CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU EXPECTING THE PRICE OF GOODS TO KEEP FALLING? August 18, 2009 HANESH PURI COCA COLA ENTERPRISES“I think prices will level out soon, and consumer spending will increase. I’m personally waiting for a year to monitor market fluctuations before I make any large purchases. Consumers don’t yet have the confidence to spend.” IAN JACKSON IROKO SECURITIES“Although it came in below economists expectations, I wasn’t disappointed in the [...]
Bidders circle British Land’s Broadgate August 18, 2009 BRITISH Land yesterday revealed it had been approached by several buyers interested in snapping up a 50 per cent stake in Broadgate, its iconic City development. US private equity group Blackstone has been tipped to beat rivals to a share of the 16 office buildings close to Liverpool Street Station. Yesterday finance director Graham Roberts [...]
Scrap plan boosts Pendragon August 18, 2009 CAR DEALER Pendragon said yesterday its first-half profit has halved, but added the government’s “cash-for-bangers” scheme had boosted sales, and that the slump was coming to an end. The UK’s largest car dealership, which trades as Stratstone, Evans Halshaw and Chatfields, reported a pre-tax profit of £8.7m for the six months to June, on revenues [...]
Veteran telecoms boss quits board of SpinVox August 18, 2009 TROUBLED voice-to-text messaging firm SpinVox has parted ways with director Patricia Russo, the former boss of telecoms equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent, just two months after her appointment to the board. Russo, whose extensive experience in the sector would have proved invaluable to SpinVox, had been advising the firm on its strategy since the beginning of the [...]
NAB snaps up Challenger unit August 18, 2009 National Australia Bank, the top lender in Australia, said yesterday it has agreed to buy Challenger Financial Services’ mortgage unit for A$385m (£192m) to up its market share. NAB said the deal would give it an additional A$4bn worth of residential mortgages. The acquisition follows its purchase of Aviva’s Australian businesses in June for A$825m, [...]
TfL seeks to smooth out traffic August 18, 2009 Transport for London (TfL) is set to smooth traffic flow by identifying traffic hotspots, it said yesterday. Intelligent traffic cameras that detect jams as they build up are set to revolutionise the way TfL tackles congestion in the Capital. Twenty cameras fitted with special image recognition technology have been put at traffic hot spots across London.
Rok stuck in a hard place August 18, 2009 Shares in self-styled “local” builder Rok slumped yesterday after the company posted a 47 per cent drop in first-half pre-tax profits to £6m. Evolution analyst Philip Sparks – who cut his rating on the stock to “Add” from “Buy” – said he had hoped the results would herald the beginning of a re-rating for Rok. [...]
Slump hits Fresnillo August 17, 2009 FRESNILLO, the world’s largest silver producer, yesterday said its profits in the first-half had slumped 10.8 per cent, as prices for the precious metal tumble in the downturn. The Mexican company, which is listed in London, said pre-tax profits for the period were $179.9m (£110.3m) down from $201.6m the previous year.But the miner said it [...]
Introducing competition will improve healthcare August 17, 2009 AS AN American who has lived in the UK for 11 years, I love both countries. The debate over healthcare has reminded me of my heritage as a daughter of a physician. Obama is courting America to extend healthcare coverage in the US, triggering a mild UK/US incident and crashing Twitter. What many people outside [...]
Ryanair slashes Manchester routes August 17, 2009 BUDGET airline Ryanair yesterday said it would cut nine of the 10 routes it flies from Manchester and blamed the airport for refusing to cuts its charges. The low-cost carrier said nine routes would be switched or changed as of 1 October, meaning 44 weekly flights will be cut along with 600 local jobs.Most flights [...]