BA passenger figures show improvement August 5, 2009 BELEAGUERED British Airways (BA) said yesterday it carried one per cent more passengers in July than in the same period a year before, and added that further gains were expected over the rest of the summer. The news comes after the airline reported its first ever first quarter loss last week, and said it saw [...]
UBS tax deal due tomorrow August 5, 2009 THE US and Switzerland are expected to reach a final settlement tomorrow to end a tax row against UBS, but details of the deal will not be made public the same day, sources familiar with the situation said. US tax authorities have sued UBS as the bank refused to hand over the names of 52,000 [...]
Topps on track in spite of continuing sales plunge August 5, 2009 TILE and wood flooring group Topps Tiles said yesterday it is on track to meet full-year expectations, despite sales continuing to plunge over the past four months. Topps, which has reduced its total number of stores by five per cent since the start of the financial year, said revenue for the 18 weeks to 1 [...]
Revenues in healthy way at Betfair August 5, 2009 ONLINE betting company Betfair yesterday reported revenue growth of 27 per cent in the year to 30 April, and played down reports that it is planning to raise cash through an initial public offering (IPO). Just a day after rival William Hill issued a profit warning, Betfair posted revenues of £303m, driven by international expansion [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 5, 2009 ExecutionExecution has taken on Joseph Dickerson to strengthen its banking equity research team. Joseph will be responsible for developing coverage on HSBC, Standard Chartered and the Spanish banking sector. He joins Execution from Citadel Investment group where he was a senior analyst. He will work with Fiona Swaffield and Anke Reigen in the company’s experienced [...]
Barclays bracing itself for protests August 5, 2009 BARCLAYS’ staff are set to stage a protest over pensions outside the bank’s annual meeting today. Barclays chief executive John Varley has argued that the bank’s pension fund deficit is worsening and curtailing its final salary pension scheme is best for present and future staff, and its pensioners. But the Unite union, which represents more [...]
Yahoo cut a better Microsoft deal than was feared at first August 5, 2009 YAHOO’S share price lifted yesterday, after a regulatory filing in the US showed its 10-year tie-up with Microsoft to be more beneficial to the business than originally thought. Under previously disclosed terms of the deal, announced last week, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will power search queries on Yahoo’s sites, while Yahoo will handle the sale [...]
ADIDAS TAKES A KICKING August 5, 2009 SPORTSWEAR giant Adidas yesterday reported a 93 per cent fall in profits for the April to June period as consumer spending fell during the economic downturn. Net profit fell to €8m (£6.8m), compared with €117m for the same period a year earlier. The group yesterday said it believed it had reached the bottom of the [...]
Shire shrugs off fight from generic rivals August 5, 2009 SHIRE yesterday reported second quarter revenues just ahead of expectations, as strong growth from new drugs offset a big hit from the loss of patent protection on hyperactivity pill Adderall XR. Britain’s third-biggest drugmaker said quarterly sales of its previous blockbuster Adderall XR fell by 77 per cent to $67m (£39.3m) as it was hit [...]
CITY VIEWS: BARCLAYS WORKERS ARE PROTESTING TOMORROW. DO THESE KINDS OF PROTEST MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE? August 5, 2009 UDAY BAROT FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR“No, I don’t think this sort of strategy works. Big banks don’t listen and just do what they want. The smaller voices aren’t heard so protesting, in my opinion, doesn’t make a big difference.” TOLU BABATOLA LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS CO-ORDINATOR“No, I don’t think protesting makes much difference in such large corporations. [...]