IPO on Friday with conditional dealings commencing on the London Stock Exchange.

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitter IPO: Company Hopes To Raise $1bn

Twitter has unsealed the documents for its initial public offering of stock, saying it hopes to raise up to $1bn.

It generated $317m (£200m) in revenue in 2012, driven largely by advertising.

Twitter had more than 215 million active users as of the end of June, up 44% from the previous year - compared to Facebook's nearly 1.2 billion and LinkedIn's 240 million.

But the company revealed that it lost $69.3m in the first six months of 2013, compared with a loss of $49.1m for the same period last year.

The losses come as Twitter rolls out a massive infrastructure and staffing expansion programme.

The company's total income in 2012 more than doubled from 2011, with 87% of the revenue comes from ad sales.

The San Francisco-based social network unsealed the papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday.

Last month Twitter announced that it had filed confidential initial public offering (IPO) papers with the SEC to start the process of going public.

The newly released document showed that private investors have ploughed $759m (£470m) into the company and it still has $375m (£230m) cash reserves remaining.

Twitter did not say which stock exchange it plans to list its shares on, however the company said it intends to use the ticker symbol "TWTR".

Facebook is listed on the Nasdaq exchange in New York.

The underwriters of the offering are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities and CODE Advisors.

Twitter's expansion plans have seen huge growth in staff across Europe, with many based at the regional headquarters in Dublin.

Its UK subsidiary gains all of its revenue from services rendered to the Irish intermediary.

Last year Sky News revealed that its UK company was fined by the business regulator for failing to file accounts on time.

Companies House also dissolved its sister company, TweetDeck, earlier this year for repeated failures to file accounts.

Afterwards, an Irish chartered accountant was made director of Twitter UK and San Francisco-based CEO Dick Costolo resigned his role in the British arm.

:: Twitter recently advertised for a tax manager to "implement and monitor transfer pricing strategy" to minimise the amount of tax paid in its Europe, Middle East and African businesses.

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Help To Buy: Doubts Over Success Of Scheme

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business and Economics Correspondent

The second phase of the government mortgage guarantee scheme Help to Buy is due to launch next week, three months earlier than expected - but experts are sceptical the initiative will help buyers.

Lack of capacity in the housing market and claims by banks which say they are not ready because they haven't received essential information from the Government threaten to leave many would-be buyers empty-handed.

Exclusive research by Sky News shows interest from potential buyers has skyrocketed since the Government surprised the market.

Property website Rightmove says clicks on its Help to Buy pages numbered 14,807 on Saturday, the day before last Sunday's surprise announcement.

When David Cameron revealed, on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, that the launch date had been brought forward from January - clicks, measuring potential buyer interest, spiked to 59,571.

Now, almost a week later, they remain far above average at 23,660.

But there is concern that pent-up demand cannot be met by existing market services.

Sky News has learned that the two taxpayer backed banks, Lloyds Banking Group and RBS, are not able to guarantee a launch date. Sky News understands both are waiting for further details from the Government.

Barclays has issued a statement saying it, too, is undecided.

"Whilst we cannot take a decision over participation in the new scheme before the terms are set, we are encouraged by the tone of the discussions so far," the bank said.

Estate agents are also worried that capacity to deal with a surge in interest is lacking.

Robert Ellice, of Clarke Hillyer, told Sky News: "At the moment we've got big delays in the whole process anyway, mortgages are still taking a long time to be offered and taking a long time to be verified on values."

Does that mean hopeful homebuyers will have to wait for Westminster to work out the finer details before others can catch up?

Mortgage manager Ray Boulger said: "The first details of mortgage rates under this scheme we are expecting on Tuesday from Halifax, but they are likely to be the only lender offering these mortgages for probably some weeks.

"From a buyer's perspective the good news is there will be 95% mortgages available from the biggest lender in the country, the bad news is there will be no competition."

He added: "But it is a start, you have got to start somewhere."

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

HTC One Smartphone Wins At T3 Gadget Awards

By Stuart Duggan, at the T3 Awards

HTC was the big winner at the T3 Gadget Awards with the company's HTC One smartphone picking up three prizes.

The Android handset beat both the Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 to win Phone of the Year - and also claimed Gadget of the Year and the T3 Design Award.

The Sky+HD 2TB set-top box won entertainment gadget of the year.

Samsung, Apple, Google and Sony were also recognised at the seventh annual T3s at Old Billingsgate in London.

Apple won two awards: Tablet of the Year and Computer of the Year for the iPad Mini and the Mac Book Air 11 inch.

Felix Baumgartner won Tech Moment of the Year

Sony also got two prizes: for Digital Camera and TV of the Year.

Google took home Innovation of the Year for Google Glass while Samsung was named Tech Brand of the Year.

Other winners included Netflix, who won Digital Media Service of the Year.

Tech Moment of the Year was awarded to Felix Baumgartner for his daring skydive from the edge of space a year ago.

On any other year his fellow nominees would have had a very good chance: the Curiosity Rover reaching Mars, Gangnam Style hitting one billion YouTube views, goal line technology being introduced in football, the battle between the Xbox One and PS4 at E3 and the UK launch of 4G.

The iPad Mini won the award for Tablet of the Year

But it's difficult to compete with a man who fell to Earth from 128,097 feet.

"Fearless Felix" broke the sound barrier during his sky-dive in October last year, free-falling for four minutes and 19 seconds before landing smoothly in New Mexico.

T3 gave a new award last night with TED curator Chris Anderson getting their first ever Tech Legend prize.

Meanwhile, Michael Acton Smith, the creator of Moshi Monsters, won the Outstanding Contribution To Tech prize.

T3 magazine's editor-in-chief Kieran Alger said: "Chris Anderson's TED initiatives provide inspiration for a generation of enquiring tech minds while Michael Acton Smith's army of Moshi Monsters has brought fun to a mind-boggling 80 million people across the planet.

"They're both hugely deserving recipients."

Jason Bradbury from The Gadget Show was named Tech Personality of the Year.

14.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitter IPO: Company Hopes To Raise $1bn

Twitter has unsealed the documents for its initial public offering of stock, saying it hopes to raise up to $1bn.

The company revealed that it lost $69.3m in the first six months of 2013, compared with a loss of $49.1m for the same period last year.

The losses come as Twitter rolls out a massive infrastructure and staffing expansion programme.

Meanwhile it said revenue more than doubled to $254m (£160m) from $122m (£72m).

Total 2012 revenue was $317m (£196m) - with 87% of its revenue comes from advertising.

Last month Twitter announced that it had filed confidential initial public offering (IPO) papers to start the process of going public.

On Thursday, the San Francisco-based social network unsealed the papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The documents showed that private investors have ploughed $759m (£470m) into the company and it still has $375m (£230m) cash reserves remaining.

Twitter did not say which stock exchange it plans to list its shares on, however the company said it intends to use the ticker symbol "TWTR".

The micro-blogging site said that at the end of June it had 218 million active users, which was up from 10 million in 2010.

The underwriters of the offering are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities and CODE Advisors.

The IPO has been long expected. The company has been ramping up its advertising products and working to boost ad revenue in preparation.

14.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Carpetright Boss Quits Amid Profit Warning

High street furnishing chain Carpetright has issued a profit warning and parted company with its chief executive.

The firm said CEO Darren Shapland will step down from his role with immediate effect, replaced by chairman and founder Philip Harris.

Mr Harris will become full-time executive chairman.

The firm added that as a result of a combination of a softer UK market and a further step down in the Netherlands, it was likely full year profit will be significantly below previous expectations.

In the 10 weeks to September 29 sales at stores open over a year were down 2.5% in the UK and down 7.6% in the Rest of Europe division - made up of the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland.

More follows...

14.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

O2 Owner AEG To Appoint New European Chief

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The owner of the O2, the site in southeast London that has become one of the world's most popular entertainment venues, is poised to name a new boss of its European operations.

Sky News understands that Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) will on Thursday appoint Tom Miserendino as the president and chief executive of AEG Europe.

Mr Miserendino has worked for AEG for more than a decade, most recently as the head of AEG Live, the group's touring and concert arm.

He is expected to take over the company's operations in one of its most important regions outside its home US market on December 1, insiders said on Wednesday.

AEG's flagship venue in Europe is the O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula, which will next month host the season-ending ATP World Tour tennis championship, in which the top eight players in the men's game will compete for the final trophy of the season.

The company also owns a number of other sites in Scandinavia and Germany, which Mr Miserendino will oversee.

He will take over from Jay Marciano, one of AEG's top executives, who relocated to the group's Los Angeles headquarters earlier this year when he was promoted to the role of chief operating officer.

The management reshuffle followed an aborted attempt to sell the entire company for as much as $10bn, a sale process which attracted interest from bidders around the world.

Philip Anschutz, AEG's founder, said the auction had failed to attract offers of sufficient value.

Outside Europe, AEG owns and operates venues including the Staples Center in LA and the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.

It also owns sports franchises such as the Los Angeles Kings National Hockey League outfit and the Major League Soccer team for which David Beckham played during his time in the US, LA Galaxy.

AEG was unavailable for comment.

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Payday Lenders Facing Unlimited Fines

Tougher controls on payday lenders could see unlimited fines for companies which break the rules.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which will take over regulation of consumer credit from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in April 2014, said the sanctions were among a host of proposed new rules that would go out to consultation.

The organisation, which will cover tens of thousands of firms offering services such as overdrafts, credit cards and debt advice, was formed six months ago with the promise of strengthening protection for consumers.

Among its other recommendations: Limiting to two the number of times a payday loan can be rolled-over, banning misleading adverts and compulsory affordability checks for all loan applicants.

Payday loan firms have come under intense scrutiny in recent months after a damning report by the OFT found "deep-rooted" problems.

The Competition Commission is carrying out a full-scale investigation of the industry and will reveal its findings next year.

The OFT, which referred the £2bn industry to the commission, is worried firms are emphasising the speed of the loan over cost and are "skimping" on affordability checks.

There have also been complaints of payday firms unexpectedly draining people's bank accounts through a type of recurring payment called a continuous payment authority.

Payday firms would be limited to doing this twice per customer under the proposals.

The FCA's chief executive Martin Wheatley said: "Today I'm putting payday lenders on notice: tougher regulation is coming and I expect them all to make changes so that consumers get a fair outcome.

"The clock is ticking," he added.

Payday lenders have said they have been working to improve standards and ensure loans are given only to those who can afford them.

Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association (CFA), which represents many short-term lenders, said: "The CFA and its members have always supported well-designed, well-implemented regulation in order to protect consumers and drive up standards.

"Our tough code of practice and independent monitoring, which is unique in the industry, has paved the way for FCA regulation, so we look forward to seeing the detail of the draft rulebook."

The FCA has asked for feedback from consumers as well as lenders before implementing its rules next year.

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Shutdown: White House Talks Inconclusive

President Barack Obama has held talks with congressional leaders over the partial US government shutdown, but there was no breakthrough and both sides blamed each other.

The hour-long meeting at the White House came on the second day of a shutdown that has halted federal services and left many government workers unable to go to work.

Mr Obama stood firm on his demand that Republicans agree to reopen the government and raise the debt limit.

"The president remains hopeful that common sense will prevail," a White House statement said.

The shutdown has closed iconic monuments and parks across the US

Funding for much of the government was cut off on Tuesday after a Republican effort to halt a health care law known as Obamacare stalled the spending bill.

House Speaker John Boehner described the White House talks as polite but said no progress had been made.

"All we're asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare," he said.

However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the President and Democrats in Congress will not accept changes in the health care law in order to pass spending legislation needed to reopen the government.

Some 800,000 federal employees are unable to do their jobs

"We're locked in tight on Obamacare," he said.

Public anger has mounted as the shutdown closed some of America's most popular tourist attractions and forced 800,000 employees - nearly a third of the federal workforce - to stay at home.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress the shutdown was damaging the ability to guard against threats.

With no solution in sight, it was not clear how long the shutdown might last.

The shutdown could go on for another two weeks

And an even a bigger showdown looms over raising the nation's debt ceiling.

A historic default on the national debt would occur if Congress does not agree to raise the $16.7trn debt ceiling by an October 17 deadline.

In an interview with CNBC before the meeting, an "exasperated" Mr Obama said he would not negotiate with Republicans until the government is reopened and Congress votes to raise the debt limit.

He said: "If we get in the habit where a few folks, an extremist wing of one party, whether it's Democrat or Republican, are allowed to extort concessions based on a threat (to) undermine the full faith and credit of the United States, then any president who comes after me, not just me, will find themselves unable to govern effectively."

Mr Obama, who met with bank chiefs on Wednesday, said Wall Street should be worried about the debt ceiling.

"I think this time's different. I think they should be concerned," the president said.

"When you have a situation in which a faction is willing potentially to default on US government obligations, then we are in trouble."

A short-term shutdown would slow US economic growth by about 0.2 percentage points, Goldman Sachs has estimated.

A weeks-long disruption could weigh more heavily - 0.4 percentage points - as furloughed workers scale back personal spending.

Mr Obama has scrapped stops in Malaysia and the Philippines as part of a planned trip to Asia as the shutdown heads into a third day.

Since the last shutdown in 1996, Congress had passed more than 100 temporary funding bills, almost all of them without controversy.

The streak was broken because Republicans have held up the current measure in the hope of derailing or delaying Obamacare.

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Shutdown Is 'Ideological Crusade' - Obama

President Barack Obama has urged Republicans in Congress to reopen the government, saying "one faction of one party" does not get to "hold the economy hostage over an ideological crusade".

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden more than 12 hours into a government shutdown, Mr Obama said the longer an impasse continues, the worse the impact will be.

America woke up to the shutdown after a deeply polarised Congress failed to agree a new budget in a dispute over Mr Obama's signature healthcare law.

Mr Obama blames the shutdown on the Republicans

The president said shutting down the government will not accomplish some Republicans' stated goal of "rolling back efforts to provide health insurance for those who don't have it".

Earlier Tuesday, Mr Obama sent federal workers a letter lamenting that they had become "punching bags" in Washington's partisan fiscal fights.

"This shutdown was completely preventable. It should not have happened," Mr Obama said in the letter.

As the shutdown entered into force, "closed" signs and barricades sprang up at the Lincoln Memorial, museums and federal workplaces across the country.

Some of America's most famous tourist attractions, such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York, and Alcatraz Island near San Francisco were closed to the public.

Almost all of Nasa shut down, except for Mission Control in Houston. Even the National Zoo's popular panda cam went dark, shut off for the first time since a cub was born there in late August.

The shutdown affects national parks such as Yellowstone

Up to 800,000 government employees are furloughed, and more than a million others could be asked to work without pay.

Meanwhile, workers classified as essential government employees, such as air traffic controllers or Border Patrol agents, continue to work. 

Republicans in the House said on Tuesday they would push for a series of small funding bills aimed at reopening portions of the government, including national parks.

The White House rejected the plan, saying it showed an "utter lack of seriousness" on funding the federal government.

The government's return to full operation will depend on how long it takes politicians to bridge their differences - and there was no immediate sign of compromise on Capitol Hill.

For now, Democrats and Republicans keep blaming each other.

The Republicans had insisted on delaying the healthcare reform - dubbed Obamacare - as a condition for passing a bill.

But this approach was rejected by allies of the president in a series of back-and-forth moves between the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-dominated Senate.

House Speaker John Boehner said Mr Obama refused to negotiate

The Democrats accused the Republicans of succumbing to the Tea Party hard-line conservatives and seeking to gain political advantage at the expense of citizens.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "The government is closed because of the irrationality of what's going on on the other side of the Capitol."

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, said he did not want a government shutdown, but added the healthcare law "is having a devastating impact ... Something has to be done."

Meanwhile, Obamacare itself was unaffected and enrolment opened for millions of people shopping for medical insurance.

The House of Liberty can be seen only from a distance

Online insurance marketplaces at the heart of the healthcare overhaul struggled to handle the volume of consumers on Tuesday, resulting in some glitches.

The shutdown, meanwhile, is likely to further alienate citizens already largely disillusioned by their ruling class and for the most part disappointed with the president's performance, according to the latest polls.

The political dysfunction on Capitol Hill also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7trn debt ceiling.

This would force the country to default on its obligations, dealing a potentially painful blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.

14.47 | 0 komentar | Read More