Jamie Oliver cooks up a storm August 5, 2009 Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef yesterday revealed one of his subsidiary companies made £6.8m pre-tax profits last year, an 82 per cent jump on the year before. The sale of TV shows overseas and book sales meant turnover increased by 18 per cent. Oliver and his wife Jools awarded themselves a dividend payout of £800,000 for [...]
Axa warns on pensions, cuts jobs August 5, 2009 Europe’s second-biggest insurer Axa warned future pensioners that UK retirement incomes from annuities have been too generous in the past and will be cut from current levels once new European rules for insurers are brought in. It added that it will cut a further 350 jobs in the UK, after it unveiled a 39 per [...]
Deadline for NatEx bid issued August 5, 2009 The Takeover Panel last night issued a five-week deadline to Stagecoach and a Spanish-led consortium to make an approach for troubled rail and bus group National Express.
Lloyds makes loss but sees a ray of light August 5, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group sank to a £4bn pre-tax loss in the first half, due to writedowns on the property loan portfolio it inherited from HBOS, but said that it believed impairments had reached their peak and would decline rapidly. The bank saw impairment rise from £2.5bn in the first half of 2008 to £13.4bn, 80 [...]
SocGen sees profits slide as bad debts mount, but investment banking thrives August 5, 2009 SOCIETE Générale (SocGen) suffered a 52 per cent decline in net profit, the French bank said yesterday, as losses on bad loans mounted and it wrote down its derivatives holdings. France’s second largest bank, posted profits of €309m (£269m) for the quarter, down from €644m in the same period of last year, despite revenue rising [...]
Rising loan losses plunge Allied Irish into the red August 5, 2009 ALLIED Irish Bank swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half of the year, as it made a provision of €2.37bn (£2bn) for potential loan losses. The bank lost €872m in the first half, compared to a €1.28bn profit earned in the first half of 2008. The bad debt charge of €2.37bn represented 3.6 [...]
Standard Life profits plunge August 5, 2009 STANDARD Life yesterday admitted it has joined the ranks of insurers struggling in the recession, stating its pre-tax profits were down 86 per cent in the first half as consumers cut their pension savings. The group said markets remained “challenging”, as it unveiled an underlying pre-tax profit drop from £345m in the first half of 2008 [...]
Old Mutual earnings dive as new business is hard to find August 5, 2009 OLD MUTUAL, the insurer listed jointly in the UK and South Africa, reported a bigger-than-expected drop in statutory profits yesterday, despite making improvements at its troubled US life business. South Africa’s largest insurer said its earnings were boosted by investment returns from its US bond portfolio, offsetting weakness in Europe and South African arm Nedbank. [...]
IS LLOYDS BANKING GROUP NOW OVER THE WORST OF ITS WOES? August 5, 2009 SANDY CHEN PANMURE GORDONAlthough management expects impairment to abate in the second half of 2009, this is not usually what happens in the trough before a recession. We expect that book value of equity per share will continue to be eroded by further losses. We are comfortable with our full-year forecast of -35p earnings per [...]
WHAT LIES BEHIND THE PROFIT FALLS AT STANDARD LIFE? August 5, 2009 BARRIE CORNES PANMURE GORDON“Standard Life has reported a slightly disappointing set of first-half figures. The miss on statutory profitability stems from lower management charges, Canadian property and other assets on its balance sheet. We maintain our “Hold” recommendation.” DUNCAN HALL FINNCAP“The statutory reporting method does tend to depress profits. The general feeling is that Standard [...]