PRESS DIGEST – British business press – Aug 19
August 19th, 2008 | by admin |The Times
VODAFONE TO INCREASE ITS CALL CHARGES
Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to increase its minimum call charges by25 percent from September 1, with the cost of calls that exceedcustomers’ monthly bundle going up to 15 pence a minute. Therewill also be a 25 percent increase in the cost of calls topremium-rate numbers. The move follows similar price hikes byrivals T-Mobile and O2. A spokesman for Vodafone said theincreases were the first for two years.
B&B CHIEF SHRUGS OFF CAPITAL-RAISING ‘FLOP’ AND SETS SIGHTSON FLAWED MORTGAGE DEAL
Bradford & Bingley (BB.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) formally confirmed Richard Pym inthe job of chief executive on Monday. Pym, who is on a threemillion pound package, immediately vowed to tackle an adversecontract obliging the bank to buy flawed mortgages from GMAC,the American finance company. The pledge came as B&B’s 455million pound capital-raising – with shareholders taking uptheir rights in respect of only 27.8 percent of the new shares -was labelled a partial flop. Pym added there was no guarantee hecould extricate the bank from the GMAC deal.
DEBT REFINANCING OF 13.3 BILLION POUNDS CALMS FEARS OVER BAA
Airports operator BAA has completed a 13.3 billion poundsrefinancing of its debt, settling fears that it could run out ofcash this year and allowing BAA to reduce its interest paymentsand allocate funding to investment projects at its airports. Thecompany has allocated 2.75 billion pounds of the refinancingpackage for improvements at Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, witha further 255 million pounds to be spent on upgrading BAA’sairports at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton.
The Daily Telegraph
WOOLIES’ PENSION DEFICIT COULD COUNTER BREAK-UP OF GROUP