ABI: there is still faith in City bosses June 8, 2009 PUBLIC fury over the financial crisis and “fat cat” bonuses has failed to derail confidence in bosses at the City’s major companies, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) will claim today at its biennial conference. The ABI will unveil the results of a major national survey on economic sentiment suggesting that the majority of people [...]
JD Sports trading well but warns on margins June 8, 2009 Sportswear retailer JD Sports yesterday said it was bucking the high street gloom after sales growth improved in its latest trading period. The group said its underlying sales increased 1.7 per cent over the 17 weeks to 30 May, with growth in its sports fascias of 1.2 per cent and growth in its fashion fascias [...]
Michael O’Leary sells off 16.5m of Ryanair stock June 8, 2009 MICHAEL O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, has sold off €18.75m (£16.5m) of stock in the budget airline, it emerged yesterday. O’Leary divested 5m shares, taking his holding in the firm down to just over four per cent, equal to 60m shares. The news comes after Ryanair last week fell to its first full-year loss [...]
LDV in administration as all staff made redundant June 8, 2009 AILING van maker LDV yesterday laid off all its workers after it was put into administration. LDV, which is owned by Oleg Deripaska’s GAZ, employed 850 people directly and thousands more in dealerships and supply chains. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will now take over the running of the firm. “There is still the opportunity of a bright [...]
MOBIUS MOBILISING ON IRAQ June 8, 2009 MARK Mobius, the enigmatic world authority on emerging markets investment from US fund giant Franklin Templeton, is to start investing in war-torn Iraq. The so-called “Yul Brynner of Wall Street” said he would start investing in six months to a year. He hopes to tap into strong growth in the Middle Eastern nation. Mobius made [...]
S&P chops Irish rating June 8, 2009 STANDARD and Poor’s (S&P) yesterday cut Ireland’s sovereign credit rating for the second time in three months and warned it could fall further because of concern about the soaring cost of bailing out the country’s banking sector. Ireland is now rated at “AA” with a negative outlook, S&P said. It was previously “AA+” and the [...]
Entrepreneurs must show an appetite for risk June 8, 2009 Fresh from a weekend of filming for Dragon’s Den, to appear on BBC2 this September, I have been reflecting on the entrepreneurs who were pitching, and what it is that makes them backable. I’m looking for the killer instinct. I saw a lot of passion, enthusiasm and even drive this past weekend, but the difference [...]
Relax given a boost as consumers struggle to manage personal debt June 8, 2009 CONSUMER debt management firm Relax Group yesterday said the economic outlook continues to favour the firm’s activities as it updated the market on an “extremely satisfying” set of results. Relax, which acquired PB Recovery in February and Relax Finance in May last year, said pre-tax profit rose to £668,000 for the five months to December, [...]
Wigley named as new Yell chairman June 8, 2009 DIRECTORIES publisher Yell said yesterday it had appointed Bob Wigley, ex-chairman of Merrill Lynch’s Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, as its new group chairman. The appointment of the veteran banker comes as the Yellow Pages owner seeks to reassure investors over the stability of its heavily-leveraged balance sheet. The group – which took a [...]
EDF launches offer for EcoSecurities as bid war hots up June 8, 2009 CARBON credits firm EcoSecurities yesterday rejected a takeover bid from French utility giant Electricité de France (EDF), the second it has received in June so far, sparking hopes that a bidding war will soon break out for the company. EDF Trading, a subsidiary of EDF, said it was considering a cash offer of at least [...]