News
DAIRY Crest Group today announced a seven per cent increase in pre-tax profits and an 82 per cent decrease in net debt, after divesting its French business and restructuring its balance sheet.
BUDGET airline easyJet today confirmed that it has agreed to acquire 25 runway slots at Gatwick airport from Flybe for £20m.
The deal is subject to the approval of rival airline Flybe’s shareholders.
BICYCLE and car parts retailer Halfords today announced a 25 per cent drop in pre-tax profits, attributed to rising costs.
Pre-tax profits after non-recurring items fell 25 per cent to £71m.
CHINA’S manufacturing activity contracted for the first time in seven months in May, causing stock markets to fall sharply in Asia.
The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.6 in May. A figure of 50 or above signifies growth.
GOOGLE’s Eric Schmidt has become the latest business chief to hit back in the row over corporation tax, slamming the “irrational structure” of the international tax system.
A TERRORISM investigation was underway last night after a soldier was killed in broad daylight in Woolwich.
MEETINGS of global leaders are set to be dominated by plans to develop a new international tax agreement.
THE UK needs to cut business taxes, slash red tape to allow more house building and bring forward infrastructure spending to make sure the recovery takes hold, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told George Osborne yesterday.
1976
Chancellor Denis Healey was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cap in hand in the late Seventies for a bailout as unemployment and inflation in the UK spiralled.
Iceland’s new centre-right coalition said yesterday they would freeze talks on entering the European Union until a referendum on whether or not to continue the process. “The EU talks will be stopped until a referendum has been held on the issue.
The Bank of England will keep its quantitative easing (QE) scheme at £375bn, according to minutes of the bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) released yesterday.
Hewlett-Packard’s profits fell by 32 per cent in the first three months of 2013, owing to a sharp decline in sales of PCs.
INTERNATIONAL telecoms firm Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) is set to move its headquarters out of the UK having agreed to sell off its assets in Monaco and Macau.
SHARES in the US were sent on a rollercoaster ride yesterday as investors reacted sharply to contrasting messages emanating from the Federal Reserve.
BRUSSELS regulators are set to introduce new rules on bank bailouts that would see creditors take a bigger hit when a bank fails.
MANUFACTURING and finance firms united today to demand the EU stops plans for a financial transactions tax FTT.
LLOYDS surprised markets last night, announcing the sale of £500m of shares in wealth management group St James’ Place.
The bank had previously ruled out further sales for a year after selling a 20 per cent stake in the unit in March.
DAVID Cameron was pulled away from a diplomatic trip to France last night to chair an emergency meeting after the brutal murder of a soldier outside army barracks in Woolwich, south London.
BRITAIN’S biggest building society yesterday reported a boom in new customer numbers and in profits as dissatisfaction with banks pushed more savers and borrowers towards the group.
SALES in retail grew by a meagre 0.5 per cent in the year between April 2012 and April 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics. The volume of sales actually contracted by 1.3 per cent between March and April this year.
BUOYED by taking on assets from the Royal Mail’s pension plan, the government has managed to reduce public sector borrowing from £93.3bn in 2011-12, to £74.2bn in 2012-13, a 20.5 per cent decline.
COLIN HALL
OUR IT DEPARTMENT LTD
BRITVIC is to close two factories with the loss of up to 400 jobs under new plans to bolster its position as a standalone business as the proposed tie-up with rival AG Barr remains uncertain.
NO decision from the Competition Commission is due until July, but yesterday new boss Simon Litherland made it clear that Britvic was already making plans for the future – whether its delayed merger with AG Barr goes ahead or not.
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has kept her crown as the world’s most powerful woman for the third year in a row.
STOCKHOLM police were braced for another night of riots yesterday, after three night where young people have torched cars and attacked police immigrant suburbs of Sweden’s capital.
SHARES in Wm Morrison fell two per cent yesterday after UBS confirmed it had placed around 100m shares in the supermarket chain at 280p for an institutional seller.
UK MANUFACTURERS are expecting a brighter summer, with optimistic predictions that demand will rise, according to the Confederation of British Industry.
THE BANK of Japan vowed yesterday to take necessary steps to reduce volatility in bond markets that has threatened to jeopardise the government’s fight to end deflation and revive growth.
WESTERN Macedonia, an area in the north of Greece, is experiencing a crippling 72.5 per cent youth unemployment rate according to official European statistics released yesterday, with some Spanish regions not far behind.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde will be questioned by a French magistrate today over her role in a €285m (£242m) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A BRITISH technology firm has become the latest social media startup to gain millions of pounds worth of funding, raising $13.4m (£8.9m) in a round of investment led by Balderton Capital.
BELEAGUERED directory publisher Hibu has delayed its full-year results as it tries to pin down the details of a restructuring plan.
GEORGE Soros has led a £50m investment in a London-based broadband company that aims to deliver internet speeds 83 times faster than the national average.
HOUSE of Fraser, the privately owned department store, said yesterday booming online sales had helped the group hit record annual sales of £1.2bn.
SHARES in Pandora fell 11 per cent yesterday after the Danish jewellery maker said its majority shareholder was offering about 10 per cent of shares in the company to institutional investors.
US, SWISS and German banks have all upped their share of the UK’s investment banking revenues so far in 2013, sending British banks’ own revenues from the sector to their lowest level in more than a decade.
CANACCORD Financial’s revenues have been boosted by its purchase of financial advisory group Collins Stewart Hawkpoint, the Canadian firm said in its annual results.
INTERMEDIATE Capital Group, a provider of mezzanine financing, said yesterday full-year profit fell 25 per cent due to lower realisation of gains from investments and higher provisions for bad loans.
SOCIETE Generale said yesterday that it was moving to dismiss its top Russian executive days after his shock arrest on bribery charges.
THE OUTGOING chief executive of SSE yesterday defended the energy firm’s profit growth amid criticism that the benefit would not be passed on to consumers.
PLATINUM miner Lonmin yesterday announced that it had failed to reach a new union recognition agreement with the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).
CARILLION, one of the UK’s biggest construction firms, has won a £400m deal to develop the first phase of London’s Battersea Power Station.
A CLOSE political ally of Hong Kong’s chief executive has vowed to cooperate with an investigation into the shuttered Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange after the city’s financial watchdog said it had alerted the police to “serious irregularities”.
AIM-LISTED Afferro Mining’s shares soared over 11 per cent yesterday after it agreed to recommend a takeover offer from the International Mining and Infrastructure Corporation (IMIC) to its shareholders.
LOWE’S reported a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday, hurt by colder-than-usual weather at the start of the spring selling season and strong competition from larger rival Home Depot.
ALASTAIR MCCAIG IG GROUP
PARCEL delivery company UK Mail Group reported an 18 per cent rise in full-year pretax profits yesterday as cost-conscious shoppers look for online shopping deals.
PLANS TO redevelop the 1960s Shell Centre on the South Bank have been given the green-light by Lambeth council, in a move that could create more than 4,000 jobs.
