New Star set for float next month October 17, 2005 Renegade fund manager John Duffield is set to create 40 millionaires when he embarks on the £600m float of New Star Asset Management next month. The company will confirm its long expected float this morning alongside what analysts expect to be a sparkling set of results. The IPO is expected to take place next month [...]
Oil giants compete for Bengal find October 17, 2005 Three of the world’s biggest oil companies – BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil – are fighting it out for a new natural gas find in India’s Bay of Bengal, according to news agency reports late last night. British oil giant BP and America’s Chevron and ExxonMobil are said to be talks with India’s largest private sector [...]
Advisers in all night Refco talks October 17, 2005 Refco held a second day of weekend meetings yesterday as a group of about 50 advisers gathered in New York in an effort to salvage the disgraced group’s regulated futures brokerage arm and determine the fate of its ailing operations. The advisers had begun emergency meetings on Saturday that stretched late into the night to [...]
BCC slams Brown’s ‘alarming’ trade figures October 14, 2005 The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) piled the pressure on Chancellor Gordon Brown yesterday, calling Britain’s manufacturing figures “alarming”. Even worse, the struggling manufacturing sector missed out on a much-needed boost from Britain’s bigger service sector, which simply failed to materialise. Manufacturing’s domestic balance fell from 19 per cent in the second quarter to 3 [...]
WH Smith posts £73m profit October 14, 2005 Stationer WH Smith was the second high street institution to surprise the market this week with its turnaround progress. Chief executive Kate Swann followed Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose’s example as pre-tax profits came in at £73m for the year to 31 August. Although like-for-like sales fell 2 per cent during the past six [...]
Brambles in £387m sale October 14, 2005 Melbourne-based Brambles has defied the business community’s expectations by disposing of the German division of its waste management company for £387m. The Anglo-Australian group, the world’s leading pallet supplier, had been expected to offload its British waste operations. But yesterday chief executive David Turner said that Brambles is selling Cleanaway Germany to SULO, a German-based [...]
Ex-Refco boss charged with fraud October 13, 2005 Refco’s former chairman and chief executive Phillip Bennett was arrested yesterday and charged with securities fraud, two days after the company, the largest independent American futures broker, said he hid $430m (£245m) in unpaid debts. American attorney Michael Garcia told reporters yesterday that Bennett, 57, and unidentified accomplices “hid from investors and regulators hundreds of [...]
What’s outside your window? October 13, 2005 The price of property is soaring in Thailand despite laws preventing foreigners owning land. Since the Asian tsunami struck on 26 December last year, the number of tourists visiting Thailand has fallen dramatically. About a year ago, 192 holiday flights landed at Phuket airport every week – last week that figure was only 35. Hotels [...]
US drier for SAB Miller October 13, 2005 Shares in dual-listed global brewing company SABMiller fell yesterday despite a relatively strong trading statement from the group. Despite announcing a performance in line with management expectations, the group warned that trading conditions in America were increasingly difficult. Shares in the Anglo-South African company fell by 14p to 1044p a share early yesterday. The company [...]
Pithy returns for AIM’s Chinese newcomers October 13, 2005 Two AIM newcomers from China both reported strong trading performances yesterday. Asian Citrus, the largest orange plantation owner and operator in China and the biggest Chinese firm on AIM, reported its first full-year results since floating on 3 August. Pre-tax profits for the year to 30 June soared by more than 60 per cent to [...]