Deloitte upbeat despite lower partner profits August 25, 2010 DELOITTE, one of the Big Four accountancy firms, has seen UK revenues fall for the second year in a row in the face of challenging markets and a difficult economic environment. The global firm posted £1.95bn in UK revenue for the year ended 31 May, marking a £16m fall from last year. “Despite a second [...]
BHP Billiton stands firm on Potash bid August 25, 2010 INDUSTRIAL giant BHP Billiton posted bumper profits in nearly all areas of its business yesterday, as chief executive Marius Kloppers remained confident over the firm’s $40bn (£25.9m) offer for Canadian fertiliser group Potash. “I have heard all the speculation, but I have only seen one bid on the table. Given the all-cash nature of what [...]
Hammonds in merger talks with American legal rival August 25, 2010 UK law firm Hammonds confirmed yesterday that it is in merger talks with American rival Squire Saunders & Dempsey, marking an increasing trend of trans-Atlantic consolidation within the legal sector. Discussions between the two legal outfits are at an early stage, but should they merge, the consolidated firm is expected to generate annual revenue of [...]
Crystal: Grade still the wrong leader August 25, 2010 Rogue shareholder Crystal Amber has continued its campaign against Pinewood chairman Michael Grade despite the film-studio upgrading its expectations for the year. Crystal Amber has waged a campaign against Grade, whose stewardship of the firm and track record has been called into question. Yesterday a spokesman told City A.M.: “We are pleased to see there [...]
Indian oil firms step back from move to buy into Cairn August 25, 2010 State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, GAIL India and Oil India will not make a counterbid against Vedanta Resources’ $9.6bn (£6.2bn) stake purchase in Cairn India, a senior official in India’s oil ministry said yesterday. The decision makes it likely that Cairn Energy’s planned sale of up to a 51 per cent stake in its [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS FACEBOOK WORTH ITS $33BN VALUATION? August 25, 2010 PAUL STAPELY | CONNING ASSET MANAGEMENT “As a non-user, I struggle to imagine where a private company can possibly make anywhere near that much money with an asset like Facebook.” MARCANTOINE DE ROYS | GROUP M “It is difficult to measure the impact Facebook has had on 500m-plus lives as a monetary value, especially since [...]
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 [...]