Whitbread gets a boost from Costa Coffee’s sales rise March 4, 2010 COSTA Coffee’s sterling performance in the fourth quarter has seen sales growth at Whitbread, Britain’s biggest hotel and coffee shop operator, rise by three per cent it said in a trading update yesterday. Sales at Costa Coffee stores increased by 9.5 per cent in the quarter to February, benefiting from the launch of its new [...]
Anheuser-Busch InBev sees profit rise as cost-cutting drive kicks-in March 4, 2010 THE world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev made a $1.28bn (£850m) profit in the last quarter of 2009. Anheuser-Busch InBev has made a series of cost cuts to tackle plummeting beer sales in the global economic slowdown. The brewer is poised to cut 800 jobs across western Europe as part of the shake-up. The company made [...]
Parker has left the business in good shape March 4, 2010 RETIRING Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker will be a tough act to follow. Yesterday’s trading statement shows just how well he has steered the company through the slump. Group like-for-like sales fell just 0.7 per cent in 2009, not bad for a consumer-facing business coping with the worst recession since World War Two. Although budget [...]
THE NAME GAME IS ON FOR MANCHESTER UNITED’S RED KNIGHTS March 4, 2010 IS A setback in the offing for the self-styled “Red Knights”, the group of City businessmen plotting to seize control of Manchester United from current owners, the Glazer family? The Capitalist only asks having chanced upon another, very different, group bearing the same name while trawling the Internet yesterday. Actually, the moniker belongs to a [...]
SVG assets improve on Permira cuts March 4, 2010 FEARS that Deutsche Bank will have to add more leverage and risk to reach ambitious earnings targets led Moody’s Investors Service to cut its investment-grade rating by two notches to Aa3 yesterday. Moody’s placed Deutsche ‘s ratings on review in December, shortly after the bank unveiled ambitious targets of achieving €10bn (£9bn) in profit before [...]
M&A volumes sink on concerns over plight of battered Eurozone economy March 4, 2010 POWER generator rental group Aggreko said yesterday that 2010 profit would be better than it previously expected, helped by growing demand for power in emerging markets such as Africa and South America. The group reported a 29 per cent jump in 2009 pre-tax profit. The FTSE 100 firm, which provided power for the Vancouver Winter [...]
Aggreko reports 29 per cent jump in its profits March 4, 2010 POWER generator rental group Aggreko said yesterday that 2010 profit would be better than it previously expected, helped by growing demand for power in emerging markets such as Africa and South America. The group reported a 29 per cent jump in 2009 pre-tax profit. The FTSE 100 firm, which provided power for the Vancouver Winter [...]
SVG assets improve on Permira cuts March 4, 2010 SVG Capital, the biggest investor in buyout firm Permira, saw its shares rebound yesterday after it cut debt and saw the companies it owns improve their performance, sending its shares soaring. The private equity investor said its net asset value per share rose 30 per cent to 222.9p from six months ago. Chief executive Lynn [...]
BoA warrant sale hands US $1.5bn reward March 4, 2010 THE Treasury Department said yesterday it priced two classes of Bank of America warrants in a deal that will bring record net proceeds of $1.5bn £996m). The net proceeds from auction for Bank of America will surpass JPMorgan Chase warrants totalling $936m. That auction was held in December. The record amount will allow for taxpayers [...]
WaMu may reach deal soon March 4, 2010 WASHINGTON Mutual could reach agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co and a government agency over a disputed $3.7bn (£3.3bn) bank deposit in the next week, the bankrupt company’s attorney told a court yesterday. Washington Mutual was in court to try to resolve a dispute centering on one of its largest potential assets, billions of dollars [...]