Funeral firm Dignity says profits are looking good November 9, 2009 FUNERAL home and crematoria firm Dignity yesterday posted a 7.2 per cent rise in nine months profit and said its expectations for the full year remained unchanged. Dignity, which is the UK’s only listed funeral services provider, said operating profit, excluding profit on the sale of fixed assets, was £43.0m in the 39 weeks to [...]
Allianz profit jumps due to life insurance November 9, 2009 ALLIANZ, Europe’s biggest insurer, yesterday reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter, thanks to strong trading in life insurance and asset management. And the firm said it was well-placed to capitalise on the improving global economy as it posted a 23 per cent jump in operating profit. But despite the strong results, the insurer refused [...]
Puma warns of tough times ahead but looks forward to start of WorldCup November 9, 2009 SPORTSWEARmaker Puma expects the rest of the year to remain tough as consumers continue to drag their feet on spending, but the German firm is hoping for a boost from the soccer World Cup next year. The world’s number three behind Nike and Adidas yesterday said the market environment would remain challenging in the fourth [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 9, 2009 PACEInvestec said that its analysis of Pace’s underlying numbers, coupled with a belief in the strong medium-term drivers for the industry, encouraged it to take a positive stance on the stock and initiate with a “buy” rating and a target price of 273p. The broker believes Pace will benefit from continuing take-up of high definition [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 9, 2009 SVG Investment ManagersAdam Steiner has been promoted to chief executive of the investment management firm from his previous position as head of research. Steiner replaces Tony Dalwood, who formerly co-founded the firm’s public equities team with him in 2002 and has now been appointed as chief executive of SVG Advisers and chairman of the SVG [...]
Sales fall 10pc at Aer Lingus as jobs axed November 9, 2009 IRISH airline Aer Lingus reported a 10 per cent fall in revenues in a third quarter trading update that were described by analysts as “poor but not disastrous”. Aer Lingus posted a 9.7 per cent year-on-year drop in revenue despite increasing passenger numbers by seven per cent over the summer to nearly 3.1m. The Dublin-based [...]
Lok’n Store narrows losses as trading lifts November 9, 2009 STORAGE firm Lok’n Store yesterday said it has narrowed its pre-tax losses and said that trading conditions have now improved. The group said pre-tax losses for the year to 31 July 2009 were now £0.65m from £0.74m the year before as occupancy rose and operating and financing costs were reduced. Lok’n Store called the past [...]
Alan Sugar is wrong about small business owners November 9, 2009 Alan Sugar recently said small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) were “moaners” who “lived in Disney World”. Clearly, he doesn’t seem to buy into the policy initiative that the UK government has set up that sees the banks lending to SMEs to help them weather the current economic storm. I believe this is evidence that [...]
Lloyd’s names push up price of insurance November 9, 2009 LLOYD’S of London insurers Hiscox and Beazley are both taking advantage of softer competition in insurance across the globe to push up the price of policies, particularly in reinsurance. Both companies yesterday posted significant increases in premium income over the first nine months of 2009. Bermuda-based Hiscox unveiled a hefty 32 per cent lift in [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW IMPRESSIVE ARE THESE RESULTS? November 9, 2009 BARRIE CORNES PANMURE GORDONGross written premium is up strongly for both Hiscox and Beazley. The claims environment in 2008 was pretty poor and 2009 has been much more benign, particularly in terms of catastrophe-related losses. Barring any major hurricane … the full years should be very strong for both. RAKSHIT RANJAN NOBLEBeazley is currently trading [...]