Capital & Counties raises £258m for its Covent Garden expansion May 14, 2014 CAPITAL & Counties (Capco) raised £258m through a share placing yesterday as it looks to ramp up investment in its £2.3bn Earls Court and Covent Garden estates. Proceeds from placing will help fund a £85m development between King Street and Floral Street in Covent Garden, where it plans to create a public courtyard with shops, [...]
Housebuilding lifts Galliford Try May 14, 2014 Galliford Try said yesterday it had made strong progress since the start of the year particularly in housebuilding where market conditions continued to improve. It said a record £1bn of sales had been reserved, contracted or completed across both Linden Homes and Galliford Try Partnerships, of which £790m is for the year to 30 June. [...]
Currency weighs on Hilton Foods May 14, 2014 Meat packing group Hilton Foods said yesterday the strength of the pound was continuing to dampen its results, though its new contract with Tesco was ramping up as planned. Overall trading had been in line with forecasts since December, the London-listed company said, adding that it continued to explore “opportunities to grow the business” in the [...]
CLS sees good progress in London May 14, 2014 Property developer CLS Holdings yesterday has said the London market is heating up beyond the West End and City, as it revealed that its new projects were progressing well. The firm hopes to start building a 143,000 square foot scheme in Vauxhall next year. Since January, vacancy rates had fallen from 4.4 to 3.5 per [...]
Partnership hit by annuity plan as sales tumble May 14, 2014 ANNUITY provider Partnership Assurance has seen sales of its products tumble in the first quarter of the year, after the chancellor announced sweeping changes to the pensions market in his Budget in March. The group sold £200m worth of individual annuities in the first three months of the year, its bread and butter, compared to [...]
Sony pledges to tackle growing losses with a huge restructuring May 14, 2014 SONY said yesterday it would step up a broad restructuring this year to tackle bloated costs and exit some unprofitable businesses, hoping to put behind it years of persistent losses. The Japanese consumer electronics giant, which warned yesterday of a second consecutive net loss for this financial year, was struggling to recover after being undercut [...]
Healthcare in line for Servelec May 14, 2014 Software and services firm Servelec said yesterday that it had traded in line with market expectations across both its Healthcare and Automation divisions in the quarter to 31 March. The company said trading in healthcare remained strong during the quarter, having won several projects across the UK. Its automation business also traded in line with [...]
Admiral hit by falling premiums May 14, 2014 Car insurer Admiral Group has seen its turnover fall by seven per cent in the first quarter of this year as premiums continue to fall across the market. As a result, the company saw its share price fall 1.38 per cent yesterday as fears about the broader motor insurance industry continue to grip. Chief executive [...]
Growth in EU gives Catlin a boost May 14, 2014 Lloyd’s of London-based insurer Catlin has announced it wrote nine per cent more premiums in the first three months of the year, rising to $2.01bn (£1.2bn) from $1.84bn a year earlier. The growth, the company said, was largely driven by demand for reinsurance sold by Catlin Re in Switzerland. The group recorded no catastrophic losses [...]
Yahoo continues its app spending spree with Blink May 14, 2014 US MEDIA giant Yahoo yesterday bought Blink, a mobile messaging startup that lets users send self-destructing messages similar to Snapchat. Blink launched in April 2013 and said it would now shut down its iOS and Android apps in coming weeks after the acquisition closed. Yahoo’s chief executive Marissa Mayer has been on an acquisition spree [...]