Maybe ITV would do better without a chief exec October 14, 2009 CRISIS? What crisis? That was the line that Michael Grade, the outgoing executive chairman of ITV, took when being questioned by a House of Lords committee yesterday. Hitting out at media coverage of the broadcaster’s bungled attempts to find a replacement chairman and chief executive, he said ITVwas a business in fine fettle. In a [...]
Rio raises its iron forecast despite slump October 14, 2009 MINING giant Rio Tinto put up its production outlook for iron ore yesterday, and upped its full year guidance on the commodity thanks to strong demand from steelmakers. Rio, the second-largest miner of the ore – which is used to make steel – said it had seen early signs of recovery in key markets, with [...]
FLYING LOW October 14, 2009 AIR PARTNER, the private aviation services group, said yesterday its pre-tax profits for the full-year had slumped 90 per cent, thanks to weak market conditions. David Savile, chief executive of the firm that provides planes to governments and the super rich, said trading had now stabilised at the weaker levels experienced in the second half. [...]
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 [...]