Business news in brief: Terrace Hill wins Sainsbury’s deal

Published on Tuesday 31 January 2012 00:00

TERRACE Hill, the Glasgow-based property developer founded by oil tycoon Robert Adair, yesterday won a contract from Sainsbury’s to build a supermarket at Sedgefield.

Construction work on the development will start later this year and is expected to be completed by Easter 2013.

The store will be the fourth supermarket built by the developer in the past two years, following work at Bishop Auckland, Manchester and Helston. Terrace Hill chief executive Philip Leech hailed “good levels of activity” in the food sector.

Osmond’s APR appoints non–execs

APR, the temporary power supplier set up by City financier Hugh Osmond to rival Glasgow-based Aggreko, yesterday appointed three non-executive directors to extend its knowledge of Asian markets.

Haresh Jaisinghani, managing director of investment advisory firm 3R Capital, and Jim Hughes, former chief executive of energy firm AEI Services, join as independent directors, while Matthew Allen – who is a director of Osmond’s Sun Capital Partners vehicle, which floated APR – becomes a non-executive director.

Aviva axes 160 jobs at fund manager

Aviva Investors, the insurance giant’s fund management arm, yesterday axed about 160 jobs in London, equating to roughly 12 per cent of its workforce.

The job losses followed a review by chief executive Alain Dromer and came in response to poor demand for riskier assets during the economic downturn.

News of the cutbacks came as Aviva sold its businesses in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania to US firm MetLife as it focuses on its core markets.

Fujifilm’s lifeline to troubled Olympus

Fujifilm yesterday revealed that it has thrown a financial lifeline to struggling camera and medical equipment maker Olympus as it tries to recover from a $1.7 billion (£1.1bn) accounting fraud.

Olympus’ major Japanese shareholders are trying to find an equity investor for the company, rather than selling off its assets. The firm has admitted to having used improper accounting tricks to conceal massive investment losses under a scheme that began in the 1990s.

Sources have said that electronics giant Sony may also be interested in taking an equity stake in Olympus.

Philips reveals fourth–quarter loss

DUTCH electronics giant Philips yesterday posted a fourth-quarter loss after customers postponed orders for its medical equipment and it wrote down the value of stock at its lighting division.

Chief executive Frans van Houten, who has issued a trio of profit warnings since taking over in April, said prospects for the first half of 2012 remain clouded due to “uncertainty in the global economy and Europe in particular”.

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.