Lookers on the up in profit surge August 18, 2010 CAR dealer Lookers yesterday reported a “record trading performance” as profit surged by a third. First-half pre-tax profit was £22.7m – 29 per cent up on the £17.6m it made in the same period a year earlier. Sales were £988.3m, compared with £870.4m. New car sales increased by a quarter despite fears over consumer confidence [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR STAGECOACH? August 18, 2010 KEITH BOWMAN | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN Despite some near term concern regarding possible government spending cuts, a favourable combination of economic recovery, possible M&A activity and wider environmental trends all support a favourable [buy] market consensus opinion. The company’s marketing campaigns have also been successful. PAUL HICKMAN | KCB PEEL HUNT Stagecoach’s uniformly strong first-quarter results [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 18, 2010 INMARSAT Bank of America Merrill Lynch cuts its price target for Inmarsat to 700p from 725p warning it has “several structural” issues, against a deteriorating macro environment. Says Harbinger using its option to use Inmarsat’s US spectrum, worth £1.50 a share, is a possible positive, but adds this won’t happen in 2010. AMEC RBS recommends [...]
Charles Taylor warns on profit August 18, 2010 Insurance consultancy Charles Taylor Consulting warned yesterday full-year earnings would miss earlier estimates, after its first half was hit partly by weak public sector business, sending its shares down 22.5 per cent. For the six months ended 30 June, the company posted a nearly flat pre-tax profit of £5.7m. Adjusted pre-tax profit was down one [...]
Ambrian snaps up Masefield August 18, 2010 Specialist investment bank Ambrian Capital said yesterday it had acquired Masefield Biofuels, which focuses on biodiesel produced from palm oil, from the Masefield Group. It did not reveal the price. Ambrian said it would invest $5m (£3.2m) of capital into the new company, to be called Ambrian Energy and be headed by Bernd Sturmheit who [...]
Mazda recalls 320,000 US cars August 18, 2010 Japan’s Mazda is recalling nearly 320,000 vehicles in North America over a potentially deadly malfunction in their power steering, US authorities said yesterday. The recall of its popular Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 models was issued for vehicles manufactured between 2 April 2007 and 30 November 2008, affecting a total of 319,714 cars in the [...]
Swiss Life’s German unit comes good August 18, 2010 SWISS Life’s profits nearly doubled in the first half of the year on the back of a strong performance by German subsidiary AWD, allaying fears the insurer could be forced into an embarrassing writedown of AWD’s value. Switzerland’s biggest life insurer also said it was on track to achieve key margin targets for 2012 after [...]
Westfield sees sales boost at its London mall August 18, 2010 MALL owner Westfield Group yesterday said sales at its London mall were up 17 per cent in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. The mall, at Shepherd’s Bush, is on track to hit its target of £800m in takings this year after being boosted by tourist numbers, the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 18, 2010 SRL Global Alex Lowe, the former chief executive of Man Global Strategies (MGS), has joined the asset management technology firm as its new managing director. Lowe worked at MGS, part of Man Group, for six years – three years of which were at the helm of the company. SRL was initially established as a joint [...]
Bank of England voted 8-1 to freeze interest rate August 18, 2010 Bank of England policymakers considered the case for both easing and tightening policy this month, before voting eight to one to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5 per cent, minutes showed. Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance called for a 25 basis point rate hike for the third month running, minutes of [...]