Quindell suffers – despite profits quadrupling August 21, 2014 Quindell, the Aim-listed insurance firm whose shares plummeted 60 per cent in April following a scathing blog post by US short seller Gotham City Research, came out fighting yesterday when it reported an 119 per cent increase in half-year revenue. Despite the bullish results, Quindell’s shares still fell 12.4 per cent following the update to [...]
Quindell bosses may have delivered but trust is lost – Bottom Line August 21, 2014 Lots of reasons were bandied about yesterday as to why, despite an overwhelmingly positive set of results, Quindell’s shares were still hurting. One explanation put out by chairman Rob Terry was that short sellers were at work once again – indeed the City regulator currently records around 7.3 per cent of Quindell’s stock being shorted [...]
Carillion and Balfour Beatty deal off as deadline passes ending mega-merger – for now August 21, 2014 The 5pm deadline for Carillion to make an offer for Balfour Beatty passed yesterday not with a bang and barely a whisper. However, while the £3bn deal is dead for now, some analysts say it may not be buried. Commenting on BBC Radio Five Live’s Wake up to Money programme yesterday, Colin McLean of SVM Asset [...]
London City lands third place in airport poll August 21, 2014 London City airport has been voted Britain’s third best airport, sharing the position with Blackpool Airport in comparison website Which’s 2014 airport passenger survey. For the second consecutive year, London Southend topped the pile, despite having to share this year’s gong with Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield. As in 2013, London Luton was labelled Britain’s worst.
House building rises, but more homes needed August 21, 2014 Even after the past year’s spike in house building, England is still far short of an adequate level of construction, exacerbating the country’s enormous supply shortfall. Building firms started construction work on 137,000 residential properties during the year to June, an increase of 22 per cent on the same period last year, according to the [...]
Highest number of first-time homebuyers since before the crash August 21, 2014 The numbers of first-time buyers jumped by 25 per cent in the year to July, according to data out today from LSL Property Services. A total of 30,000 first-time buyers snapped up a property last month, the highest number since August 2007. They paid an average of £151,844, a price which has risen eight per [...]
State reputation riskier than sanctions for Russia’s oil and gas companies August 21, 2014 The Russian government’s reputation is a greater threat to the cred it worthiness of the country’s energy companies than the sanctions levied against the sector by the US and Europe, according to a report released yesterday. Credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) argued in research yesterday that sovereign risk is the largest factor weighing [...]
New York judge won’t declare Argentina in contempt over debt August 21, 2014 US DISTRICT Judge Thomas Griesa yesterday declined to find Argentina in contempt of court for its proposal to bring defaulted sovereign debt under local law. Griesa said a proposal by Argen – tine President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday was illegal, but that a contempt order now would not help bring about a settle ment in [...]
Huge jump in young jobless finding work as youth unemployment drops to 10-year low August 21, 2014 The proportion of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs) has dived to a 10-year low, official figures showed yesterday. Just 13.3 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds were NEETs in the three months to June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, down from 15.1 per cent a year earlier. And [...]
Russia and Thai tension drags UK tourist spending to five-year low August 21, 2014 Tourist spending in the UK has slumped for the first time in five years, after the Russia-Ukraine conflict and political unrest in Thailand deterred visitors from those countries. Figures published today by tax-free shopping specialist Global Blue showed that spending by overseas visitors fell by four per cent in the first six months compared with [...]