Queen’s Awards for Enterprise: Her Majesty grants 141 firms lucrative business prize April 20, 2015 Dozens of British firms are in line for a Queen’s enterprise award today to recognise their achievements in international trade, innovation and sustainable development. The award can provide a massive boost to ambitious firms with robust growth targets. One winner last year was EnergyNet, which organises a global portfolio of investment conferences focusing on the [...]
G4S scraps quarterly reporting to ease barrage of financials April 20, 2015 Security group G4S has scrapped quarterly reporting of its financials, taking advantage of rules which came into force last year to reduce the frequency of its publications. The firm said that its contracts and income flows tend to be relatively predictable. Instead, it plans to report its financial results every six months, and fill the [...]
Rothesay Life gets new top brass in the boardroom as insurer reveals plans for £3bn IPO April 20, 2015 Five new directors will join the board at insurance firm Rothesay Life it announced yesterday after stating 2014 pre-tax profits leap by a third. Among the new appointments will be Andrew Stoker, the current chief financial officer, who will be taking up the role of executive director. In addition to Stoker, Richard Beriland, Glenn Earle, Naguib [...]
Russell Brand and BBC lift Audioboom’s podcast audience April 20, 2015 Online podcast provider Audioboom has been living up to its name lately, reporting explosive growth in content and registered users in yesterday’s performance update. Audioboom, home of The Russell Brand Podcast, signed on over 150 new content partners in March, acquiring programs like BBC Radio’s Six O’Clock News and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The additions [...]
St Modwen snags new finance chief Robert Hudson from British Land April 20, 2015 St Modwen has snapped up a new financial director in the form of Robert Hudson who will be joining in October from British Land, it announced yesterday. The Birmingham headquartered property developer will see the 41 year old Hudson replace Mike Dunn who last December announced his intention to step down from the role on [...]
Bye-bye HSBC? The British bank is eyeing a move abroad April 20, 2015 HSBC will look into upping sticks and moving its headquarters out of London once the regulatory environment becomes clearer, its chairman said today. "We are beginning to see the final shape of regulation, the final shape of structural reform and as soon as that mist lifts sufficiently we will once again start to look at [...]
Morgan Stanley’s first-quarter results just beat expectations April 20, 2015 Morgan Stanley has followed in the footsteps of rivals Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan with a better-than-expected set of first quarter results, which further signal the revival of the struggling investment banking sector. It said net income jumped to $2.31bn (£1.55bn) in the first quarter of 2015, compared to $1.45bn a year earlier. This works [...]
Neil Woodford’s new fund oversubscribed by 10pc – despite the team already increasing the size by £300m April 20, 2015 Neil Woodford's latest investment trust has been oversubscribed – having alread been nearly doubled from its initial figure. The Woodford Patient Capital Trust invests in early stage and early growth companies, along with a mix of blue chip stocks. Initially the team had decided the size of the closed-ended fund would be set at [...]
Petrofac share price falls 13 per cent amid costs hike April 20, 2015 Shares in Petrofac dived today, after the oilfield services provider announced an additional £130m pre-tax loss for its Shetland gas project in the North Sea. Shares in Petrofac fell as much as 13 per cent to 875.28p in mid-morning trade on the London Stock Exchange. The firm said the final stages of the project had [...]
HSS Hire reports pre-tax loss of £8.5m in its first results since IPO April 20, 2015 The numbers Tool hire giant HSS Hire Group has reported a loss before tax of £8.5m for the year to 27 December 2014. Revenue was up 25 per cent to £284m, while operating profit rose 10.3 per cent to £23.6m. Why it's interesting Today is something of a landmark for HSS – it's the group's first [...]