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.

16.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

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.

16.01 | 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."

16.01 | 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, Bank of America 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.

16.01 | 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 Darren Shapland will step down from his role with immediate effect, replaced by chairman and founder, Lord Harris of Peckham.

Lord Harris will become full-time executive chairman.

Shares slid by 10% today as the update dashed hopes in the City that better conditions in the property market were benefiting Carpetright.

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 more than 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.

Lord Harris described trading conditions in Britain as volatile and in the Netherlands as "extremely difficult".

The company was founded in 1988 with a single outlet in Canning Town, east London, and was floated on the London Stock Exchange five years later.

It now trades from 616 stores, including 474 in the UK and 95 in the Netherlands.

Executive chairman Lord Harris will run the business with Graham Harris, who is currently trading director but will step up to the role of chief operating officer.

Mr Shapland joined Carpetright from Sainsbury's 17 months ago and oversaw a programme of store refurbishments, improved product ranges and increased digital marketing.

Until recently, like-for-like sales were on a positive trend, with annual profits more than double the previous year at £9.7m.

16.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Car Sales Accelerate In September

More cars were sold in Britain during September than any month in the last five years, new statistics have revealed.

Over 400,000 new cars were registered, an increase of 12.1% on the same period last year.

The September 63 plate boosted sales and reached a total of 403,136 registrations, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

More new cars were sold than in any month since March 2008.

Private sales have increased by 16.7% over the year to date.

More than one in seven new cars registered in September was built in the UK.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: "With over 400,000 new cars registered for the first time in more than five years, the UK market is reflecting growing economic confidence.

Motorists have complained of oil price hikes in 2013

"Robust private demand has played a major role in this growth with customers attracted by exciting increasingly fuel-efficient new models that offer savings in the cost of ownership.

"This is the 19th consecutive month of steady growth and, with fleet and business demand still to reach pre-recession levels, we believe the performance to be sustainable."

He added:"The latest 63-plate should deliver positive results into next year."

The Ford Fiesta was the best-selling model last month.

Britain's road to recovery is expected to outpace the market in Europe, which remains frail.

Barclays Head of Retail and Wholesale Richard Lowe said: "The popularity of the 63-plate helped new car sales soar.

"Attractive finance packages are offering consumers more clarity on running costs, which even with a more promising economic outlook is an important factor for those on a budget.

"As we head into the quieter months, I suspect we'll see sales hold firm, keeping the UK market zooming ahead of our European counterparts."

16.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Shutdown Talks End With No Progress

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 at home without pay.

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.

Funding for much of the government was cut off on Tuesday after a Republican effort to halt the healthcare law dubbed Obamacare stalled the spending bill.

The shutdown has closed parks and attractions such as Alcatraz Island

House Speaker John Boehner described the White House talks as polite, but he 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.

"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.

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

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.

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.

The shutdown could go on for another two weeks

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," he 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%, Goldman Sachs has estimated.

A weeks-long disruption could weigh more heavily - 0.4% - 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.

16.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

BP Claims Win In Gulf Compensation Fight

BP has won an appeal that could lead to a significant reduction in compensation claims totalling billions of dollars over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

A US federal court threw out an interpretation by a lower court that BP had argued effectively allowed anyone to bid for a payout, whether or not it was linked to the devastating accident in 2010.

The panel of three judges decided that US District Judge Carl Barbier's ruling be reconsidered.

The blowout of BP's Macondo well off the Louisiana coast triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and led to millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf.

Shortly after the disaster, BP agreed to create a $20bn compensation fund that was administered at first by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

A range of businesses have claimed compensation over the oil spill

BP argued that Barbier and court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau misinterpreted terms of the settlement that agreed who was entitled to compensation.

The administrator countered that the company had undervalued the settlement and underestimated how many claimants would qualify for payments.

In its majority decision, the appeal court ruled that the judge should ensure claims for losses directly resulting from the Deepwater Horizon disaster continued to be paid but contentious payouts were put off, pending resolution of the judicial process.

BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the company was "extremely pleased" with the ruling.

He added that it "affirms what BP has been saying since the beginning: claimants should not be paid for fictitious or wholly non-existent losses."

The settlement does not have a cap, but BP initially estimated that it would pay $7.8bn to resolve the private claims before later admitting it could not put an estimate on the final bill.

Shares in the London-listed firm rose by 1.2% when the FTSE 100 opened for business on Thursday.

16.01 | 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.

16.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cameron: 'We'll Boost Aspiration With Reforms'

By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent

David Cameron will round off the autumn party conference season with a pledge to create a "land of opportunity" in Britain.

The Prime Minister will vow that the Conservatives will "finish the job" the coalition has started in "clearing up the mess" created by Labour.

In his speech at the end of the Tory conference in Manchester, he will promise to boost aspiration with sweeping reforms of education, welfare and the economy.

After major announcements this week on Help-to-Buy, welfare, GPs' hours and a petrol price freeze, Mr Cameron will call for a second term with a Tory majority.

"This party at its heart is about big people, strong communities, responsible businesses, a bigger society - not a bigger state," he will say.

"It's how we've been clearing up the mess. And it's how we're going to build something better in its place. So let's stick with it and finish the job we've started."

David Cameron wants to point towards a more positive future

Mr Cameron will begin his speech by declaring: "Our dreams are about helping people get on in life, aspiration, opportunity. These are our words, our dreams.

"I believe it is the great Conservative mission that as our economy starts to recover we build a land of opportunity in our country today."

But he will say finishing the job is about more than clearing up the mess, adding: "It means building something better in its place.

"In place of the casino economy, one where people who work hard can actually get on.

"In place of the welfare society, one where no individual is written off.

"In place of the broken education system, one that gives every child the chance to rise up and succeed.

"Our economy, our society, welfare, schools, all reformed, all rebuilt - with one aim, one mission in mind: to make this country, at long last and for the first time ever, a land of opportunity for all."

Mr Cameron will say it makes no difference whether you live in the North or the South, are black or white, or a man or a woman, what school you went to, what background you have, or who your parents were.

"What matters is the effort you put in, and if you put the effort in you'll have the chance to make it," he will say. "That's what the land of opportunity means. That's what finishing the job means."

On aspiration, Mr Cameron will say: "You don't help children succeed by dumbing down education. You help them by pushing them hard.

"Good education is not about equality of outcomes, but bringing the best out of every single child.

"You don't help people by leaving them stuck on welfare, but by helping them stand on their own two feet.

"Why? Because the best way out of poverty is work - and the dignity that brings."

In a strongly pro-business message, Mr Cameron will say: "We know that profit, wealth creation, tax cuts, enterprise - these are not dirty, elitist words, they're not the problem.

"They really are the solution because it's not government that creates jobs, it's businesses.

"It's businesses that get wages in people's pockets, food on their tables, hope for their families and success for our country."

Mr Cameron will say there is no short cut to a land of opportunity, no quick fix and no easy way to do it.

"You build it business by business, school by school, person by person, patiently, practically, painstakingly," he will say. "And under-pinning it all is that deep, instinctive belief that if you trust people and give them the tools, they will succeed."

And in a rallying call to his party to fight for an outright Tory victory in 2015, he will say: "It requires a strong government, with a clear mandate, that is accountable for what it promises and yes, what it delivers.

"And let me tell everyone here what that means. When the election comes, we won't be campaigning for a coalition.

"We will be fighting heart and soul for a majority Conservative Government - because that is what our country needs."

:: Watch David Cameron's speech live on Sky News from 11am.

16.01 | 0 komentar | Read More