Johnson & Johnson warns drug sales will slow down this year January 21, 2014 JOHNSON & Johnson saw its share price fall 1.1 per cent yesterday after the company forecast lower earnings than were expected for 2014 as its prescription drug sales aren’t expected to grow as strongly. The healthcare company also reported profits of $3.52bn (£2.13bn) for the fourth quarter, up 4.5 per cent from 2012, on revenues [...]
Commuters to see internet speeds boosted January 21, 2014 OFCOM yesterday announced it will make a large amount of spectrum available for new satellite-based technologies that could allow passengers on fast moving planes and boats to access the internet at ten times the speeds offered by current technology. Ofcom said it hopes the first commercial deployment of the technology to begin by the end [...]
Firms still hold back as house lending rockets January 21, 2014 WHILE credit is rapidly flowing into the mortgage market, new figures from the Bank of England suggest that firms are still holding back from borrowing to grow. According to data released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) yesterday, gross lending for housing rocketed during 2013, up by 49 per cent in the 12 months [...]
Lord Levene drags ex-Bank chief into Lloyds sell off row January 21, 2014 POLITICAL pressure applied behind the scenes stopped NBNK buying the 632 Lloyds branches and led to the disastrous Co-op Bank attempt to take over the branches, NBNK’s former boss Lord Levene told MPs yesterday, citing conversations with Lord King. Levene said the then-Bank of England governor had warned him politicians would block his bid. NBNK [...]
Government pledges personal support to help boost exports January 21, 2014 THE GOVERNMENT has pledged personal support to help UK medium-sized businesses trade with emerging markets. The trade minister Lord Livingston announced yesterday that he will write to all of the UK’s 8,900 mid-sized businesses, those with a turnover between £25m and £250m a year, to offer them support from UK Trade and Investment in a [...]
Chinese central bank injection to avert crunch January 21, 2014 THE PEOPLE’S Bank of China (PBOC) intervened to boost liquidity yesterday, acting to head off a further credit crunch in the country’s squeezed and secretive monetary system China’s central bank announced in social media that it will ensure stability in markets, and is reported to have injected about 255bn yuan (£25.59bn) into the country’s interbank [...]
Wetherspoons founder hits out at Labour’s pub regulation plan January 21, 2014 THE FOUNDER of the pub chain JD Wetherspoon has hit back, after a Labour minister called for tighter regulations for pub companies. Tim Martin said that although he thinks Punch Taverns and Enterprise have not treated some tenants well, tighter regulation would punish family-run companies who do a good job and try to be fair. “The [...]
Property prices still deflating for Eurozone January 21, 2014 HOUSE prices are still falling in most of the European Union, while the UK bucks the continental trend with a surging property market. In the Eurozone, official statistics yesterday showed that prices fell 1.3 per cent between the third quarter of 2012 and the same period in 2013. The fall was smaller across the EU, [...]
Fresh probe for former Bradford & Bingley exec January 21, 2014 THE ACCOUNTING watchdog has launched an investigation into Chris Willford, the former finance director of bailed-out banking group Bradford & Bingley. The Financial Reporting Council’s probe comes a month after Willford was fined £30,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority for failing to alert the bank’s board to key financial risks ahead of B&B’s attempted rights [...]
Short window for StanChart bids as analysts expect share price rise January 21, 2014 STANDARD Chartered’s relatively low share price has opened a brief window for buyers to take over the lender, analysts said yesterday, pushing its shares up 2.2 per cent. Its relatively low price is one reason it could be a target – JP Morgan’s Raul Sinha believes its price is set to be 9.9 times its [...]