Prudential delivers higher profit as Asia business keeps growing August 11, 2015 Prudential yesterday reported a 17 per cent increase in operating profits in Asia during the six months to 30 June, soothing City fears that the firm’s exposure to China would affect its performance. The financial services company’s operating profits from its Asian business totalled £632m for the first half of the year. Prudential announced a [...]
How Google is breaking the rules of corporate branding to get its Alphabet to pay off August 11, 2015 Google’s creation of its Alphabet parent is a future-looking, ambitious strategy that few others would have the boldness to do. But it’s bold for a reason: creating new challenges for Alphabet to make it a real success. What Google is doing breaks the normal rules of corporate branding. Read more: Three things you should know [...]
Markets taken aback by China’s move to devalue the renmibi to boost flagging economic growth August 11, 2015 Markets were taken aback by China’s move to devalue the renmibi nearly two per cent against the US dollar, to boost China’s flagging economic growth. Following weak trade and inflation data, central bank People’s Bank of China fixed its currency down 1.9 per cent, in a move which caused the Chinese currency’s biggest one-day drop [...]
Google share price U (for up) after Alphabet restructure August 11, 2015 Wall Street's more than happy with Google's restructuring move. Google shares, or Alphabet shares as they should now be known, opened more than five per cent up continuing the trend in after-hours trading following Larry Page's blog post revealing the new company vision. Investors are likely pleased that the move brings more transparency to the [...]
Why everyone should stop panicking about Berkeley Group boss Tony Pidgley’s £23m bonus August 11, 2015 Yesterday’s revelation that Tony Pidgley – founder, chairman and general grandfather figure at housebuilding giant Berkeley Group – is about to net himself £23m-odd in bonus payouts has created something of a storm. There’s no denying it’s a vast sum: it puts Pidgley above Wayne Rooney in the pay scale, making him the second [...]
Milking it: Morrisons launches premium brand to “directly” support dairy farmers August 11, 2015 Morrisons is looking to herd off criticism from dairy farmers over the price of its milk by launching a new brand that it claims will “directly” support the trade. Morrisons Milk for Farmers will launch this autumn, sitting alongside the supermarket's standard range. This brand however will cost 10p per litre more than [...]
Game Digital puts profit warning behind it despite slowdown in console sales August 11, 2015 It has been almost two years since the launch of Sony’s latest console, the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Microsoft’s Xbox One and after the initial sale frenzy, demand is now cooling, according to Game Digital. The video games retailer said revenues at its hardware division were hit by a near 20 per cent drop in [...]
Google’s new chief Sundar Pichai: Three things you need to know about the top boss after Alphabet restructure August 11, 2015 In a shock move, Google has announced it will become just a part of a new corporate holding company named Alphabet, which will encompass everything from artificial intelligence company Deep Mind to restaurant reviews site Zagat. Read more: Alphabet soup? Here's what the new Google looks like The company added that with co-founders Sergey Brin and [...]
Neil Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust pays off as it invests three-quarters of IPO funds August 11, 2015 Given his success at Invesco, the decision by star fund manager Neil Woodford launch a solo venture was always going to have a risk attached – but it looks like it paid off, after his new fund, Woodford Patient Capital Trust, posted results showing it had already invested more than three quarters of the £800m [...]
What George Osborne needs to do to get Britain’s productivity engine started again August 11, 2015 Productivity is the engine of economic growth. For a quarter of a century prior to the financial crash, Britain’s productivity engine ran smoothly as output per worker increased at an average rate of more than two per cent a year. But in 2008 the engine stalled. In the last seven years there has been no [...]