Unilever buoyed by price hikes April 26, 2012 Consumer goods giant Unilever warned of a tough economic environment and higher inputs costs as its price hikes and emerging market growth helped first-quarter sales beat forecasts with a 8.4 per cent rise. The Anglo-Dutch maker of brands like Dove and Knorr is facing slower growth in developed nations while competition from key rivals is [...]
AstraZeneca chief quits as earnings fall April 26, 2012 AstraZeneca chief executive David Brennan is to step down on 1 June in an abrupt exit that follows rising investor discontent at the company’s performance. Underlying earnings fell 19 per cent in the first quarter, underscoring the drug company’s need to find new sources of growth as key products lose patent protection. Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker [...]
Deutsche Bank misses profit forecast April 26, 2012 Deutsche Bank missed market expectations for profits in the first quarter as Germany’s biggest bank was hit by one-off charges and weak markets which hurt earnings from trading and asset management. Group pretax profit of 1.9bn euros, came in below the 3 billion euros in the year-earlier period and the 2.4bn euro forecast in a [...]
Shell earnings rise fuelled by higher oil prices April 26, 2012 Royal Dutch Shell beat forecasts with an 11 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profit, as higher oil prices outweighed the impact of lower U.S. gas prices. Europe’s largest oil company by market capitalization said its current cost of supply (CCS) net income was $7.7bn (£4.7bn). Excluding one-offs, the result was $7.27bn, compared with a forecast [...]
Double trouble April 25, 2012 The economy fell back into recession at the start of this year, it was revealed yesterday, leaving George Osborne’s credibility – and his deficit reduction plan – in tatters. Every sector of the economy disappointed, dragging GDP down 0.2 per cent in the first quarter, following a 0.3 per cent contraction at the end of [...]
FSA considers News Corp bid emails probe April 25, 2012 The Financial Services Authority could look into emails sent by Jeremy Hunt’s office to News Corp in relation to possible market abuse. The culture secretary’s staff appear to have given News Corp executives advance warning of Hunt’s decision to give the firm more time to alter its ill-fated bid for BSkyB last year. The FSA [...]
…and bookmakers think it could cost Boris the London mayoral election April 25, 2012 BORIS Johnson yesterday admitted the mayoral race would “go all the way to the wire” as the Conservative government’s woes threaten to derail his re-election campaign. On the day that a double-dip recession was confirmed bookmaker William Hill slashed the odds on a Ken Livingstone victory from 4/1 to 5/2 following a flurry of bets [...]
Economists question the reliability of GDP figures April 25, 2012 THE UK might not actually be in a recession, economists said yesterday, fearing the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is using dodgy data to work out the GDP figures – and if they are correct, the ONS might have delivered a blow to confidence by declaring a recession incorrectly. Survey data over the past months [...]
The doubts around official GDP figures April 25, 2012 Q Can we trust the ONS data? A The first estimate only uses about 40 per cent of the data, so we know it probably isn’t exactly right. It isn’t usually revised a lot, but when the economy is on the brink of recession, a few decimal points look very important. Q How could anyone [...]
WILL THE ECONOMY GROW ANY TIME SOON? April 25, 2012 VICKY REDWOOD CAPITAL ECONOMICS Assuming underlying growth is also held down by the fiscal squeeze, weak bank lending and falling real earnings, our forecast for a 0.5 per cent contraction in UK GDP in 2012 overall looks about right. GEORGE BUCKLEY DEUTSCHE BANK Not only did we slip back into recession in the first quarter [...]