Burger King tops Wall St forecasts on good margins April 29, 2010 Burger King reported a quarterly profit that edged past Wall Street’s expectations yesterday, helped by better-than-expected margins. The second-biggest US hamburger chain after McDonald’s had warned in March that bad weather in the central and eastern United States kept diners away during the quarter and it expected lower revenue and restaurant margins for the period. [...]
Sir Nigel Rudd resigns as chair of Pendragon April 29, 2010 SERIAL non-executive Sir Nigel Rudd, the man who co-founded and built up Williams Holdings, is to step down as chairman of motor dealer Pendragon, which was spun out of the conglomerate two decades ago. Rudd said yesterday he had been considering retiring from Pendragon for some time but had been prevented from leaving until now [...]
Hammerson says property market fragile April 29, 2010 ANGLO-FRENCH property investor Hammerson remains cautious about the outlook for the retail and commercial property markets, due to the weak economic recovery. “The economic recovery in our markets remains fragile, and uncertainties remain, not least regarding the level of unemployment and the prospect of further tax rises,” the company said yesterday . In the UK, [...]
AstraZeneca hikes guidance April 29, 2010 ASTRAZENECA’s first quarter profits soared by 29 per cent, helped by sales of its cholesterol drug Crestor and schizophrenia medicine Seroquel. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker smashed expectations and has upped its profit target for the full-year following the sharp rise in earnings. Emerging market sales were also behind the strong results, the company added. “We saw [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 29, 2010 GLAXOSMITHKLINE Citi Group Global Markets maintains a “buy” recommendation on drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as it says the group’s sustained delivery of top-line growth should allow expansion into a number of treatments. Citi remains bullish on GSK’s opportunity to drive revenue growth through the consumer business. BP Despite the Macondo spill, Bank of America Merrill [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 29, 2010 Aviva The insurance giant has appointed Tim Harris as its new deputy chief financial officer and chief capital officer. Harris is currently chief financial officer of Aviva’s European business. He has also been the group’s chief accountant and, before that, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Aviva has also appointed Richard Dewar, the chief financial officer at [...]
Shire is bolstered by new drugs coming to market April 29, 2010 DRUGMAKER Shire posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings yesterday, as new drugs offset losses of exclusivity for its blockbuster medicine Adderall XR, used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder. Shire has bolstered its franchise with new drugs Vyvanse and Intuniv, as Adderall XR wanes in the face of generic competition from Israel’s Teva. The company is also [...]
‘BIGOTGATE’ GAFFE HITS GRINNING GORDON WHERE IT HURTS MOST April 28, 2010 SPREAD betting firms always pride themselves on having a finger on the pulse, so it’s a bleak lookout for Gordon Brown if general election seat spreads yesterday were anything to go by. Brown (as even strictly cloistered Martians will know by now) yesterday committed a political gaffe of monolithic proportions, simpering to the UK’s newest [...]
FIRST GREECE, NOW SPAIN, WHO NEXT? April 28, 2010 EUROPEAN markets were yesterday left quaking after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign credit rating, the third debt-stricken eurozone nation to receive such treatment in just 48 hours. Fears of contagion spreading to other European countries catapulted the EU into action, with one politician letting slip that a revised bailout package for Greece could be [...]
Disaster for Labour as Brown insults a voter April 28, 2010 LABOUR’s re-election campaign was thrown into chaos yesterday, after the Prime Minister said an old-age pensioner was “bigoted” because she raised concerns over immigration. Gordon Brown’s unguarded comments were picked up by a radio microphone that he forgot to remove following a televised campaign stop in Rochdale. Minutes after telling Gillian Duffy, 66, it had [...]