Morrisons appears to be the biggest winner from the horsemeat scandal after the supermarket chain reported an 18 per cent rise at its fresh meat counters in the wake of revelations over tainted food. The retailer said it had posted the double-digit increase since horse DNA was first identified in Tesco value beef burgers. It published the sales data as another study found 45 per cent of shoppers would avoid the meat aisles of chains found selling the contaminated meat. The Guardian
Soaring sales of jet engines for the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner have propelled Rolls-Royce to new records — but its chief executive said that the group was still lagging behind its big American rivals. John Rishton, a former executive at Rolls’ top airline customer British Airways and the chief executive of Rolls-Royce Holdings since 2011, said that aero-engine operating margins at 11.3 per cent, up from 9 per cent, were not good enough. “Our margins are not as good as some of our competitors’, our costs are higher than the likes of General Electric and Pratt & Whitney,” he said. “That enables our competitors to offer lower prices, it allows them to invest more in infrastructure and better training.” The Times
Tullett Prebon has been drawn into the Libor scandal after an individual at the interdealer broker was implicated in conversations about rigging the yen Libor rate, the Financial Times has learnt. The broker is referred to anonymously in documents published by the Financial Services Authority in connection with rate-rigging settlements with both Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS, people familiar with the Libor probes said. Financial Times
The Treasury has been lambasted for conducting a series of expensive experiments with taxpayers’ money while having little clue about the schemes’ actual impact on the economy. In a damning assessment, the Public Accounts Committee singled out the oversight of the Bank of England’s £375 billion quantitative easing scheme, which is backstopped by the Treasury. “The Treasury has not convinced us it understands either the risks it has taken on by indemnifying the Bank of England against losses on QE or the expected economic benefits,” Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said. The Times
US hedge fund investor George Soros has gained about $1bn since November betting against the yen, according to reports. The yen lost nearly 20pc against the dollar between November and early February, picking up speed as Japan’s new government put pressure on the Bank of Japan to ease monetary policy more aggressively to defeat deflation. The Telegraph
Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), the FTSE 100 miningcompany that has been stung by a succession of corporate governance crises, has secretly sold a subsidiary to the nephew of one of the group’s founders and major shareholders. Arif Shadiev, who was formerly part of ENRC’s senior management team and whose uncle Patokh Chodiev is one of the group’s controversial founding trio, acquired ENRC’s railway maintenance business Zhol Zhondeushi for an undisclosed sum in May 2012. The mining company briefly referred to the deal in its first half results released in August, but chose not to disclose the identity of the buyer. The Guardian
Banks have been told by the Financial Services Authority that they should not try to leave the panel which sets Libor because they fear becoming embroiled in the growing scandal over rate rigging. A number of European banks including Rabobank and BNP Paribas are believed to have wanted to quit the 16-strong panel of banks which submits rates for Libor setting. The FSA is concerned that if banks pull out the stability of the market could be challenged. The Independent
Energy giant Iberdrola has pledged to plough more than 40 per cent of its total investment until 2014 into its UK operations as its ScottishPower business proved a star turn in resilient annual trading results. The Spanish multi-national’s commitment came as ScottishPower Renewables also revealed yesterday that it has won planning permission from the Scottish Government to build a giant 96-turbine windfarm at Kilgallioch, south of Barrhill in south-west Scotland. Iberdrola said €4.4 billion (£3.8bn) would be invested in the UK over the three-year period, the lion’s share of it in ScottishPower, but also other operations including those in the north-west of England and Wales. The Scotsman
