Bottom Line: Less than glittering results even for a firm prepared for a gold price fall August 7, 2013 LUCKY for Randgold that it built its business model to deliver returns even if the yellow metal’s price dived. Its reserves were calculated at $1,000/oz and so haven’t had to be written down even as the price fell this year from around $1,700/oz to near $1,300/oz. That said, these numbers are not glittering. Profit before [...]
Bupa hails UK arm recovery August 7, 2013 BUPA chief executive Stuart Fletcher declared yesterday that the firm’s UK health insurance business is recovering, having been “not economically sustainable” a year ago. The news followed the private healthcare group’s first-half results, which showed that cost cutting in its British business had almost doubled underlying profit to £59.2m on flat revenues of £1.255bn and [...]
Vodafone splashes out on sport content for new 4G customers August 7, 2013 VODAFONE became the latest of the big name mobile networks to announce the launch of 4G data services yesterday. Chief executive Guy Laurence confirmed that the switch-on for high-speed data content would begin in London on 29 August, with 12 cities to be 4G-ready before Christmas. He also revealed a deal with Spotify and Sky [...]
Jaguar Land Rover ups sales August 7, 2013 JAGUAR Land Rover aims to sell 100,000 cars in China this year, its chief executive Ralf Speth told reporters yesterday. Parent company Tata Motors posted a 23 per cent fall in quarterly profit as higher sales of its luxury Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) vehicles failed to offset sagging sales at home. JLR reported revenues of [...]
Kier fire stations get green light August 7, 2013 Construction firm Kier yesterday said that a £70m project with London Fire Brigade to design, build and maintain nine new fire stations in east and south-east London will go ahead. The government is providing £52m funding, while Kier and co-investor DIF Infrastructure II will provide the rest. “This is an excellent opportunity for us to [...]
Ferrexpo posts record production August 7, 2013 FTSE 250-listed iron ore miner Ferrexpo yesterday announced flat earnings of £244m which were broadly in line with analyst expectations, as record production over the first half of the year offset lower metal prices. The company said it expects production to increase in the second half and is on track to complete its $647m (£417m) [...]
ENRC production levels increase August 7, 2013 Troubled miner ENRC yesterday said that its iron ore division had its best quarter in three years, reporting a 9.9 per cent year-on-year increase in production to 10,874kt. Ferroalloys production increased by 2.4 per cent and aluminium production rose by 1.6 per cent year-on-year. Copper output rose 81 per cent due to increased capacity at [...]
Fab boss needs to work on his dismissal chat August 7, 2013 AS JOB market watchers will recall, HSBC eloquently announced back in April that it would be “demising the roles” of 942 relationship managers as part of wider job cuts. And if you thought that was a hideous turn of phrase readers, look away now. It seems that the recent culling from Fab.com boss Jason Goldberg [...]
Pinsent imparts motivational wisdom to Square Mile rowers August 7, 2013 FORMER Olympic rower Sir Matthew Pinsent was in the City on Tuesday evening, flashing his gold medals and imparting some motivational wisdom to the captains of the 50 teams – from the likes of Pinsent Mason, Everard Insurance, BNY Mellon and Withers – that have entered The Big Row challenge in September. The challenge will [...]
Tui Travel stock drops in spite of upbeat forecast August 7, 2013 TUI Travel, the world’s largest tour operator, saw shares slump yesterday, despite the group reporting it was “very confident” of growing profits by at least 10 per cent this financial year. Investec analyst James Hollins attributed the fall to profit taking, adding that Tui did not provide “the upgrades that some were looking for”. The [...]