BUSINESS OF THE YEAR August 7, 2012 OUR final shortlist for the third annual City A.M. awards is a big one – the Business of the Year. For this category we have looked for strong share price performance aligned to important strategic developments. We have chosen four established companies, along with one rising star in Ophir Energy. Ophir has been one of [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 7, 2012 RBS John Owen has been appointed chief executive of the bank’s international banking business. He assumes the position following Scott Barton’s decision to leave RBS at the end of August. Owen joined the bank in 2011, and has also previously held senior management roles at Credit Suisse, UBS and Bank of America. Katten Muchin Rosenman [...]
BEST of the BROKERS August 7, 2012 F&C ASSET MANAGEMENT Singer Capital Markets rates the asset manager “buy” with a target price of 110p. The broker has cut its earnings estimates by four per cent for the next year to reflect weakness in the euro, as 40 per cent of its net revenue is euro denominated. However, Singer is confident the firm [...]
E.ON profit rise shows worst could be over August 7, 2012 Cheaper gas supplies helped boost first-half profit at E.ON signalling the worst could be over for Germany’s biggest power company whose earnings were ravaged last year by the government’s decision to exit nuclear power. E.ON said on today first-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) would be around €6.7bn up from £5.3bn a [...]
BMW car sales gain on China and Russia demand August 7, 2012 German carmaker BMW posted a 4.2 per cent increase in luxury auto sales in July on strong demand from China and Russia, contrasting rival Mercedes-Benz, which suffered the first drop in volumes last month. Munich-based BMW, the world’s biggest luxury carmaker, said today brand sales rose to a record 113,253 vehicles, driven by demand for [...]
Retail sales growth slows in July – BRC August 7, 2012 British retail sales growth slowed in July as a sunny spell towards the end of the month failed to make up for weeks of rain which depressed sales of summer clothes and other seasonal products, the British Retail Consortium said today. The BRC’s findings tally with other surveys and retailers’ reports, showing that consumers were [...]
Greggs profit hit by summer washout August 7, 2012 Britain’s largest seller of food on the go, Greggs, posted a 4.5 per cent fall in first-half profit after sales were hit by the wettest April to June period since records began. Greggs, which sells sandwiches, savouries, bread, cakes and pastries to 6m customers a week, said today it made a pretax profit of £16.5m [...]
InterContinental to return $1bn as profits rise August 7, 2012 InterContinental, the world’s biggest hotelier, cheered investors by promising to return $1bn (£642m) to them partially funded from the planned sale of a New York hotel as it posted a rise in profits boosted by trade in the US and China. The British-based group, home to the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn as well as InterContinental [...]
Xstrata H1 earnings drop, defers $1bn of spending August 7, 2012 Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata, in the throes of a $26bn (£16.7bn) takeover bid, posted a smaller-than-expected drop in profit despite the impact of weaker prices and reduced copper production, and announced plans to cut spending for the year. Xstrata’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the first six months of 2012 totalled just [...]
Spyker sues GM for over $3bn on Saab bankruptcy August 7, 2012 Dutch sportscar maker Spyker NV is suing General Motors for more than $3bn (£1.92bn) on behalf of its subsidiary Saab, accusing the US automaker of deliberately bankrupting the Swedish group by blocking a deal with a Chinese investor. Saab Automobile, one of Sweden’s best-known brands, stopped production in May 2011 when it could no longer [...]