B&M eyes more stores as sales jump by a third May 28, 2015 Bargain retail chain B&M has hiked its store expansion targets after reporting a near 30 per cent jump in revenue in its first year as a public company. The company, which sells everything from toys to electrical goods and furniture, yesterday said sales jumped 29.5 per cent to £1.6bn in the year to 28 March, [...]
Kingfisher kicks off B&Q store closures as quarterly profits rise May 28, 2015 Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvement retailer, said it has found buyers for a quarter of its stores earmarked for closure as it posted a rise in first quarter retail profit yesterday. Kingfisher plans to close 60 B&Q stores over the next two years in a major overhaul of the business revealed by new chief [...]
Premier Oil makes Falkland Islands discovery at “most material well” of drilling campaign May 28, 2015 Analysts heralded yesterday’s announcement from London-listed Premier Oil, revealing that it has made an oil discovery at its Falkland Islands Isobel prospect, as “encouraging news” for the group. Andrew Lodge, exploration director at the FTSE 250 company, said the find was “an important play opening discovery” in a previously unexplored area of the North Falkland [...]
Dubai and Netherlands moves set IG Group on track for targets May 28, 2015 Online trading company IG Group said yesterday that it remains on track to meet full-year financial expectations. In a trading update for the fourth quarter, IG said it made good strategic progress over the period, extending its stockbroking offering into the Netherlands and receiving approval in-principle of its regulatory licence in Dubai towards the end [...]
RBS could be ordered to beef up new lender Williams and Glyn May 28, 2015 George Osborne yesterday asked the competition authorities to look into the RBS spin-off Williams and Glyn to make sure it is big enough to challenge other banks in the market. Bailed-out giant RBS has to carve the unit out of its existing branch and customer network, under terms imposed by the European Commission at the [...]
Irish MPs give Aer Lingus sale to International Consolidated Airlines final go-ahead May 28, 2015 The Irish parliament today gave British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines' (IAG) bid for Aer Lingus the final go-ahead. Irish MPs voted by a majority of 23 according to local media reports, ending two days of tense negotiations. The vote comes after the Irish government agreed to sell its 25 per cent in Aer Lingus to IAG [...]
Buzzfeed IPO: Boss Jonah Peretti says media company intends to go public May 28, 2015 Finally, the world will learn how much listicles and cat gifs are worth after the boss of Buzzfeed revealed his intention to take the media company public. Jonah Peretti, the founder and chief executive of the online media company – beloved by the young and envied by the executives of legacy media companies – told an [...]
War of the wearables: Jawbone sues Fitbit ahead of IPO May 28, 2015 The war of the wearables has just been taken up a notch after two of the leading companies pioneering the technology have become involved in a legal dispute. Jawbone, the maker of the UP fitness tracker band, has filed a lawsuit in a California court alleging rival Fitbit, which also makes health tracking devices, stole [...]
Kingfisher profits knocked by foreign exchange volatility, but share price is up nonetheless May 28, 2015 Currency volatility did Kingfisher no favours in the first quarter of 2015, but investors have not been put off. The figures Sales for the company, which owns B&Q, rose slightly by 0.8 per cent to £2.6m during the first three months of the year. Retail profit was also up by 1.4 per cent at £150m [...]
Tate & Lyle share price falls as company warns of another difficult year as profit, earnings and sales all fall May 28, 2015 The figures Tate & Lyle's share price slumped four per cent in early trading after a depressing set of full-year results signalled little turnaround in profits. The FTSE 250-listed group is predicting profits will stay flat next year. admitting that it had endured "very challenging" last 12 months as it continues to restructure its business. In the [...]