Quarto sales dip ahead of vote November 1, 2012 Quarto, the independent publisher at the centre of a battle for boardroom power, yesterday said trading had been subdued in the last three months. Sales dipped to $127.2m (£78.8m), while profit fell from $6m to $5.5m. Rebel investor Harwood Capital, which wants to oust chief executive Laurence Orbach, said that Quarto breached rules by sending [...]
UBM buys Canadian Newswire November 1, 2012 British business publisher UBM yesterday said it was paying £30.1m for the Press Association (PA)’s 50 per cent stake in news organisation Canada Newswire (CNW). The deal gives UBM control of the group as it adds to its 17 per cent stake in the company. UBM will now integrate CNW with its newswire division, PR [...]
Lower oil prices hamper Shell as output stalls November 1, 2012 OIL major Shell shouldered a 15 per cent fall in current cost of supply (CCS) profit in the third quarter, as it warned of global economic weakness across the board. Net profit on a CSS basis over the three months to September was $6.1bn (£3.8bn), down from $7.2bn in the third quarter of last year, [...]
DMGT looks ahead as it cuts ties with JP Morgan Caz November 1, 2012 CORPORATE broking relation-ships in the City tend to be pretty sticky, which is one reason bankers tell me that Barclays is so far hanging on to many of its newly-won clients even though the ultimate force behind its move into this line of business, former chief executive Bob Diamond, is very much no longer with [...]
Rosneft profit jumps ahead of $55bn TNK-BP takeover November 1, 2012 KREMLIN-controlled energy producer Rosneft yesterday posted soaring profits, just a week after announcing its $55bn (£34bn) acquisition of Anglo-Russian oil firm TNK-BP. Profit for the three months to September came in at a five-year high of 181bn rubles (£3.59bn), up from a loss of 8bn rubles in the previous quarter, thanks to higher oil prices, [...]
Phil Vickery is pulling pints at the Pink Lion November 1, 2012 THE Golden Lion pub in Mayfair has been transformed this week by Thomas Pink, the official outfitters of the British & Irish Lion’s 125th anniversary tour to Australia. The newly-named Pink Lion has not only had a rosy-coloured makeover for the week, but is displaying the official tour stash. Not your typical rugby shirts and [...]
The Square Mile comes out in force for London’s Poppy Day November 1, 2012 WITH Poppy Day fundraising events happening all over London yesterday, from Covent Garden to Clarence House, the Square Mile certainly did not let the capital down. The Military Wives Choir were serenading the masses on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral; and over in Leadenhall market HMS Collingwood Band were striking a chord with City [...]
Manufacturers say trading is getting worse November 1, 2012 DISMAL trading for British manufacturers kept the sector’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) firmly in negative territory in October, with the gloomy conditions reflected across the world. Just a week after the UK economy was shown to have grown one per cent in the quarter to the end of September, Markit and CIPS’ PMI reading for [...]
House prices edge back up but market is still in the doldrums November 1, 2012 HOUSE PRICES climbed during last month, Nationwide revealed yesterday, bouncing back after the slip in September and months of weakness in the housing market. The Nationwide house price index grew 0.6 per cent last month, after the 0.4 per cent slip into September. Earlier slips mean the index is still 0.9 per cent lower than it [...]
Think tank says Britain should prepare for no growth this year November 1, 2012 THE UK should not expect economic growth this year, despite a surprise one per cent expansion in the latest quarter, according to research out today. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research predicts a 0.1 per cent contraction during 2012, as the Olympics boost is subsumed by a broader slump. However, this is slightly [...]