Prudential and BA suffer as reputations sink May 25, 2010 YOUGOV’S BrandIndex scores show the insurance giant Prudential slipping since its announcement that it intends to acquire the Asian life insurance firm, AIA. BrandIndex has witnessed a dramatic drop in Prudential’s buzz score, which is measured by taking those who have heard something positive about a brand in the last week and subtracting those who [...]
Boost for plastics manufacturer Victrex as sales and profits surge May 25, 2010 HIGH-TECH plastics company Victrex today posted a three-fold increase in first-half pre-tax profit and raised its interim dividend by 23 per cent. The Lancashire-based polymers and thermoplastics manufacturer said pre-tax profits were £30.8m compared with £10.2m in the same period a year earlier, with revenues rising 88 per cent to £89.3m as underlying sales growth [...]
Coalition agenda set out in Queen’s Speech May 25, 2010 THE Queen has outlined the programme of laws the UK’s coalition wants to push through over the next 18 months. Measures include a shake-up in the electoral system with the prospect of five-year fix-termed parliaments. Plans to introduce ID cards will be ditched under the new coalition government, which said it was aiming to “rebalance” [...]
GDP growth higher than estimated May 25, 2010 STRONGER industrial production in the first quarter helped to nudge GDP growth up to 0.3 per cent although the economic picture remains lacklustre. The upward revision of 0.1 per cent will nevertheless provide a small boost to the new Coalition government, which faces the daunting task of toning up the UK’s finances. Howard Archer, chief [...]
Global markets fall May 25, 2010 GLOBAL stock markets are plunging over fears about the debt problems in the eurozone and mounting tension between South and North Korea. The FTSE 100 in London was down by 2.6 per cent, while Germany’s Dax dropped 2.3 per cent and France’s Cac 2.74 per cent. The falls followed plunges in Asian markets overnight. Stocks [...]
Homeserve raises dividend after profit surge May 25, 2010 HOME insurance group Homeserve hiked its dividend by nearly a quarter and reported a 13 per cent rise in full-year profit, boosted by international growth and strong customer retention. The company reported an underlying pre-tax profit for the year to end-March of £100.6m. compared with £88.7m for its restated 2009 profit. Market expectations had predicted [...]
M&S records £632m profit May 25, 2010 MARKS & SPENCER has recorded a pre-tax profit of £632m for the year to the end of March. The figure represented a 4.6 per cent rise on the year before. M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose said the results showed the economy was going in the right direction but that “the recession is not over” for [...]
City: cuts are a good first step May 24, 2010 BUSINESSES applauded George Osborne’s decision to wield the axe on Whitehall spending yesterday, but warned the £6.2bn of savings were a drop in the ocean compared to deeper cuts on the horizon. The chancellor won praise for his decision to begin belt-tightening early, as he announced he was scrapping the Child Trust Fund, pulling the [...]
MPC man: UK may be new Japan May 24, 2010 BRITAIN is at risk of suffering a prolonged Japanese-style recession that may be “scarier than the original,” a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee warned last night. Adam Posen, who is an expert on Japan, added that he couldn’t rule out the possibility of deflation engulfing the UK?economy, as it infamously did [...]
Banks call for living will plan May 24, 2010 LEADING G20 countries should set up a task force to oversee the creation of cross-border bank “living wills” and make bondholders aware they could take more pain if a lender hits trouble, top bankers said yesterday. The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a bank lobby group, said “resolution regimes” laid out for banks should make [...]