Top UK banker at Morgan Stanley quits January 6, 2010 ONE of Morgan Stanley’s top London bankers has quit the firm just days after new chief executive James Gorman took over at the US bank. London-based John Hyman, co-head of global capital markets, left the firm two weeks ago for personal reasons, and his departure was revealed in an internal conference call on Monday. It [...]
£10m loss for Matrix Group January 6, 2010 MATRIX Group, the financial services giant, has revealed the effects of a torrid financial year that saw it swing from the black to a £10m loss. Pre-tax profits at the group, which has operations spanning corporate capital, private equity and property, fell from £27.6m in 2007/8 to a deficit of £9.6m last year. Turnover almost [...]
Iceland prepares referendum as credit status worries grow January 6, 2010 ICELAND is set to hold a referendum on 20 February on whether to repay Britain and the Netherlands more than £3bn their savers lost when Icelandic banks collapsed. The date was announced as ratings agency Standard & Poors placed Iceland on a “negative credit watch” and warned it could downgrade the country’s credit rating “by [...]
Watchdog accuses four ex-iSoft directors of misleading market January 6, 2010 THE FSA has started criminal proceedings against four former directors of iSoft, the healthcare software firm. iSoft founder Patrick Cryne is charged with making misleading statements to the stockmarket. Also charged are Tim Whiston, Stephen Graham and John Whelan. The allegations relate to accounting irregularities uncovered by Deloitte while the company was working on the [...]
M&S sales rise but Waitrose wins day January 6, 2010 MARKS & Spencer yesterday reported a rise in sales for the three months to Christmas but warned of a tough year ahead. The retailer saw like-for-like sales rise by 0.8 per cent with record takings on food on 23 December. Food sales overall were 0.4 per cent up on the previous year with general merchandise [...]
Cold weather helps to boost Domino’s January 6, 2010 DOMINO’S PIZZA said yesterday people staying in because of the cold weather helped its sales beat City forecasts. The fast food delivery chain, which has 608 stores in the UK and Ireland, said in a fourth quarter trading update like-for-like sales rose 8.6 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 December, despite the downturn [...]
Wine lovers cheer Majestic January 6, 2010 MAJESTIC Wine said its decision to half its minimum purchase to six bottles helped boost its pre-Christmas sales. The wine chain, which has 150 stores in the UK, said like-for-like sales were up 11.7 per cent in the nine weeks from 3 November. Majestic began selling six-bottle batches to customers in September as part of [...]
Shoplifting surges during downturn January 6, 2010 RETAIL crime rose 10 per cent to £1.1bn last year, according to a report published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) today. The biggest share of this figure is shoplifting, which accounts for 94 per cent of all retail crime incidents and £462m in lost sales, said the BRC’s Retail Crime Survey 2009. The BRC [...]
DO THE M&S FIGURES SPELL RECOVERY? January 6, 2010 RICHARD HUNTER | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN “The news from the High Street remains positive with today’s contribution from M&S underlining the ongoing resilience of the consumer. However, the abolition of VAT relief along with almost inevitable pressure on consumer budgets later in the year will continue to weigh.” JONATHAN JACKSON | KILLIK & CO “M&S has [...]
CARE HOME MOGUL GETS BOOST FROM REALITY TV January 6, 2010 A REALITY television appearance is usually more of a kiss of death than a gateway of opportunity, but the case of Balhousie Care Group chairman Tony Banks has proved an exception to the rule. Banks became a household name last year when he travelled to Liverpool on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme and subsequently had [...]