Copper decline crushes profits at Antofagasta August 26, 2014 MINING giant Antofagasta saw its shares slump yesterday, after it revealed its profits had taken a big hit in the first half, with the lower price of copper and higher costs damaging its bottom line. Pre-tax profits during the six months to 30 June were $850.7m (£512.8m), down 13.3 per cent on $981 over the [...]
HMV bounds back and finds its voice on the high street – Brand Index August 26, 2014 Are we witnessing a comeback from traditional high street retailer HMV? Recent figures suggest so, with announcements highlighting stronger sales and consumer perception. There was much public hand-wringing when HMV were placed into administration, leading to the closure of a number of stores following competition from online retailers such as Amazon. Since then, the brand [...]
Petrofac profit plunge but order record may offer rebound ahead August 26, 2014 NET PROFIT at oil services provider Petrofac fell by a huge 44 per cent during the first half of 2014, though the company said it expected a much stronger second half would keep it on course to meet full-year profit targets, as it also revealed record order levels. During the first half of the year [...]
Who said it? Was it The Office’s David Brent or Telecity’s Michael Tobin? August 26, 2014 In retrospect, publishing a book called, Forget Strategy, Get Results, probably wasn’t the best thing for Telecity chief Michael Tobin to publish in April this year. Four months later, and he’s making a surprise resignation, “to make way for a new CEO”. Perhaps the board quite fancied a bit of strategy after all. But [...]
City Moves for 27 August 2014 | Who’s switching jobs August 26, 2014 EY The professional services firm has announced the appointment of Randy Miller as global automotive and transportation sector leader, effective immediately. He has more then 25 years’ consulting and client service experience with EY and, formerly, with Andersen Business Consulting, where he served as global automotive sector leader. Heptagon Capital The asset management firm has [...]
Best of the Brokers for 27 August 2014 August 26, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com GREENE KING Numis has upgraded to “buy’ from “add”, with a target price of 975p. While the broker expects growth to be muted in 2015, it still thinks the long-term strategy at Greene King is right, with faster progress with repositioning, and thinks [...]
London Report: Draghi QE hint sends banks and FTSE up but Antofagasta falls August 26, 2014 BRITAIN’S top equity index rose yesterday, with financial stocks outperforming, amid expectations of new economic stimulus measures from the European Central Bank. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up by 0.7 per cent, or 47.51 points, at 6,822.76 points – its highest closing level since early July. As the FTSE was closed on Monday due [...]
New York Report: Burger merger sends Dow up August 26, 2014 WALL Street’s record-setting rally continued yesterday as the S&P 500 notched its 30th record of the year and closed above 2000 for the first time ever. The Dow also rose but fell short of its record closing high after setting an all-time intraday high earlier in the session. The S&P 500 index rose 2.10 points, [...]
French Prime Minister announces confidence vote to be held in the Autumn August 26, 2014 French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has pledged to hold a parliamentary confidence vote which will take place in the Autumn, reports AFP. In a TV interview, Valls said, "I will have the opportunity to hold a vote of confidence at the (lower house) National Assembly… in September or in October." The news comes after the [...]
Lawmaker who voted to clamp down on Uber arrested for drink-driving August 26, 2014 In a delicious twist of irony, a California state senator was arrested on Saturday for driving under the influence of alcohol only hours after voting for legislation that would subject the taxi app service Uber to a host of burdensome regulations. Ben Hueso was spotted driving the wrong way down a one way street at [...]