Sainsbury’s believes chief exec Mike Coupe’s travel fears are over after Egypt drama April 29, 2015 Sainsbury’s said last night it was confident that chief executive Mike Coupe no longer faced travel restrictions to countries with extradition treaties with Egypt after flying to the country this weekend to appeal against allegations of embezzlement. In a bizarre case dating back to Sainsbury’s disastrous foray into the country 16 years ago, Coupe [...]
Nasdaq apologises for letting Twitter results fly out ahead of time, blames Shareholder.com April 29, 2015 Nasdaq was yesterday forced to apologise for the early release of Twitter’s earnings, blaming an “operational” error that lasted just 45 seconds. Twitter’s share price plunged nearly nine per cent yesterday, following a 20 per cent tumble on Tuesday when the social media site’s below-estimate quarterly earnings were announced early. Nasdaq blamed its [...]
Troubled Barclays braced for famously tough incoming new chairman John McFarlane April 29, 2015 It is hard to keep a straight face when calling PPI compensation and litigation costs “one-offs” at any of the big banks nowadays. Yet seven years on from the start of the financial crisis, Barclays and the other big banks are still treating the extraordinary costs as unusual items each quarter. Yesterday Barclays [...]
Investment bank Liberum reports sparkling results on record year April 29, 2015 Liberum, the employee-owned investment bank, has enjoyed a record year, with profits after bonuses of £8.2m (£0.7m the previous year) from revenues of £55m. The bank, which lost its popular chief executive Simon Stilwell earlier this year, raised a total of £1.8bn for investment banking clients. Chairman and new chief executive Shane Le Prevost said: [...]
Countrywide blames General Election uncertainty for first quarter slowdown April 29, 2015 Britain’s biggest estate agency Countrywide warned that market transactions would be “significantly below” last year’s levels, because of uncertainty over the outcome of the election causing prospective buyers to put their plans on hold. The company, which owns estate agencies including Hamptons, Blundells and John D Wood, said total income dropped by two per cent [...]
Spirit Pub raises a glass to fizzing rise in profits as Greene King merger looms April 29, 2015 Spirit Pub Company toasted a strong rise in earnings yesterday after it reported a 12 per cent gain in half year profits. The pubs group, which has 1,211 boozers concentrated in London and the south east, added £3m of pre-tax profits to take the haul for the six months ending 7 March to £25m. Strong [...]
Romanian superfund Fondul Proprietatea lists shares in London April 29, 2015 Fondul Proprietatea, one of Europe’s biggest trusts, yesterday launched a secondary listing in London in a move designed to boost the profile of Romania’s stock market. The fund, which has $3.1bn (£2.01bn) of assets, will list global depositary receipts (GDRs) on the specialist fund market of the London stock exchange. Emerging market guru Mark [...]
Petropavlovsk wins over analysts with refinancing results April 29, 2015 Gold miner Petropavlovsk narrowed its losses to $348m (£226m) in 2014, compared to a $713m loss in 2013, and several analysts yesterday upgraded their ratings on the company. Petropavlovsk chairman Peter Hambro told City A.M. that 2014 was “a year in which we rebuilt the platform and the year in which we put behind us [...]
Currency affairs: FreemarketFX founder Alex Hunn on launching on crowdfunding platform VentureFounders April 29, 2015 London is the biggest market in the world for FX trading. In 2012, the UK’s daily FX turnover averaged nearly $2 trillion, according to data from TheCityUK. Alex Hunn has a background in the industry. A former Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank vice president and director respectively, in 2011, he started building [...]
Baidu revenue falls short of expectations, but mobile continues to grow April 29, 2015 Baidu's revenue failed to meet expectations in the first quarter, but mobile growth brought some success. The figures During the three months ended March, the Chinese internet search provider's total revenue was $2.053bn (£1.33bn), which was 34 per cent higher than in 2014 but slightly shy of the $2.08bn analysts expected. The $1.22 earnings [...]