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 [...]
Federal Reserve keeps interest rates near zero but hints at hike in the near future April 29, 2015 Following its two-day policy meeting, the Federal Reserve has confirmed it is keeping its target interest rate at close to zero per cent, but says it will raise it soon if the US economy continues to grow. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the US central bank has kept its rates at a record low in [...]
Twitter’s share price just fell another five per cent April 29, 2015 Another bad day for Twitter, after its share price fell more than five per cent to $39 in mid-morning trading in New York. More on this story: Twitter shares plummet as results are leaked early That follows a massive fall yesterday, after its results (which weren't great) were leaked early on Twitter's investor relations site [...]
Pimco just hired former Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke as its adviser April 29, 2015 Pimco has appointed former US Fed chief Ben Bernanke – the second consulting job Bernanke has taken in the past couple of weeks. Bernanke will "contribute his economic expertise and insights to the firm's investment process and periodically engage Pimco's clients", the investment manager said today. Pimco chief executive Douglas Hodge said Pimco said Bernanke's [...]
Retail sales unexpectedly slip but next month could be mega April 29, 2015 Retail sales unexpectedly slowed in the year to April, but retailers are gearing up for a sharp rise next month, with expectations hitting the highest level since May last year. The latest CBI Distributive Trades Survey of 122 firms showed 30 per cent said retail sales were up on a year ago, while 18 per [...]