Fitch ups Sony investment grade status to positive August 18, 2015 Sony inched closer to returning to its investment grade status yesterday after ratings agency Fitch amended its credit outlook from “stable” to “positive”, indicating that a ratings upgrade may be on the horizon. The agency also affirmed its “BB” rating, three grades below investment grade. Efforts to restructure were key to Sony’s improving profitability, in [...]
Cargill feeds its salmon tank in €1.35bn EWOS takeover from Altor and Bain Capital August 18, 2015 Privately owned agribusiness giant Cargill yesterday announced it is buying Ewos, an aquaculture firm, for €1.35bn (£960m). The purchase of the Scandinavian firm marks Cargill’s entry in the salmon feed market. Ewos currently manufactures over 1.2m tonnes of salmon feed, about one-third of the total market, for a global client base. Sarena Lin, president of [...]
Accounting giant EY swoops on Silicon Roundabout firm Seren August 18, 2015 Business advisory firm EY yesterday announced it is buying Seren, a digital design consultancy based in Silicon Roundabout. Seren chief executive Ben Langdon will continue as boss of what will now be EY-Seren. Seren co-founders Catriona Campbell and Terry Heath will become senior advisers to EY in the UK and EY-Seren. Langdon said: “Seren and [...]
Gatwick Airport boss Stewart Wingate blasts recommendation to build third Heathrow runway August 18, 2015 The chief executive of Gatwick Airport has hit out at a recent commission’s recommendation that Heathrow be expanded. A 50-page catalogue of criticisms, published yesterday, targets the Davies Commission’s use of analysis from consultants PwC, despite its own expert panel urging caution on it. It also said the commission’s proposals, which rejected calls to expand [...]
Can shipping brokers ride out the rougher seas? August 18, 2015 Commodity turmoil could blow the shipping industry off course. The wider effects of stormy conditions in the global commodities market are emerging as more companies reveal tumbling earnings. Shipping company Clarksons yesterday published profits of £6.2m, down 36.7 per cent on the first six months of the previous year, citing “severe challenges faced by the [...]
Japan’s Abenomics is branded a failure as GDP points to an economic slump August 18, 2015 Japan could be forced to ramp up QE this autumn following its economic contraction – while experts are suggesting Abenomics has been a failure. Latest figures from the world’s third-largest economy show Q2 GDP shrunk 1.6 per cent on an annualised basis, brought down by lower consumer spending and weak exports. Private consumption [...]
Brompton Bicycle moves up a gear with new factory in West London August 18, 2015 Commuters’ favourite folding bike Brompton Bicycle is opening a new manufacturing and distribution hub at SEGRO’s Greenford Park, in Park Royal, West London. At just over 86,000 sq ft, the unit will be transformed into a manufacturing and distribution hub where highly skilled craftspeople will continue to manufacture the bikes and accessories. Will Butler-Adams, the [...]
All eyes on Federal Reserve after shock Empire State index drop August 18, 2015 American traders will be poring over crunch sets of data this week after a key index plummeted to its lowest level since the depths of the recession in 2008-09. The Empire State index – one of several widely watched barometers of manufacturing in the US – collapsed to a score of minus 14.9 in August [...]
Royal Dutch Shell gets final permit to drill for oil in Arctic Ocean August 17, 2015 The US Federal government has given Royal Dutch Shell a final permit to search for oil under the floor of the Arctic Ocean – an activity it has been banned from carrying out for two decades. The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company has already been drilling in the area just off the northwest coast of [...]
UK house prices: Approvals of mortgages slip back in July as interest rate rise looms August 17, 2015 The number of mortgage approvals fell back in July against a backdrop of fears over a rise in the Bank of England’s interest rates, according to the latest Mortgage Monitor from e.surv, the UK’s largest chartered surveyor. There were 65,356 house purchase mortgage approvals in July, down 1.8 per cent from 66,582 in June and [...]