M&B row with rebel reaches fever pitch.. January 24, 2010 BOSSES of All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers are steeling themselves for a showdown with rebel shareholder Piedmont at its annual meeting on Thursday. The company is facing a bid by Piedmont, which owns 23 per cent of the business, to install four independent directors on the board. Piedmont is understood to want M&B [...]
Headwinds will continue for years to come January 24, 2010 At the time of writing, Britain is the only G20 country still in recession but finally, after two years in decline, there is hope that our economy is finally growing again. It is widely anticipated that the Office for National Statistics will tomorrow announce that the most prolonged recession to hit the UK since records [...]
…as pub groups report strong sales January 24, 2010 MITCHELLS & Butlers is unlikely to report significant trading news at its annual meeting, although other companies in the sector will update the market this week. Numis Securities said January trading at M&B is unlikely to have changed after a sales rise since late November. On Wednesday, brewer Greene King is tipped to report a [...]
Iceland asks for state mediation January 24, 2010 Iceland has approached several governments about the possibility of mediating talks over $5bn its owes to Britain and the Netherlands after the island’s banking crisis, Icelandic media reported yesterday. Local television said Norway was the most likely candidate for such a role. Oslo is seen as sympathetic to Iceland’s plight and mediated between London and [...]
Philips in profit boost January 24, 2010 GLOBAL electronics firm Philips has reported a net profit of €251m (£220m) for the last three months of 2009. The profit reverses a loss of €1.2bn in the same period a year ago as the recession took its toll on the Dutch firm. The company said its profits were higher at all divisions, despite sales [...]
Philips profits boosted by TV sales January 24, 2010 GLOBAL electronics firm Philips has reported a net profit of €251m (£220m) for the last three months of 2009. The profit reverses a loss of €1.2bn in the same period a year ago as the recession took its toll on the Dutch firm. The company said its profits were higher at all divisions, despite sales [...]
Shares fall as Obama wages war on Wall Street January 22, 2010 PRESIDENT Barack Obama launched his biggest attack yet on the banking sector, revealing plans for the toughest overhaul of Wall Street since the Great Depression. “If these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I’m ready to have,” Obama said, as he told retail banks they would no longer be able to take risky bets [...]
Retail sales figures “disappointing” January 22, 2010 RETAIL sales volumes rose by much less than expected in December as a large rise in prices deterred shoppers from splashing out over Christmas, official figures have shown. The Office for National Statistics said the figure rose just 0.3 percent last month, less than the 1.1 percent analysts had expected and the weakest for the [...]
EX-BANKING HOTSHOTS DON’T HOLD A GRUDGE January 21, 2010 ON the face of it, you’d have thought there would be a good deal of simmering resentment beneath the surface of the outward relationship between Sir James Sassoon – the investment banker-turned-Treasury finance guru-turned-Tory bank adviser – and Financial Service Authority (FSA) chief Hector Sants. Sassoon last year caused a storm when he authored that [...]
Car sales plunge despite scrappage scheme January 21, 2010 CAR production plunged last year despite a late surge fuelled by the Government’s scrappage scheme. Many companies cut back on manufacturing early in the year as recession-hit Brits cut back. Honda was one of the companies badly hit – reducing production at its plant in Swindon, Wiltshire, for four months from February. The introduction of [...]