Late Easter hits Aer Lingus results May 1, 2014 Losses at Irish airline Aer Lingus widened to €48.5m (£39.8m) in the first quarter of the year, which the firm said was due to the late Easter holidays and strike threats during March. Revenues were broadly flat at €259.4m. “Our short haul operation remains an attractive and profitable business despite the continuation of intense price [...]
Housing boom helps Howden May 1, 2014 Kitchen supplier Howden Joinery yesterday reported an 11.2 per cent rise in UK revenue in the first 16 weeks of the year, helped by stronger consumer spending and a recovery in the housing market. The company said like-for-like revenue for outlets open more than a year increased 8.5 per cent. Howden Joinery said it had [...]
Savills builds on its US business May 1, 2014 Property consultant Savills plans to buy US-based commercial real estate services firm Studley for up to $260m (£153.9m) to expand in North America. The FTSE 250 company said it expected to seal the deal by 30 May, following which it would rebrand its US arm as Savills Studley. The United States is Savills’ smallest market [...]
City Moves for 02 May 2014 | Who’s switching jobs May 1, 2014 Henderson The asset management firm has announced the appointment of James de Bunsen as co-manager of its value trust division. He joined in January 2013 as manager of the Henderson Multi-Manager Absolute Return fund from Armstrong Investment Managers. De Bunsen also previously spent five years at Insight Investment, where he was part of its UK retail [...]
Best of the Brokers for 02 May 2014 May 1, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BARCLAYS UBS has upgraded the bank from “neutral” to “buy”, upping its target price from 280p to 305p. Following reports that Barclays is setting up a bad bank, the broker believes Barclays’ management is showing willingness to shift away from loss-making parts of [...]
London Report: Lloyds profit boost helps FTSE approach a two-month high May 1, 2014 BRITAIN’S blue-chip share index hit its highest level in about two months yesterday, rising for a fourth straight session as gains at Lloyds bank buoyed the market. The FTSE 100 index ended up by 0.4 per cent, or 28.84 points, at 6,808.87 points, its highest close since 4 March. Shares of Lloyds surged 5.5 per [...]
New York Report: Investors wait for jobs figure May 1, 2014 THE S&P ended nearly flat last night as investors paused ahead of today’s jobs report, though gains in internet shares helped lift the Nasdaq. The Dow Jones eased back into negative territory for the year, a day after closing at its first record high of 2014. The April jobs report, which is expected to show [...]
Marks & Spencer recruits Silicon Roundabout entrepreneurs for new website May 1, 2014 MARKS & Spencer has been recruiting Silicon roundabout’s finest to help develop its new website and to help lure the 19m customers a year who shop in its stores but do not use its website. The 130 year-old high street retailer broke away from its technology supplier Amazon and launched its own custom-built £150m [...]
Why the EU’s mango ban’s a really daft idea May 1, 2014 Today, an EU-wide ban on Indian Alphonso mangoes has come into force. Though temporary, it’ll stop imports to the UK until December 2015. The ban, which also applied to aubergines, two kinds of squash and a leaf called patra used for cooking, comes after non-European food pests, in the form of a type of fruit [...]
Why this central bank isn’t worried about the rise of Bitcoin May 1, 2014 Top officials from the Canadian central bank have said they are not worried about the rise of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Speaking to the Senate banking committee, Bank of Canada (BoC) governor Steven Poloz said "these are early days … and so far digital currencies have not made it to what we call money." [...]