CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 14, 2009 Ambrian PartnersThe stockbroking firm has appointed Philip Dorgan, one of the most respected retail analysts in the market, to its research team. Dorgan has been a retail analyst at rival broker Panmure Gordon for the past 13 years, latterly as head of research. He was also head of European retail at Goldman Sachs between 1988 [...]
N Brown posts record results October 14, 2009 Home shopping company N Brown yesterday smashed analysts’ forecasts, reporting a 13 per cent jump in pre-tax profits. The group said profits rose to £41.8m in the 26 weeks to August, ahead of analysts’ £38.1m expectations. Chief executive Alan White yesterday said the group could enter the potentially lucrative United States market next year. The [...]
Leisure & Gaming profits jump October 14, 2009 Aim-listed online betting group Leisure & Gaming yesterday said third quarter gross profit rose to €1.0m (£0.9m) from €0.9m. Amounts wagered rose to €27m for the quarter ended 30 September 2009 from €13.3m in 2008. Net win increased to €4.6m from €3.2m while earnings came in at €0.1m compared with nothing the year before. Commenting [...]
E.ON wins two power plant bids October 14, 2009 E.ON, the German utility firm, yesterday won permission from the European Commission to acquire two power plants and certain drawing rights from Belgium’s Electrabel. The Commission – which is the administrative arm of the European Union (EU) – said in a statement that the transaction would not impede effective competition in the European common market. [...]
Punch writes off 663m of its pub estate October 14, 2009 Debt-laden pubs firm Punch Taverns yesterday said its annual losses had jumped to £406m after it wrote down the value of its estate by £663m. Punch, which own over 7,600 pubs, said its pre-tax profit for the year to 22 August fell 39 per cent to £160m compared with £262m the year before. Following the [...]
FRIEZE ART FAIR OPENS October 14, 2009 The Frieze contemporary art fair will open its doors from today until Sunday. Held in a giant marquee in Regent’s Park, the fair is usually attended by around 60,000 art lovers, with tens of millions of pounds changing hands, though last year it was hit by cautious spending as the downturn took hold.
BayernLB offices raided as authorities probe the terms of its Hypo Group deal October 14, 2009 GERMAN prosecutors raided BayernLB and its Austrian unit Hypo Group Alpe Adria yesterday over suspicions the German bank overpaid when it bought Hypo in 2007. The raids are part of a probe into whether former BayernLB chief executive Werner Schmidt was in breach of trust when he chose to pay €1.625bn (£1.52bn) for just over [...]
Skype founders oppose takeover October 14, 2009 Skype’s founders yesterday asked a US federal court to prevent Index Ventures and one of its partners from further participating in the proposed $1.9bn (£1.1bn) acquisition of the Web phone service. The suit, brought by Joltid and Joost, the companies of Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, said Index and one of its partners, [...]
Shazam secures LA backing October 14, 2009 Shazam, the London-based mobile music service, yesterday said that it has secured one of Silicon Valley’s most successful investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) as a backer. Shazam is seeking to capitalise on the popularity in downloadable mobile phone applications. The group said that it now has 50m users, and hopes to double its [...]
Oxford Street shop rents rise October 14, 2009 Prime retail spots on Oxford Street and Bond Street are commanding higher rents than they did last year, despite the downturn that has battered other high streets, estate agent Cluttons said yesterday. The group said rental values on other high streets would continue to fall as more tenants default.