Invista seeks extra cash November 16, 2009 INVISTA European Real Estate Trust is aiming to raise £58.27m by selling shares to avoid a potential bank foreclosure as it sails perilously close to breaching a loan covenant. The property fund manager, which suffered a 23.4 per cent fall in the value of its assets between December 2007 and September, said its loan-to-value ratio [...]
Persimmon builds sales November 16, 2009 Persimmon yesterday joined the chorus of property firms reporting trading conditions have improved in the third quarter and said home buyers were back in the market. The UK’s largest housebuilder by market value said it met its sales targets for the year and booked a further £500m of sales for 2010. Chief executive Mike Farley [...]
Citi rejects Hands’s 1bn offer to refinance EMI November 16, 2009 GUY Hands’s private equity firm Terra Firma has been sent back to the drawing board after Citigroup rejected its proposed restructuring of music publisher EMI’s £2.6bn debt. Citi was not impressed by Hands’s offer of a £1bn capital injection into the business in return for the lender writing off the same amount of EMI’s debt, [...]
Asos sales beat UK high street on overseas units November 16, 2009 ASOS, the recession-defying fashion online retailer, yesterday reported its half year pre-tax profit had jumped nine per cent, as strong overseas sales offset a softening UK market. The retailer said pre-tax profits in the six months to 30 September lifted to £4.4m from £4.1m the year before and reported a 47 per cent jump in [...]
Debt repayments ruffle feathers at Peacocks November 16, 2009 PEACOCKS, the budget clothing chain that made history with the first hedge fund-backed private buyout, sank further into the red last year. The firm, which also operates the Bonmarché and Fragrance Shop businesses, made a post-tax loss of £7.3m in the 12 months to March. It made a £5.2m loss in 2008. Peacocks took the [...]
Domino’s Pizza ramps up share buyback plans November 16, 2009 Domino’s Pizza yesterday said it would return £19m to shareholders by buying back 6m shares at 317p and issued another upbeat trading statement reporting it was on track to beat market expectations for the full year. Since June 2004, the take-away fast food chain has returned approximately £31.7m of cash to shareholders through the purchase [...]
H&M SALES SLIDE November 16, 2009 HENNES & MAURITZ, the world’s third largest fashion retailer, yesterday reported a worse-than-expected three per cent drop in like-for-like sales. H&M, which sparked a stampede last weekend at its Regent Street store after unveiling cut-price Jimmy Choo shoes, posted a seven per cent rise in total sales, missing forecasts.
Majestic pops its cork as profits rise during the slump November 16, 2009 MAJESTIC Wines yesterday toasted its recent trading over the first half of the year by reporting a nine per cent hike in pre-tax profits to £6.1m The group recently slashed its minimum order for customers from 12 bottles to six bottles to take advantage of the booming drinking-at-home market. As a result sales to private [...]
Debenhams kicks off retail price war November 16, 2009 Debenhams yesterday announced it will be slashing £250m off prices in a four-day sale this week, in a move which it predicts will spark a price war similar to the frenzied discounting seen last Christmas. Rival Marks & Spencer’s executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose, said earlier this month he did not expect a repeat of [...]
CITY VIEWS: CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ONLINE OR HIGH ST? November 16, 2009 HOCINE YAICHE MOODYS“I am always a last minute shopper, so I have never actually done my Christmas shopping online. It is also a bit a problem doing it online as you then have to get it delivered, and are at work most of the time. But I do think the trend is probably more towards [...]