Bankers report anaemic rise in business loans June 24, 2014 LENDING to businesses is rising sluggishly while the latest mortgage lending figures showed yesterday that the new regulatory efforts are helping to cool the growth of credit for housing. Figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) indicate that business lending has barely budged from its position a year ago, rising by only 0.3 per cent, [...]
Galliford Try seals Kent housing deal June 24, 2014 GALLIFORD Try said yesterday it has sealed a £100m contract with Kent County Council that will see it deliver seven housing schemes across the county. The FTSE 250 housebuilding and construction group will build around 240 homes across Kent providing supported living for vulnerable adults, as well as communal facilities. It will also invest in [...]
Baltic Dry is on the slide June 24, 2014 THE BALTIC Dry Index, a measure of commodity shipping costs around the world, is at its lowest of the year so far and is edging nearer its all-time worst level. The index dropped two per cent yesterday, taking its losses for the year to date to 61 per cent. At 886, the measure is well-below [...]
Sainsbury’s Bank doubles its workforce June 24, 2014 SAINSBURY’S hired 500 more workers yesterday as it expands its foreign currency operations through its banking arm. The expansion of its deal with forex provider Travelex will more than double its workforce, which currently stands at 400. Those staff had previously worked in the supermarket’s bureaux, and are being transferred over under the five-year agreement. [...]
Tate & Lyle names PepsiCo exec Nick Hampton as finance chief June 24, 2014 Sweetner giant Tate & Lyle said yesterday it had hired PepsiCo executive Nick Hampton as its new chief financial officer. Hampton has been at PepsiCo for more than 20 years and was most recently the food and drink company’s president of west Europe. He will take over from Tim Lodge at the beginning of September.
Shoe Zone’s maiden results show profits up but a step back in sales June 24, 2014 DISCOUNT footwear chain Shoe Zone yesterday posted a jump in half-year profits in its first set of results since floating on London’s junior market last month. The family-run chain, which has 554 shops, said pre-tax profits rose to £2.7m in the six months to 5 April, a large increase from £200,000 in the first half [...]
Domino falls on its warning of flat trading June 24, 2014 DOMINO Printing, the seller of printing equipment for retailers, led the FTSE 250 fallers yesterday after warning that pricing pressure in Asia would lead to flat profits in 2015. Shares tumbled 16.7 per cent on the news, making Domino the top percentage loser on the London Stock Exchange yesterday. Domino’s results for the six months [...]
Walgreen’s earnings grow but questions raised on Boots buyout June 24, 2014 US HIGH street chemists Walgreen, which owns 45 per cent of UK rival Alliance Boots, yesterday announced a 16 per cent jump in quarterly earnings, though it missed Wall Street’s expectations. Walgreen, which paid $6.7bn (£3.95bn) for its share of Boots in 2012, said the results were aided in part by a lower income tax [...]
Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata to miss AGM over illness as UK patent case is lost June 24, 2014 Nintendo’s chief executive Satoru Iwata announced yesterday that he had had surgery to remove a tumour in his bile duct and would need more time to return to work. Nintendo also lost a UK court case against electronics giant Philips yesterday, over the motion tracking technology it used in its Wii game console that Philips [...]
World’s most influential women at the Rosewood Hotel June 24, 2014 Some of the world’s most influential women descended on Holborn yesterday for the Fortune Most Powerful Women Conference in the Rosewood Hotel. Theresa May’s partially unexplained absence (due to a mystery scheduling conflict) did little to diminish the high level of inspiring chat. Facebook’s Europe Middle East and Asia vice-president Nicola Mendelsohn touched on the [...]