HMV sales dragged down by Waterstone’s January 14, 2010 MUSIC and book retailer HMV posted a fall in like-for-like sales over Christmas – dragged down by the poor performance of Waterstone’s. Sales in the five weeks to January were down 1.2 per cent overall even though the group’s CD and DVD chain in the UK and Ireland saw a lift of 2.2 per cent [...]
Argos sales lift fuels profit forecast rise at Home Retail Group January 14, 2010 ARGOS and Homebase owner Home Retail Group (HRG) has increased its full-year profit forecast by £20m after sales in the second half of 2009 beat expectations. The retailer now expects its pre-tax profits for the current financial year to 31 March to hit £285m. The revised figure came as a trading statement showed that Argos [...]
Barratt in housing market boost January 14, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Barratt Developments today fuelled hopes of recovery in the sector with rising volumes and prices bringing about an improvement in operating margins. The FTSE 250 group completed 5028 homes in the six months to 31 December and says it on track to hit its full-year targets of 12,000 completions. The average price of its [...]
Barclays buys NYSE market maker for $25m January 14, 2010 BARCLAYS has announced a $25m (£15.3m) deal for New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market maker LaBranche & Co. The move means the UK bank can make even stronger its position as the biggest market maker on the index. The deal will also reduce the number of designated market makers on the NYSE to just four [...]
Facing the music January 13, 2010 THE leaders of Wall Street’s biggest banks yesterday admitted they had made mistakes as they were grilled on the causes of the financial meltdown. Chief executives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America (BoA) and Morgan Stanley all gave evidence to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in the first of a series of public [...]
Hershey working on counter-bid for Cadbury January 13, 2010 HERSHEY is preparing to launch a solo takeover bid for Cadbury to rival the $17bn (£10.4bn) bid from Kraft. The American firm initially showed interest in a joint bid with Italy’s Ferrero, but now the chocolatier has dropped out of the running Hershey has authorised a bid. It is expected to make a formal offer [...]
Cold snap to thaw today January 13, 2010 THE MET Office last night promised a respite from the cold snap – but warned it could return next week. Most of central London will be above freezing and no more snow is forecast to fall over the next few days. It did however issue a warning of black ice for some parts of south [...]
Google is right to pull out of China January 13, 2010 GOOD on Google. The tech giant now seems almost certain to pull out of China in an astonishing blaze of publicity. It takes real guts to thumb one’s nose at a country of 1.3bn potential consumers; it is even more courageous to accuse the Chinese state of hacking into the e-mail accounts of human rights [...]
Myners backs RBS on pay January 13, 2010 CITY minister Lord Myners yesterday voiced his opposition to pay restrictions at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He told a parliamentary hearing that the bailed-out bank could not compete if pay was curbed too much. “If we want RBS to compete in a global world…it has to equip itself appropriately to do that,” he said. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 13, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES REPSOL CHIEF HEADS FOR SHOWDOWN WITH CRITIC After months of speculation, Repsol’s Antonio Brufau tomorrow will be forced to defend his job as executive chairman of the Spanish oil and gas group against one of his fiercest critics. Luis del Rivero, chairman of Sacyr Vallehermoso construction and property company , wants to unseat [...]