Paris attack and tunnel fire take toll on Eurostar April 16, 2015 The strong pound, terror attacks in France and a Channel Tunnel fire resulted in a disappointing first quarter for Eurostar parent company Eurotunnel. The train operator’s revenues fell six per cent during the first three months of 2015 compared to the previous year, it announced yesterday. January proved to be a particularly tough month for [...]
Eurozone recovery begins to gain some traction as new car sales speed ahead April 16, 2015 New car purchases in Europe are growing strongly, in a sign that the economy is starting to gain momentum. March saw the highest monthly growth for a year, as 1,604,107 new cars were registered. For the Eurozone, registrations of new cars were up 13.3 per cent compared to March last year, according to figures released [...]
SABmiller sees Africa expansion pay off as continent booms April 16, 2015 SABmiller sales crept up in the last quarter as the world’s second largest beverage firm’s focus on African markets paid off it emerged yesterday. The company recorded a two per cent increase in lager sales driven by strong demand in South Africa and a recovery in the Chinese market. Africa saw total drink sales rise [...]
WH Smith posts profit boost despite a slide in sales on the high street April 16, 2015 Stationery chain WH Smith reported a four per cent rise in half-year profits even as sales fell on the high street, after winning new contracts to open travel outlets overseas. The retailer, which has 740 travel outlets and 621 high street stores, reported pre-tax profits of £72m in the six months to the end of [...]
UK house prices at record high as growth slows amid General Election uncertainty April 16, 2015 The average price of a property across England and Wales was at a new record last month, despite March seeing the smallest annual change in house prices since November 2013. A house now costs on average of £275,123. This is a 5.6 per cent annual rise, equating to £14,620. However, in London and the south [...]
Hipster bonanza: Etsy’s shares have gone berserk after its IPO April 16, 2015 It turns out hipster craft site Etsy is as popular with New York's clued-up investors as moustache wax and skinny jeans. Shares in the site, which launched its IPO today, have more than doubled, to $33. That's a stonking start for the company, which has been much-mocked with sites such as the now-closed Regretsy. Having [...]
In charts: UK car registrations on the rise as PIIGS fight back April 16, 2015 A sign of recovery? The EU is celebrating its nineteenth straight month of improving car sales, as the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) pull their weight. Elsewhere the UK continued to buy more cars than Germany despite its smaller population, although the rate of growth was slower at six per cent to Germany’s [...]
Goldman Sachs just a posted stellar set of first quarter results April 16, 2015 Investment bank Goldman Sachs kicked off earnings season Stateside with a strong set of first quarter results, thanks to a flurry of trading by its fixed-income and currencies desks. The bank beat expectations with earnings of $2.75bn (£1.84bn), or $5.94 per share, in the three months to March. Analysts polled by Reuters had been expecting $4.26 [...]
UK house prices: Rental growth is now outpacing house price increases April 16, 2015 The price of renting a home in the UK has risen 10 per cent in the last 12 months – faster than the rate of growth for buyers. New data from HomeLet shows that the average rental cost rose in the 12 months to March in 11 of the 12 UK regions, with only Wales [...]
Morrisons share price falls as new boss David Potts cuts jobs at head office to hire 5,000 shop floor staff April 16, 2015 Morrisons is cutting hundreds of roles in its head office while simultaneously going on a hiring spree for its shop floor. The troubled supermarket, which last month revealed full year losses of £176m and brought in a new chief executive after Dalton Phillips left under a cloud, is expecting to make 720 head office roles [...]