Kier Group revenues hit £3bn as it appoints new finance director September 18, 2014 KIER Group revealed yesterday its revenues rose by £1bn in 2014, to £3bn from £2bn last year, as it also announced a new finance director. Revenues at Kier were boosted by its acquisition of services company May Gurney in 2013, which Kier chief executive Haydn Mursell said had “transformed the scale and diversity of the [...]
Petra sparkles as earnings rise September 18, 2014 PETRA Diamonds shareholders’ eyes may have sparkled with delight at news the FTSE 250 listed mining company is considering paying its first dividend sooner than planned. Petra had planned to pay its maiden dividend from the 2016 financial year, but may bring that forward, as the South Africa focused mining company also revealed pre-tax profits [...]
City Moves for 19 September 2014 | Who’s switching jobs September 18, 2014 Barbican Centre Trust Emma Kane has been appointed chairman of the charitable arm of the Barbican Centre. She has worked in corporate and financial PR for over 25 years, and is founder and chief executive of Redleaf PR. Kane is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and board director of Grange Park Opera. [...]
Best of the Brokers for 19 September 2014 September 18, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com ROYAL MAIL Investec has kept at “hold”, but cut the target price to 430p from 490p. The broker thinks the stock is at a crossroads, with Royal Mail hit on several fronts in recent months, but Investec still expects the transformation programme to [...]
London Report: Stocks brush off referendum and get a lift from ECB September 18, 2014 LONDON traders yesterday set aside concerns over the Scottish referendum result and reacted positively to European Central Bank moves to strengthen Eurozone lenders. The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed up 38.39 points, or 0.57 per cent, at 6,819.29 points. Low-cost airline EasyJet’s shares rose 0.45 per cent to 1,344p after it announced that it would increase its [...]
New York Report: Fed decision raises shares September 18, 2014 US SHARES rose yesterday, a day after the Federal Reserve kept intact its pledge to keep interest rates low, providing a backstop for investors that helped lift both the Dow and S&P to record highs. The Fed said on Wednesday at the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting it would keep interest rates near zero for [...]
Scottish independence: What is the Barnett Formula? September 18, 2014 The "Barnett Formula" has been a source of much debate during coverage of Scottish independence referendum results – but what is it, who came up with it and what does keeping it on in the event of a No vote mean for the rest of the UK? The Barnett Forumal is the mechanism used by [...]
Scottish #indyref visualisation: See how Twitter reacted September 18, 2014 Well, the votes are in and an army of people will now spend the night counting. Twitter, though, may have an early indication of which way the vote went. The company released a map using #indyref to show how the conversation spread across the world during polling day. It also pointed out that, despite early [...]
Alibaba has priced its shares, and it’s going to be the biggest IPO ever September 18, 2014 Alibaba has priced its initial public offering at $68 per share – the top end of its price range. The pricing will raise the e-commerce giant $21.77bn and value the company at $167.62bn, making it one of the largest IPOs in history. Shares in the Chinese company will begin trading on the New York Stock [...]
Oracle share price drops as Larry Ellison steps down as chief executive September 18, 2014 Lary Ellison will step down as chief executive of Oracle, the software company announced today. The co-founder of the $185bn (£113bn) company, will be replaced by Mark Hurd and Safra Cruz who will both serve as chief executives, but with different responsibilities. Mr Ellison will become executive chairman and chief technology officer. The 70-year-old co-founded the software-making [...]