Economist pays £33m dividend June 27, 2010 The Economist Group, which owns the well-known Economist business magazine, has raised its dividend 38 per cent to £33m even though its pre-tax profits fell 10 per cent to £50m. The payout was shared by investors including the Rothschild and Schroder families. The Economist boosted its weekly circulation to 1.4m copies, offsetting a slump in [...]
Tui finance boss linked to M&S June 27, 2010 Tui Travel’s finance director, Paul Bowtell, has been linked to a board position with retailing heavyweight Marks & Spencer. Bowtell, who has previously done stints with British Gas and BG Group, is understood to have held talks with M&S about the upcoming finance director vacancy following Ian Dyson’s shock resignation, which came just days after Marc [...]
TfL closes door on Tube Lines takeover June 27, 2010 BORIS JOHNSON, London’s Mayor, and Transport for London (TfL) have completed the takeover of Tube Lines. Under the agreement, TfL has purchased all of Tube Lines’ shares from Bechtel and Ferrovial’s Amey, for £310m and will now manage the ongoing work to the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines. Johnson said the deal will open a [...]
HMV to announce profits of £74m June 27, 2010 EMBATTLED retailer HMV is expected to post pre-tax profits of £74m in its full year results on Wednesday, boosting hopes the firm’s new management can turn around its fortunes. It is understood HMV will hit estimates laid out earlier this year. The music, film and games merchant has been torpedoed by the proliferation of digital [...]
HMV June 27, 2010 IT’S not hard to see why shareholders are so down on HMV. Its traditional source of revenue – CDs, DVDs and video games – is being quickly eroded by digital replacements. And its foray into ticketing, live music and music-themed memorabilia and clothing isn’t convincing the market. That said, HMV is massively oversold: it has [...]
Financial firms fear looming regulation June 27, 2010 ACTIVITY in financial services firms over the past three months has increased at the fastest rate since September 2007, but market volatility meant that this growth was much slower than had been expected, the quarterly CBI/PwC Financial Services survey will show today. In the second quarter, a net nine per cent of firms said that [...]
Norman hopes to sell gold at ATMs June 27, 2010 GOLD trader Sharps Pixley has been sold to metals dealer Ross Norman. Norman, a director at metal news website Fastmarkets and former trader at the London Bullion Market, is understood to have bought the company in order to sell gold ingots and coins to small-scale investors. He said he hoped to revive the Sharps Pixley [...]
M&B close to £40m strike June 27, 2010 Pub giant Mitchells & Butlers is on the verge of selling its ten-pin bowling chain for up to £40m. The pub group, which is led by chief executive Adam Fowle, has been in talks in recent weeks over the sale of its Hollywood Bowl division, which has 24 centres from Glasgow to Somerset. Privately-owned AMF [...]
Barclays to expand in Eurozone June 27, 2010 Barclays is this week set to announce plans for faster expansion in Spain, Portugal and Italy, taking advantage of local competitors weak position. Antony Jenkins, head of the group’s retail banking operations, is expected to outline the plans for expansion to investors this week. Barclays already has a network in Spain and Italy. During the [...]
CASSANO QUIZZED OVER AIG COLLAPSE June 27, 2010 JOSEPH Cassano, a former AIG executive who played a big role in bringing the giant insurer to its knees, will face a grilling this week from a US panel investigating the causes of the financial crisis. Cassano will rub shoulders with a star cast, which includes Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn and chief financial officer [...]