Serco bullish on outlook August 25, 2010 OUTSOURCING giant company Serco posted a 21 per cent increase in half-year pre-tax profit and said government spending cuts would boost sales in areas where outsourcers would be hired to achieve savings. Serco, which runs Boris Johnson’s new cycle hire scheme, said yesterday pre-tax profit for the first half to 30 June was £101.4m, against [...]
Aggreko in boost from World Cup August 25, 2010 AGGREKO, the world’s biggest provider of temporary power, again upgraded its outlook for the year after posting a jump in first-half profit, helped by contracts for major sporting events. Aggreko said events such as the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the soccer World Cup, for which it provided generators and chillers, brought its local business unit [...]
SIG fears government cash cuts August 25, 2010 SIG, the insulation and roofing group, said UK government austerity measures were a drag on its outlook despite an encouraging start to the second half after a fall in first-half pretax profit. Sales across the group recovered in May and June — with sales per day in July up four per cent year-on-year — after [...]
AIRLINE WORKERS SNUB DEAL August 25, 2010 Members of American Airlines’ mechanics union rejected a contract proposal and authorised union leaders to call a strike, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) said yesterday. The union said on its website late on Tuesday that two American Airlines work groups represented by the TWU — the mechanics and the stock clerks — voted against a [...]
Germany agrees to take up banking levy August 25, 2010 Germany’s cabinet yesterday agreed to adopt a levy on bank assets which will raise around €1bn (£818m) a year for bailouts, a government source said, a move that small lenders slammed. Small banks complained the new bank restructuring bill fails to rule them out as potential contributors toward a common pot for rescuing big banks, [...]
The old guard offers Osborne advice August 25, 2010 Economies are pretty resilient things. Of course output can decline extremely sharply as a result of negative shocks – and the British economy shrunk 6.4 per cent in 2008-9 as a result of the world financial crisis and subsequent recession. But at some point they do usually bounce back to decent growth rates, particularly if [...]
US new home sales slump August 25, 2010 FEARS of a double-dip in the US housing market intensified yesterday after data showed that new home sales fell at the sharpest monthly pace in July since records began. Sales of new homes plummeted 12.4 per cent to an annual rate of 276,000 – the lowest since the data was first recorded in 1963 and [...]
German businesses remain confident August 25, 2010 GERMAN businesses have this month shrugged off weak markets and concerns about the health of the United States and are now as confident as they were in June 2007, according to the Ifo institute’s business climate index, which was published yesterday. The headline index rose to 106.7 from 106.2 in July while firms’ assessment of [...]
Swiss franc surges to a record high against euro August 25, 2010 THE Swiss franc surged to an all-time high against the euro yesterday as fears over the potential for a double-dip recession continued to drive investors into perceived safe-haven assets. The franc traded at €1.300 yesterday, within sight of the record level of €1.2968 hit earlier in the session. And yields on 10-year Swiss bonds fell [...]
Durable orders fuel doubt over recovery’s legs August 25, 2010 ONLY a surge in orders for commercial aircraft kept durable goods orders in positive territory last month, casting yet further doubt over the resilience of the US recovery. Durable goods orders only managed to grow by 0.3 per cent on the previous month but the more closely-watched core capital goods orders figure slumped eight per [...]