IS HALFORDS ON TRACK FOR ANOTHER IMPRESSIVE YEAR? June 10, 2009 JOHN STEVENSON KBC PEEL HUNT“Halfords announced an adjusted pre-tax profit of £92.4m, in keeping with our forecasts. Cycling and car maintenance continue to deliver healthy sales growth. While the short-term economic environment remains difficult, Halfords aims to open a further 10 stores in the second half of the year.” MANOJ LADWA ETX CAPITAL“On a day [...]
J Sainsbury gives King a royal payout June 10, 2009 SUPERMARKET giant J Sainsbury handed out £5m in pay and share bonuses last year to chief executive Justin King after he hit performance targets, it was revealed yesterday. After receiving a basic salary of £872,000 for the 52 weeks ended 21 March 2009, King then received a further £1.17m in bonuses, pension supplements and benefits. [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 10, 2009 List GroupThe markets software provider has appointed Antonio Attanasio (left) as chief marketing officer and Marco de Matti as a sales manager. Attanasio will oversee the firm’s marketing strategy and also work with its quantitative finance division, FMR Consulting. He has worked at Reuters, Dow Jones and GL Trade. De Matti joins from business process [...]
Tensions grow at Boston Globe June 10, 2009 The Boston Newspaper Guild filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the New York Times group yesterday, after the owner of the Boston Globe said it will cut union members’ pay by 23 per cent. Tensions were deepening after the guild, the Boston Globe’s largest union, had rejected a $10m (£6m) package [...]
Genting buys into MGM Mirage June 10, 2009 Malaysian gaming group Genting has paid $100m (£60m) for a 3.2 per cent stake in US casino operator MGM Mirage, in a move to broaden its portfolio of strategic investments. Genting and its unit Resorts World had earlier subscribed for a combined $100m worth of notes issued by MGM Mirage last month. The debt papers [...]
Turquoise suspends trading June 10, 2009 Pan-European trading platform Turquoise suspended trading for three and a half hours yesterday morning due to a technical issue with the system. This is not the first time in its young life that Turquoise has seen trading disrupted. In September, just weeks into its phased launch, the platform was hit by technical glitches.
Mecom rights issue approved June 10, 2009 Debt-laden publisher Mecom yesterday gained approval from its shareholders to push ahead with its proposed £141m rights issue. Of the 63 per cent of shareholders which voted, 99.98 per cent were in agreement that the fundraising should go ahead.
CITY VIEWS: DOES ANDY HORNBY DESERVE TO BE MADE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF ALLIANCE BOOTS? June 10, 2009 ANDREW SWAN AON“Everyone needs a job, don’t they? The fact is that he was clearly fairly good at his job despite what happened at HBOS and it would be wrong for him to take the blame for everyone else at the bank. Alliance Boots wouldn’t have given him the chief executive role if he wasn’t [...]
Bank of Ireland to get new boss June 10, 2009 Bank of Ireland will name former chief executive Pat Molloy as chairman when incumbent Richard Burrows resigns next month, the bank said yesterday. Molloy, who is also a former chairman of building materials group CRH, will be appointed to the board of Bank of Ireland by the government, which has a 25 per cent indirect [...]
PZ Cussons lathers up its profits June 10, 2009 Imperial leather maker PZ Cussons yesterday said it expects full year profits to be in line with expectations, driven by strong growth from its new product lines. PZ Cussons bought the Sanctuary spa line of products last year for £75m and said that recent trading across all of its divisions had been strong.