Europe’s economy still showing signs of weakness as construction suffers January 19, 2010 THERE were further signs that the Eurozone’s economy is not out of the woods yet after construction output in Europe fell to its lowest level for a decade and investor confidence in Germany was weaker than expected. Activity in the construction sector fell by eight per cent in the 12 months to November after property [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT CONSUMER PRICE INFLATION HAS INCREASED? January 19, 2010 JONATHAN RANDLE | PTS CONSULTING “Not particularly. In my general shopping I haven’t seen any difference, though I’m quite frivolous with my money anyway. Inflation is something I expect to see going forward, when quantitative easing is reversed. I sold my car to get a cheaper one earlier this year, to save a bit of [...]
Rich pickings for Burberry as sales boom January 19, 2010 BURBERRY sales soared by 12 per cent in the three months to the end of the year – confounding City forecasts. The company took £380m in revenue over the period as it dropped unprofitable lines and kept a tighter control on stock. Wholesale revenue – which comes from department stores that stock the group’s trademark [...]
Theo Fennell sales sparkle over Xmas January 19, 2010 LONDON luxury jewellery chain Theo Fennell yesterday registered sparkling sales growth of 25 per cent for the period 1 to 24 December. The company – which has founder Theo Fennell back on board – expects to make a marginal loss for the financial year, an improvement on the £3.3m loss recorded last year. Like-for-like sales [...]
Pearson raises its full year forecasts January 19, 2010 PEARSON, the publisher of the Financial Times and Penguin books, yesterday raised its full-year earnings forecast after it was buoyed by the success of its digital education business. Schools in Europe and America are discarding their dog-eared textbooks in favour of computerised learning materials, an area where Pearson has invested heavily. The firm said it [...]
IG Group seen as a solid bet as clients in UK boost profits January 19, 2010 IG GROUP, the owner of spreadbetting firm IG Index, yesterday revealed pre-tax profit over the first half of the year grew by over a quarter, boosted by continued rapid growth in UK customer numbers. IG said first half statutory pre-tax profit rose by 26 per cent to £69m over the six months to November 2009, [...]
Tenon boosted by recovery services and new tax rates January 19, 2010 BUSINESS advisory group RSM Tenon said yesterday its business had held up well over the first half of its financial year, driven in particular by its recovery services division. Tenon, which completed the acquisition of RSM Bentley Jennison just before the period end in December, said it continued to perform in line with expectation during [...]
GOOGLE SCRAPS PHONE LAUNCH IN CHINA January 19, 2010 GOOGLE yesterday postponed the China launch of its mobile phone incorporating its email and web services, as its row with the government in Beijing over Internet sponsorship and hacking of its internal network continued. The move comes just days after Google threatened to close its search engine in China.,
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF PEARSON’S EARNINGS UPGRADE? January 19, 2010 LORNA TILBIAN | NUMIS We remain firm supporters of Pearson, which has an attractive mix of businesses and offers good value at 14 times earnings supported by a near four per cent yield. However, our preference remains for quality cyclicals such as DMGT, Informa and WPP, which were hit harder in the downturn and have [...]
Flat sales dog SAB Miller as volumes wane January 19, 2010 Brewing giant SABMiller yesterday reported flat underlying beer volumes for the third quarter as subdued consumer spending continued to take the fizz out of its sales. Shares in the London-listed company ended the day more than two per cent down on the news that volumes for the three months to the end of December were [...]