ANALYST VIEWS: HOW IS KINGFISHER HOLDING UP IN LEAN TIMES? July 22, 2010 NICK BUBB | ARDEN PARTNERS We had hoped to see a small positive, on the view that the weather has been helpful and the World Cup impact overstated. The UK is in fact disappointing, with B&Q like-for-like sales down by 4.3 per cent, albeit gross margins are good. The read-across for Homebase and Home Retail [...]
SABMiller beer volumes fall July 22, 2010 Brewer SABMiller reported a decline in first-quarter beer volumes yesterday despite a World Cup boost, after floods, national mourning and a tax hike hit drinking in key markets. The brewer of Miller Lite, Peroni and Pilsner Urquell said that underlying beer and soft drink volumes were one per cent down year-on-year. Analysts were on balance [...]
Champagne sees fizz return July 22, 2010 Champagne makers Remy Cointreau and Vranken-Pommery Monopole have posted quarterly sales growth, signalling customers were returning to high-end brands after a lull during the financial crisis. Remy Cointreau, which makes Piper-Heidsieck champagne, said sales of champagne rose 23 per cent to £14m in its fiscal first quarter to 30 June. Vranken-Pommery said sales rose 52 [...]
Nokia in crisis as profits fall sharply again July 22, 2010 Pressure on Nokia boss Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo reached fever pitch yesterday when the embattled phone maker announced a sharp drop in second-quarter profits. The firm, which makes every third mobile phone sold in the world, has been rocked by two profit warnings and a management shakeup in the second quarter alone as it struggles to keep [...]
Rake: BT has hit a watershed July 22, 2010 BT HAS reached a watershed this year when it finally crawled back to profit, according to its chairman Sir Michael Rake. Speaking at the firm’s annual meeting Rake said BT had achieved “year of delivery” as it turned a profit and arrested its declining revenue. He said: “A lot has changed since last year’s annual [...]
Vodafone results expected to be positive July 22, 2010 Vodafone’s chief executive Vittorio Colao will today announce first-quarter results, which are expected to show continued improvement in European revenue growth. Service revenue is expected to marginally improve. German and Indian operations are expected to show an improvement but its Spanish operations are set to continue to suffer from the economic turmoil engulfing the country.
Tough trading as Colt profits drop 25 per cent July 22, 2010 CITY of London Telecoms (Colt) yesterday reported a 25 per cent drop in profits, from £45.9m to £34.4m. Total revenue also fell from £817.4m to £794.2m in the six month period. Voice revenue fell more sharply, dropping nine per cent from £345.6m to £314.4m. The firm pointed to marginally improved Ebitda margins and said it [...]
AT&T enjoys halo-effect from iPhone as it posts better than expected profits July 22, 2010 AT&T yesterday posted better-than-expected profits and said it was more optimistic on growth prospects for the year. The exclusive US provider for Apple’s iPhone forecast strong earnings per share growth for the full year 2010 after previously promising “stable-to-improved” results. AT&T’s profit rose to $4bn (£2.6bn), from $3.2bn in the same quarter a year earlier. [...]
Autonomy disappointed by lacklustre results July 22, 2010 Software firm Autonomy posted forecast-lagging quarterly earnings and lower margins, raising analyst concerns that growth was slowing and sending its shares sharply lower. Shares in the group, which have outperformed the FTSE 100 by 16 per cent since the start of the year, fell as much as 12 per cent yesterday as the market expected [...]
Motorola legal scrap with Huawei July 22, 2010 US mobile phone maker Motorola has sued China’s Huawei Technologies for alleged theft of trade secrets, highlighting the fast-growing Chinese firm’s difficulty in shaking the nation’s reputation for piracy. In an initial suit, filed in 2008, Motorola sued five of its former workers for allegedly sharing trade secrets with Lemko, which was also named in [...]