Shell sells Oz to Vitol for $2.6bn February 20, 2014 ROYAL Dutch Shell last night announced a $2.6bn (£1.5bn) deal to sell its Australian downstream assets, including a refinery and 870 retail sites, to energy and commodity trading firm Vitol. “Australia remains important to Shell, but we are making tough portfolio choices to improve the company’s overall competitiveness,” said chief executive Ben van Beurden. The [...]
HP’s recovery is bearing fruit February 20, 2014 HEWLETT Packard (HP) beat expectations last night with a fall in first quarter revenue that came in below estimates and an improved outlook for its 2014 earnings led by growth in its enterprise business. HP posted revenue of $28.2bn (£17bn) during its first quarter, down slightly from $28.4bn a year earlier and earnings of $1.4bn, [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 21 February 2014 February 20, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Business Wire halts high speed traders Business Wire, which has published corporate news releases in the US for the last half century, will stop selling direct feeds to high-speed traders, amid concerns that the practice gives the firms an unfair advantage over other investors. Warren Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway owns Business Wire, [...]
Bank’s Weale points to early 2015 rate hike February 20, 2014 BANK of England policymaker Martin Weale has revealed his own estimate of when monetary policy might tighten, suggesting a rate hike could come before the middle of next year. Weale added: “Obviously I couldn’t rule out the need for a rate rise coming earlier than that”. The monetary policy committee (MPC) member said yesterday that [...]
Train firms scolded for not telling passengers about delay refunds February 20, 2014 TRAIN firms have been criticised for not telling customers how to claim refunds when their services are delayed or cancelled. More than three-quarters of rail passengers do not know about the right to compensation after delays, a poll by the Office of Rail Regulation found. “Britain’s rail industry needs to be more transparent and proactive [...]
Inflation in G7 could hit Great Depression low February 20, 2014 THE CONSUMER price index (CPI) in France fell to 0.8 per cent during January, following a trend that has left CPI in every G7 country below two per cent. With only Japanese CPI on an upward trend, inflation could end the current calendar year lower than two per cent in each of the advanced economies for the [...]
Google’s Project Tango to map your world February 20, 2014 GOOGLE will take its mapping platform off road with Project Tango, an initiative to map the parts of the world that the search giant’s Street View cars can’t photograph. Google is starting with 200 motion and depth sensing smartphones, with the hope it could eventually give precise directions to any given point that needs to [...]
Centrica bosses defend firm as profits decline February 20, 2014 CENTRICA executives yesterday emphasised the benefits of the company’s size to Britain in the wake of energy secretary Ed Davey’s suggestion to break up the power giant, as it unveiled disappointing but in-line full-year results. “The benefit of integration is that because we have the size and scale we have we are able to contract [...]
Analyst Views: What did you make of Centrica’s full-year results? February 20, 2014 PETER ATHERTON | LIBERUM CAPITALThe results weren’t a surprise as Centrica had guided the market before Christmas, but they were disappointing nonetheless. The US energy business is struggling with tighter margins than expected. But the political risk in the UK is the biggest thing that has driven their share price over the past five months. MARTIN BROUGH [...]
Asda hurt by first sales drop in three years February 20, 2014 ASDA chief executive Andy Clarke yesterday admitted it had been a “tough year” after the supermarket chain reported its first fall in sales for three years. The Walmart owned chain said like-for-like sales fell 0.1 per cent in the 13 weeks to 3 January, compared to the same period a year ago, marking its first [...]