Mulberry share price rises as it shows signs of recovery despite profits plunging 74 per cent June 11, 2015 Mulberry is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, despite posting a loss for its full-year trading this morning. The figures: The bag brand's pre-tax profits plummeted 74 per cent to £4.5m – but this was actually better than expectations. After tax the British firm made a loss of £1.4m, down [...]
Argos sales fall 3.9 pc in disappointing quarter for Home Retail Group June 11, 2015 Argos sales for the first quarter of 2015 were disappointing, with market declines leading to sales in electrical products falling. The figures Like-for-like sales at Argos declined 3.9 per cent to £846m over the 13 weeks to the end of May, with total sales falling 2.6 per cent on 2014, after "declines in key electrical and seasonal product [...]
HSBC’s job cuts and Asian pivot could have “negative” impact on credit rating, Fitch warns June 11, 2015 Ratings agency Fitch has warned that HSBC risks having its credit downgraded over its new strategy revealed this week. HSBC is looking to cut $5bn (£3.25bn) through a number of initiatives, including cutting around 25,000 jobs. It is also exiting Turkey and reducing its operations in Brazil, and planning to focus more energy and [...]
Mansion House speech: George Osborne kicks starts £60bn sell-off with RBS stake June 10, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne last night kicked off a £60bn sale of state-owned financial assets, announcing he will sell a stake in bailed-out bank RBS in the coming months. The enormous wave of privatisations includes the sale of a remaining £11.5bn holding in Lloyds, while bidders including Goldman Sachs compete to buy £13bn of mortgage assets [...]
Big four supermarkets will keep getting squeezed says Moody’s June 10, 2015 The leading big four supermarkets are expected to lose another four per cent of their market share by 2020 to discounters Aldi and Lidl, as competition in the grocery retail market intensifies. A report published today by credit rating agency Moody’s predicts Aldi and Lidl’s combined market share will reach 12-15 per cent by 2020, [...]
Mansion House speech: The age of irresponsibility is over, says Mark Carney June 10, 2015 Tens of thousands more City workers face an unprecedented crackdown on bad behaviour. The Bank of England last night recommended extending the senior managers’ regime to all fixed income, currencies and commodities traders at banks, as well as their counterparts at interdealer brokerages and buy-side asset managers. Bank of England governor Mark Carney also wants [...]
George Osborne’s great government sell-off: Taxpayers risk getting burnt as sun may yet shine on RBS June 10, 2015 So after almost seven years, the moment has arrived. The symbolic importance of George Osborne’s announcement last night that the Treasury is to begin selling Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares at a loss is hard to overstate. “I’m not interested in what is easy – I’m interested in what is right,” he told [...]
Alexis Tsipras: Lenders want Greece to return to growth June 10, 2015 Greece’s Prime Minister emerged from another round of crunch talks with the country’s creditors in the early hours of this morning, insisting that his fellow leaders are leaning towards his way of thinking. Alexis Tsipras met with Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande in Brussels and when he left the building he insisted the German and [...]
North Sea firms forced to slash projects in face of low oil price June 10, 2015 Over two-thirds of North Sea oil firms have been forced to scrap projects due to plummeting oil prices over the past year, a new report reveals today. Although the price of benchmark Brent crude has rallied in the last few days, trading yesterday at around $66 a barrel, it has yet to approach the level [...]
Business says PM is giving the wrong answer on immigration June 10, 2015 Business groups roundly rejected the Prime Minister’s latest proposals to cut migration, saying they were “not the answer,” “far less business-friendly” and a “red herring” in the immigration debate. Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, David Cameron said that the independent Migration Advisory Committee (Mac) was looking at proposals to cut non-European work migration, including [...]