G4S sees opportunities in cuts August 26, 2010 SECURITY services group G4S reported a three per cent rise in first-half profit, helped by strong performances at its emerging markets businesses, and predicted UK government spending cuts would fuel further growth. “The Middle East, India and large parts of Asia all show good signs of delivering double digit growth in the second half,” chief [...]
Bloomsbury pins hopes on Harry Potter reissue August 26, 2010 BLOOMSBURY has seen profits during the first six months of the year plummet by almost 50 per cent, as the publishing house puts its hopes on a November re-launch of the Harry Potter series to pull it back up to 2009 levels. For the period ended 30 June, Bloomsbury saw profits of £949,000, which were [...]
STV sees its advertising revenue soar August 26, 2010 Scottish media group STV expects its advertising revenue to be up 10 per cent in the third quarter, below the overall TV market, due to weakness in its regional business. The group says it expects the overall TV market to be up 17 per cent in the third quarter but that it was hampered by [...]
Segro posts a rise in its property value as it eyes future industrial development August 26, 2010 INDUSTRIAL landlord Segro posted a slight rise in the value of its properties yesterday and aims to restart new developments amid returning interest from potential tenants. Segro, which has about two-thirds of its properties in the UK and the rest across continental Europe, said its portfolio value grew 1.4 per cent in the first half, [...]
Building outfit Carillion welcomes era of austerity August 26, 2010 BRITISH building and support services firm Carillion said first-half underlying pre-tax profit rose 17 per cent to £58.8m and it expected to benefit from outsourcing as governments try to cut costs. Sales were down 11 per cent on last year, however, to £2.5bn for the first half as a result of the company disposing of [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK YOU WILL WATCH MORE TV ONLINE? August 26, 2010 BEN ARAM | KENNEDYS “I am from Germany and so I use such websites to catch up on shows I have missed. I am also a frequent YouTube user. Websites such as BBC iPlayer strike me as very useful and I see myself using them more in the future.” TOM SPILLER | WILKINS BEAUMONT AND [...]
A CAAN-DO ATTITUDE IN FLOODED PAKISTAN August 26, 2010 AT a time of year when many City folk are sunning themselves on beaches abroad, it’s good to see that James Caan, the entrepreneur most famous for his appearances on Dragons’ Den, is putting his cash to good use. Last week he flew out to Pakistan to help with the flood relief efforts there. His missive [...]
SANTANDER SUSPENDS TOP ANALYST August 25, 2010 US authorities will step up their investigation into insider trading at Banco Santander today as the scandal threatens to engulf BHP Billiton’s $39bn (£25bn) bid for PotashCorp. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has secured powers to seize documents, emails and phone logs from Santander’s Madrid office after charging senior executive Juan José Fernández García [...]
Standard Life supports Minerva in board battle August 25, 2010 CITY stalwart Standard Life threw its weight behind the board of Minerva yesterday, after the property investor and its activist shareholder KiFin traded another round of inflammatory statements. “It is not clear to us that the KiFin nominated board candidates would act in the best interests of all shareholders,” said Andrew Jackson, an investment director [...]
Coalition hits back at IFS August 25, 2010 THE coalition government hit back yesterday against claims its austerity budget is regressive and will hit the poorest hardest. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) claimed poorer families will suffer most from stringent welfare cuts such as slashing housing benefits. But deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, whose reputation relies on convincing the electorate that the [...]