HSBC Offshore Account Holders Investigated

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has said it is studying a list of British HSBC customers in Jersey after a whistleblower handed over a list of names, addresses and account balances.

The department will now investigate the customers' details to establish whether any of them used the offshore accounts to evade tax.

Together, the 4,388 UK-based customers have a total of £699m in the bank accounts - which were often undisclosed to tax authorities, the Daily Telegraph claimed.

It said a number of criminals, former bankers, doctors, mining and oil workers, celebrities and other well-known figures are on the list.

"We can confirm we have received the data and we are studying it," HMRC said in a statement.

"We receive information from a very wide range of sources which we use to ensure the tax rules are being respected.

"Clamping down on those who try to cheat the system through evading taxes and overclaiming benefits is a top priority for us and we value the information we receive from the public and business community."

HSBC, the UK's largest bank, said: "We are investigating the reports of an alleged loss of certain client data in Jersey as a matter of urgency.

"We have not been notified of any investigation in relation to this matter by HMRC or any other authority but, should we receive notification, we will cooperate fully with the authorities.

"HSBC remains fully committed to adoption of the highest global standards including the procedures for the acceptance of clients."

The report comes after the bank set aside a further $800m (£500m) to cover settlements for breaching anti-money-laundering rules, as revealed by Sky News' City Editor.

The move takes its total bill to around $1.5bn (£935m) to cover fines from US authorities, which are investigating the bank's procedures in Mexico.

Tax authorities around the world are in the process of clamping down on people who evade taxes by putting their money offshore.

Last week a Greek magazine published the details of more than 2,000 HSBC clients with Swiss accounts.

The information came from a list distributed to European authorities in 2010 by Christine Lagarde, then France's finance minister, after a whistleblower in Geneva sold the details.

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NHS Direct Centres: Unison Warns Of Closures

Unison has sparked a row with the Department of Health by claiming almost all NHS Direct call centres are to be closed.

The union claimed 24 of 30 sites will shut at the service, which employs 1,500 frontline nursing and professional staff.

It listed centres in Bristol, Sheffield, Wakefield, Nottingham, Hull, Stafford, Chelmsford and Newcastle as being among those affected.

NHS Direct hit back, saying that so far it has only made clear which sites will be kept open to deliver the new NHS 111 service and had not said what will happen to the others.

But Sandra Maxwell, Unison's convenor at NHS Direct, said: "Hundreds of dedicated nursing and NHS professionals are to be made redundant at a huge cost, when their skills could be used within the new NHS 111 service if only the Department of Health took some decisive action."

National officer Michael Walker added: "The Secretary of State for Health should step in and stop this disaster immediately. We need action and we need it now.

"Axing dedicated hard-working nurses is never a good idea at any time, but this will directly impact on patient care. There is no doubt that patients will suffer as a result of this move."

A Unison spokesman added: "Given that many of these NHS call centres are in areas of high unemployment there are very real fears for the staff's future job prospects.

"The Government spending millions on making nurses and NHS professionals redundant at a time when the NHS is under great strain is truly scandalous."

NHS Direct has been bidding for contracts across England to provide the NHS 111 service, which is for patients who need medical help but are not emergencies.

It has been awarded contracts to run the service for 34% of the population, and will deliver it from six of its existing call centres.

These are Middlebrook, Carlisle, Dudley, Exeter, Milton Keynes, London. Its home working scheme will also continue.

Centres where a decision has yet to be made will stay open until June 2013 unless the landlord has served notice or all staff have already been transferred elsewhere.

NHS Direct chief executive Nick Chapman said: "We have not confirmed that any sites are closing.

"At this stage we have confirmed which sites we will be keeping open to deliver NHS 111 in the areas where we have been commissioned to provide the service.

"The future of other NHS Direct sites has not been decided. We are waiting for decisions from the Department of Health and the NHS Commissioning Board about the future of other non-111 services that we could be asked to deliver before making decisions."

NHS Direct answers 4.2 million calls for health advice and information for patients in England every year.

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Chelsea Profits From Champions League Win

Chelsea Football Club has said "on-field success" helped it post its first profit in almost a decade.

The Premier League club reported a profit of £1.4m for the year to the end of June, compared with a loss of £67.7m the previous year. 

It is Chelsea's first profit since Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought it in 2003 and poured hundreds of millions of pounds into the club.

Winning the Champions League and FA Cup helped boost its turnover, the club said, making it the fifth largest in Europe in terms of revenue.

Profits of £28.8m made through transfers also boosted its revenue from £222.3m to £255.7m.

Key sales included defender Yuri Zhirkov to a Russian Premier League side for an undisclosed sum and centre-back Alex to Paris Saint-Germain for £4.2m.

"We had that success on the field this year, as we were the first London team to win the Uefa Champions League, and we enjoyed it off the field as well and this helps us inject financial investment into the team," said chief executive Ron Gourlay.

"The big challenge is always to have a successful team on the field that wins trophies and to make a profit at the same time."

The club's chairman added that he would "never forget" the night Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions League - which earned it £47.7m in prize money.

"While we draw huge satisfaction from the achievements of the past 12 months we are more than ever focused on continuing the story of on-field success supported by improving financial performance off the pitch," Bruce Buck said.

Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital, said that on the face of it the results appeared to be encouraging news, but there were questions about whether it was sustainable.

"These are all exceptional cases as the club would need to enjoy similar - if not better - success in 2013 to top today's figures," he told Sky News.

"In the transfer market, it would need to continue the current momentum but with Uefa's financial fair play regulation coming into effect - which will see clubs that fail to operate within their financial means banned - Chelsea's balance sheet is likely to be more stretched next year."

He added: "The club is likely to reverse 2012 profits if it fails to follow through with on-pitch success and buying star players in order to keep them in the competition with rivals in the Premier League."

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BA Owner Faces Strike Threat Over Job Cuts

Staff at Spanish airline Iberia have rejected a restructuring plan that involves 4,500 job cuts and are willing to strike, labour unions said.

The threat of industrial action comes after IAG - the company formed by merging BA and Iberia - revealed an operating profit of just £13.5m in the nine months to September 30.

In addition to cutting nearly a quarter of the workforce, IAG has proposed a staff salary cut of 25-35% for three years.

"We are willing to take any necessary action," the airline unions said in a statement.

The results show Iberia is the weak link in the group, making a standalone operating loss of £209m in the period, while BA contributed operating profits of £228m.

On a pre-tax basis, taking wider cost pressures into account, the group made a loss of £134m in the nine months.

IAG shares have shed 40% of their value since the group's formation in 2011.

Iberia is Europe's leading carrier to Latin America, but it has been battling against increased competition from low-cost airlines and high-speed trains, labour disputes and Spain's deep economic crisis.

It is bleeding cash as revenues fail to cover its high operating costs, with a 15% spike in fuel costs.

"Iberia is in a fight for survival and we will transform it to reduce its cost base so it can grow profitably in the future," IAG chief executive Willie Walsh said in a statement.

Mr Walsh is no stranger to battles with trade unions and took on employees of BA over reforms when he was boss of the UK flag carrier.

He has also been a vocal critic of the British Government's aviation policy and said it was a "disgrace".

A BA cabin crew strike in 2010 cost the airline up to £7m per day.

Mr Walsh stood firm on an airline's decision to withdraw travel perks from striking cabin crew, but staff called the ploy "bullying tactics".

Mr Walsh rejected suggestions the withdrawal of concessions was a "punishment" or an attempt to "break the union".

He added: "We told them about the consequences if they went on strike."

IAG's transformation plan for Iberia includes the fleet being downsized by 25 aircraft and routes cut by 15% in 2013, to concentrate on longer haul, profitable destinations.

Iberia head Rafael Sanchez-Lozano said: "It is unprofitable in all its markets. We have to take tough decisions now to save the company and return it to profitability.

"Unless we take radical action to introduce permanent structural change the future for the airline is bleak."

Whilst the possibility of strikes by Iberia staff now loom, passengers booked from Heathrow to Madrid should feel secure, Business Travel News editor-in-chief Malcolm Ginsberg.

"Previously Iberia operated out of Terminal 3 at Heathrow but have now joined sister carrier British Airways in Terminal 5," he told Sky News.

"From a practical point of view if an Iberia flight is cancelled at short notice it should be relatively easy to transfer to British Airways - providing they have space."

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Exclusive: Priory Seeks Help From Serco Boss

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The owner of the celebrity addiction clinics of choice, The Priory, is poised to raid Serco, the FTSE 100 support services group, to appoint a new chief executive.

I understand that Tom Riall, a senior executive at Serco, is in advanced talks about taking over the helm of Priory Healthcare Group, which is owned by Advent International, the US-based private equity firm.

One of Britain's biggest privately-owned companies, Priory Healthcare employs more than 10,000 staff at approximately 270 hospitals, schools and care-homes across the country.

Its prominence outside the industry is largely the result of its treatment of myriad celebrities for drug and alcohol addictions during the last decade.

Priory Healthcare was one of hundreds of companies which ended up in de facto state-ownership by virtue of the taxpayer's bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2008. Advent bought the company in January last year following the collapse of talks between RBS and other financial investors including Bain Capital and Cinven.

Mr Riall has not yet formally agreed terms with Priory Healthcare, and people close to the company cautioned that his appointment could yet fall through. Mike Jefferies, the company's chairman, is understood to have been in discussions with Mr Riall for some time.

The group has an imposing clinic in north London

As the head of Serco's global business services arm, Mr Riall spends much of his time in India, overseeing the company's business process outsourcing activities.

Prior to his current role, he held executive roles positions with Onyx UK Ltd and Reliance Group plc and joined Serco eight years ago as managing director of its home affairs business.

If he does join Priory Healthcare, Mr Riall will replace Philip Scott, who has run the group since 2007.

The industry has been under intense public and political scrutiny since the collapse of Southern Cross, Britain's biggest care home operator, last year.

The business was heavily indebted and was struggled amid spending cuts imposed by local authorities, a key part of Southern Cross's customer base.

In April this year, Priory Healthcare published in part the results of a review conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm, which "identified a number of areas requiring further development in order for the Group to demonstrate that it has in place effective systems for managing quality and safety and made a number of recommendations aimed at enhancing our existing quality assurance and governance arrangements".

Priory Healthcare said it had identified a preferred candidate to replace Mr Scott but declined to comment on their identity. Serco declined to comment.

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Apple Slammed In Samsung High Court Case

Apple has been criticised for its conduct by senior judges at London's Court of Appeal.

The iPhone and iPad maker published "false and misleading" material, Sir Robin Jacob said, adding that bosses showed a "lack of integrity".

His written statement came after Apple was ordered to post a new statement on its website acknowledging it had lost an earlier legal fight with Samsung.

The judges agreed with the South Korean company that Apple's original notice did not comply with a Court of Appeal order and should be changed.

"What Apple added was false and misleading," Sir Robin said.

"There is a false innuendo that the UK court's decision is at odds with decisions in other countries whereas that is simply not true."

The judges expressed disbelief at the US company's request for two weeks to replace the notice for "technical reasons".

"I found that very disturbing: that it was beyond the technical abilities of Apple to make the minor changes required to its own website in less time beggared belief," Sir Robin added, saying he considered the 48 hours granted "generous".

"We said the time could be extended by an application supported by an affidavit from a senior executive explaining the reasons why more was needed," he said.

"In the event no such application was made."

He added: "I hope that the lack of integrity involved in this incident is entirely atypical of Apple."

The other two judges on the case - Lord Justice Longmore and Lord Justice Kitchin - said they agreed with his comments.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in a long-running legal dispute over their tablet computers.

Apple claimed Samsung's Galaxy Tab is too similar to its iPad and infringes copyright.

But the Court of Appeal upheld the original ruling that Samsung's product was not "cool" enough to be confused with Apple's.

Judge Birss ruled that consumers were unlikely to get the tablets confused.

"They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design," he said, adding: "They are not as cool."

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Comet Collapse: Over 300 Staff Made Redundant

More than 300 staff have been made redundant at stricken electricals retail chain Comet.

Administrator Deloitte announced 330 job losses across Comet's head office and support centres.

But it stressed there had been no redundancies among shop staff and said all Comet's 236 stores would remain open.

The bulk of the staff cuts have been made in Comet's head office, at a call centre in Somerset and at a site in Hull.

Deloitte added it was holding talks with a number of potential buyers for Comet, which went into administration a week ago.

The firm's collapse has given a huge boost to many of its rivals.

John Lewis saw sales shoot up by over 17% over the seven days to November 3, when compared with the same period last year.

The department store said a number of factors helped drive the increase, including the "likely demise" of Comet.

"The later half term across much of the country undoubtedly helped drive footfall into the shops, as did the distinctly autumnal weather," it said in a statement.

"Beyond that, new product launches in technology, a competitor's 'extravaganza', and the sad news of another's likely demise undoubtedly combined to provide a lively end to the week."

Comet advertised its sale on its website

Sales of electricals were particularly strong, it said, with the number of large appliances sold at its second-highest level to date.

A week ago, Comet called in administrators Deloitte who are attempting to wind down the business.

It launched a "massive" liquidation sale on Thursday, but many customers were left disappointed by the level of discount.

On Friday, Matt Bodell tweeted: "FYI anyone thinking of going Comet for the liquidation/clearance sale. Don't bother its like 10% off. Hold out for the prices to drop in 2wks (sic)."

And Graeme Chapman added: "Sad it may be about Comet but their going out of business sale isn't much of a sale."

Other shoppers were more successful, with Rachael Imison tweeting: "Awesome bargains to be had in comet!! Bought myself a little Christmas present."

Dixons - the UK's largest electricals retailer - has also benefited from its rival's demise.

The chain, which owns Currys and PC World, has seen its share price jump since speculation about Comet going into administration began on November 1.

Between October 31 and November 8, shares in Dixons Retail rose almost 20% to 24.7p, peaking at a 22-month high of 25.8p the day after the rumours began.

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Treasury Gets £35bn Windfall From QE Interest

The Treasury is to receive a £35bn boost as part of a deal with the Bank of England that will effectively reduce public debt.

Chancellor George Osborne and Bank Governor Sir Mervyn King have agreed that the BoE will give the Treasury interest earned through its £375bn economy-boosting programme known as quantitative easing (QE).

The cash - currently on the BoE's books - will flatter the public accounts by reducing the budget deficit, while also acting as a "small loosening of monetary conditions" equivalent to taking more QE action, according to the Bank.

The announcement comes a day after it decided not to extend QE at its monthly policy-setting meeting.

The Treasury said the agreement was in line with similar practices surrounding QE in the United States and Japan.

In a letter to Mr Osborne, Sir Mervyn stressed the cash transferred to the Government would likely need to be paid back to the Bank in the future.

The move comes at an apt time for Mr Osborne as he faces pressure on his plans to cut borrowing.

But JP Morgan Chase economist Malcolm Barr said it was "still likely" that the Chancellor will need to push back debt reduction targets in his upcoming autumn statement.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves said it was a "smoke and mirrors" deal.

"Instead of changing course and taking action to create the jobs and growth we need to get the deficit down. The Chancellor seems to think he can just be bailed out in the short term by money from the Bank of England," she added.

Under the arrangement, £11bn is expected to be handed to the Treasury this year, with the remaining £24bn paid in four instalments over the next financial year.

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Music Mogul Fuller Tunes Into EMI Backers

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Simon Fuller, the music impresario who launched the careers of the Spice Girls, is on the verge of securing a more unlikely partnership: teaming up with septuagenarian investor Lord Rothschild to bid for a host of EMI record labels.

Mr Fuller, the owner of XIX Entertainment, has approached a number of potential investors about backing a bid he is assembling for Parlophone and a number of the music industry's other best-known names.

I have learned that the media tycoon is in talks with RIT Capital Partners, the investment trust chaired by Lord Rothschild, and other firms to inject hundreds of millions of pounds into a takeover of the EMI labels.

The assets, which include the Sanctuary label and the Now music compilation series, have been put up for sale by Universal Music Group as part of an agreement with the European Commission.

Parlophone is home to some of the world's famous artists, including Coldplay, Blur and Kylie Minogue.

The agreement to sell the labels follows Universal's £1.3bn takeover of EMI's recorded music business last year.

EMI had been owned by Citi, the Wall Street bank, which took control of the business from Guy Hands, the financier, after he was unable to service its debt.

Talks between RIT and XIX Entertainment are at an early stage, people close to them said on Friday, and might not result in an deal.

Among the labels is Parlophone, home to Brit Pop icons Blur

RIT invests in a wide array of businesses and its board members include Lord Myners, the former City Minister.

Mr Fuller is working on his bid with Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, which discovered Bob Marley and U2.

If he does strike a deal, Mr Fuller would add well-known musicians to a client base which includes Andy Murray, the British tennis number one, and Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One driver.

The duo and their financial backers will face stiff competition to get their hands on the EMI portfolio.

Warner Music Group, another of the world's biggest record companies, BMG Music Publishing, which is interested in some of the back catalogues put up for sale.

A data room will be opened to prospective buyers next week, and more than 90 expressions of interest have been received by Universal, according to insiders.

People close to the process said the extent of the interest in the EMI assets suggested that Universal might secure more than £500m in total for the group of labels.

That would effectively mean that Universal, the world's biggest music company, had paid just £800m for almost two-thirds of EMI's most covetable businesses. Such an outcome would contradict the suggestion that Universal had overpaid for EMI.

Spokesmen for RIT, Mr Fuller and Universal declined to comment.

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Olympic Stadium: Dismay Over Delayed Future

By Enda Brady, Sky News Correspondent

Olympic and Paralympic champions have voiced their dismay at news that the stadium may not open fully until the summer of 2016.

Four bids are still being considered as full-time tenants at the Stratford venue, but each bid will require significant and time-consuming modifications.

Dennis Hone, chief executive of the London Legacy Development Committee, revealed this week that it will not re-open until August 2015 at the earliest and probably not before August 2016.

Olympic champion Jessica Ennis told Sky News it was important the stadium was opened to the public without delay.

She said: "I've some amazing memories of the stadium, like a lot of other athletes.

"I'd love to see it opened to the public as soon as possible."

Leyton Orient FC are among four bidders to use the stadium in Stratford

Paralympic double gold medallist Hannah Cockroft said it was vital to speed up the process so that the goodwill generated by the success of London 2012 could be tapped into.

"The danger is that if it's not opened fully to the public for four years then that interest will wane," she said.

"It's an amazing venue and people want to see it, they want to be a part of it. I really hope they sort this out, they have to."

A transformation project costing nearly £300m is currently under way at the site and is expected to last up to 18 months.

The park itself will be opened to the public on July 27 next year, one year to the day the Games opened in London.

Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, told Sky News: "The stadium is vital for the legacy of the Games, but the important thing is to get the right tenant in."

The four bidders are West Ham United FC, Leyton Orient FC, a Formula One venture and the University College of Football Business - an academic institution owned and run by Burnley FC.

A final decision is expected in the first half of 2013, or possibly sooner.

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