Esure adds policies as price war rumbles on November 13, 2013 INSURANCE group Esure yesterday said it has gained customers amid a car insurance price war and that is on track to hit full-year forecasts. The firm behind the Sheilas’ Wheels and Esure brands said gross written premiums were up 4.8 per cent in the year to date to £427m, though the pace slowed to 1.7 [...]
WANdisco appoints UBS as new corporate broker November 13, 2013 WANDISCO, the software company that specialises in distributed computing solutions, announced yesterday the appointment of UBS as its joint corporate broker. UBS will join Panmure Gordon which operates as the company’s current broker and nominated advisor. WANdisco said the change was due to its ongoing US expansion as the London-listed company continues its rapid growth. [...]
SSE defends its dividend ahead of bill increase November 13, 2013 SSE YESTERDAY posted a rise in profits and defended its decision to hike its dividend, mere days before an 8.2 per cent increase to customers’ bills will take effect. The FTSE 100 energy firm reported pre-tax profits of £336.4m for the six months to 30 September, a sharp increase from losses of £40.9m the previous [...]
Renewables policy blamed for decline in E.On and GDF profits November 13, 2013 GERMAN energy firm E.On yesterday narrowed its full-year earnings forecast, after posting a 19 per cent decline in earnings for the first nine months of the year. The integrated energy firm, which supplies power across Western Europe, blamed government support for renewables over conventional forms of energy for the decline. An increase in renewables has [...]
Co-op Energy ups pressure over green tax November 13, 2013 INDEPENDENT energy provider Co-operative Energy put further pressure on the government yesterday by reducing its planned price increase, on the expectation that green levies will be removed from customers’ bills. Last month the firm announced a 4.5 per cent increase to customers’ energy bills, which it has now cut to 2.5 per cent. The government [...]
Tullow Oil slides on dry French Guianan well November 13, 2013 FTSE 100-listed energy explorer Tullow Oil’s share price slid two per cent yesterday, after its minority partners in a French Guianan project said an exploration well was dry. In an interim management statement, Tullow said that “evaluation operations are ongoing” on the well, but Aim-listed stakeholders Wessex Exploration and Northern Petroleum said it would be [...]
BG hires new chief operating officer as Houston steps down November 13, 2013 FTSE 100-listed oil and gas explorer BG Group yesterday said its chief operating officer (COO) and executive director Martin Houston will retire by the end of next year, after 30 years with the company. Houston, who joined BG’s predecessor firm British Gas Corporation in 1983, has stepped down from the board and executive committee with [...]
Fastest growing UK tech firms listed in Fast 50 November 13, 2013 LONDON-based real-time advertising exchange Infectious Media has been named the UK’s fastest growing technology company with revenue growth of nearly 10,000 per cent since 2008. The title was awarded yesterday as part of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing UK technology companies. “With the financial crisis in full swing, we [...]
Moto G targets the low-end for Motorola November 13, 2013 MOTOROLA, Google’s mobile handset division that reported a $248m (£154m) loss last quarter, is betting that low-cost smartphones will rejuvenate its struggling business. The Moto G is Motorola’s latest effort to take back the consumer smartphone business, but it’s a device that shuns the high-end price tag of competing devices from Apple and Samsung. “You [...]
Kier trading in line with board’s guidance November 13, 2013 Kier Group, the FTSE 250-listed construction, services and property firm, yesterday said it is trading in line with expectations and that its construction division has an order book of £2.2bn. After completing its acquisition of May Gurney in July, Kier has secured new work of more than £300m in its services division, contributing to a [...]