Shadow MPC votes for hold March 3, 2010 A MAJORITY of City A.M.’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) think that interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) should remain unchanged this month, ahead of the Bank of England’s decision scheduled for midday today. Eight members voted for a pause with many believing that now is the time for the MPC to take stock after [...]
CITY A.M. | SHADOW MPC March 3, 2010 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “The Bank should keep interest rates on hold and make no further changes to quantitative easing [QE]. The economy is growing again – the services sector PMI data was especially encouraging yesterday.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Raise 25 basis points. The recovery is gaining momentum and emergency policy is no [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 3, 2010 LaSalle Investment Management The investment manager has appointed Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz as managing director for Europe and a member of its nine-strong global management committee. Lloyd-Hurwitz will also be a director of LaSalle’s parent company, Jones Lang LaSalle. She has over 20 years of experience in the real estate and asset management industry, most recently as [...]
Disappointing Eurozone retail sales and services data hit recovery hopes March 3, 2010 EUROZONE retail sales fell again in January after briefly rising month-on-month in December, underlining the continued fragility of household demand as unemployment grows and boding ill for the economy. Retail sales in the 16-country currency area dropped 0.3 per cent against December and dipped 1.3 per cent year-on-year, the European Union statistics office, Eurostat, said [...]
Taylor Wimpey upbeat despite losses March 3, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey has suggested that its prospects are improving despite posting sizeable full-year losses for 2009. The FTSE 250 company posted full-year losses of 640.6m, following on from a deficit of £1.97bn the previous year and saw its revenue slip to £2,595m from £3,467m in 2008, but said “improving conditions” had led to a [...]
Virgin buys into medical centres March 3, 2010 VIRGIN has branched into healthcare after buying 75 per cent stake in a group of walk-in medical centres. Richard Branson is using a unit of his company under the title of Virgin Healthcare to buy into the GPCo business of the Assura Group. It is the largest owner of doctor’s surgeries in the UK and [...]
ITV returns to profit and predicts ad recovery March 3, 2010 ITV returned to profit during 2009 and has tipped advertising revenues to rise this year. The broadcaster made a £25m pre-tax profit for the 12 months to December 31, compared with a £2.73bn loss in the previous year. It said it anticipates advertising revenues rising by as much as 7 per cent in the first [...]
Standard Chartered profit tops £3bn March 3, 2010 STANDARD Chartered has reported a 13 per cent jump in profit for 2009. The bank said it would hand bonuses to top managers on the strength of the performance of the company. Its investment banking growth in its core Asian markets offset a jump in bad debts in the Middle East. The profit rose to [...]
BP: We promise we’ll do better March 2, 2010 BP has pledged to improve its underlying pre-tax profitability by more than $3bn (£2bn) over the next two to three years by cutting further costs and increasing efficiency. Anthony Hayward, chief executive, announced the ambitious targets yesterday at the company’s annual strategy presentation to investors. It comes just a month after Shell said it planned [...]
Cash call weighs on Prudential March 2, 2010 EUPHORIA surrounding Prudential’s £23bn purchase of American International Group’s Asian arm turned into concern yesterday as its share price lurched downwards for the second day in a row. Prudential’s paper fell eight per cent to 487.5p, down from its pre-deal level of 602p. Investors are worried about the dilutive effect of the £13.4bn rights issue [...]