Johnston’sprofits fall April 25, 2012 REGIONAL newspaper publisher Johnston Press posted a seven per cent fall in its underlying profit as advertising revenue continued to fall amid a tough economic climate. The company, which publishes the Yorkshire Post, also said it had reached an agreement with lenders to push the maturity of its debt to September 2015 from 2012 and [...]
Sales of high-end televisions boost income at LG Electronics April 25, 2012 LG ELECTRONICS, the world’s second-largest television maker, more than trebled its quarterly profit to $393m on improved margins and a pick-up in high-end TV sales, underscoring South Korea’s dominance in an industry once ruled by Japanese rivals. LG had a more than 13 per cent share of the global television market in the fourth quarter, [...]
EasyJet boss ejects Jefferies from cockpit April 25, 2012 WHEN Jefferies bought Hoare Govett for £1 from RBS in February, it expressed the hope that it would be able to retain some of its larger broking clients. So it will come as something of a blow to find that FTSE-250 firm easyJet, the discount airline headed by former Guardian media group chief Carolyn McCall, [...]
THE GREAT BRITISH SUMMER April 25, 2012 TODAY sees the start of a display of shortlisted entries to a competition for landscape architecture students in which they were asked to celebrate the Great British Summer. 14 shortlisted entries including that from Alick Nee and Danny Mitchell (above) will be displayed in the lobby of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf until Sunday [...]
Sports Direct raises Ashley’s payout plans April 25, 2012 MIKE Ashley, the billionaire founder of Sports Direct, could net a one-off shares bonus worth about £24m at current prices after Britain’s biggest sporting goods retailer raised a proposed payout. Sports Direct said yesterday it would ask shareholders at its annual meeting in September to back the granting of 8m shares to Ashley, up from [...]
Capital Shopping Centres suffers as both footfall and lettings dip April 25, 2012 CAPITAL Shopping Centres (CSC) yesterday gave a grim update on how the retail sector was faring in the tough economy as it said that its occupancy rates had fallen while fewer people were hitting the shops. The company, whose malls include the Lakeside in Essex and the Trafford Centre in Manchester, said the tough economy [...]
Ford faces first strike action in over 30 years in pensions fight April 25, 2012 WORKERS at Ford’s UK sites are being balloted for strike action over a pensions dispute, the Unite union said yesterday. If the 2,500 staff vote for a strike, it will be the first industrial action to hit Ford since the 1970s. Workers will vote at Ford’s UK headquarters and at several factories including Dagenham, where [...]
Polymetal sees earnings climb on gold prices April 25, 2012 RUSSIAN miner Polymetal yesterday reported a 21 per cent jump in profit for 2011, fuelled by high gold prices. The company, which joined the FTSE 100 last year, achieved a $290m (£180m) profit while forecasting that it will produce one million ounces of gold in 2012. Polymetal said the price that it was receiving for [...]
Eni and Rosneft team up to tap oil fields in the Russian Arctic April 25, 2012 ROSNEFT and Eni signed an agreement yesterday in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to jointly tap fields in Russia’s Barents and Black Sea zones, in Rosneft’s second Arctic deal in two weeks. The deal may not yield commercial oil production for years, but for Eni it secures a foothold in an untapped [...]
DS Smith to double its revenue April 25, 2012 ■ British packaging company DS Smith said yesterday that it expected to double its full-year revenue with the proposed acquisition of Sweden’s Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA). DS Smith, which hopes to expand its footprint across northern Europe and the Nordic region through SCA, expects to complete the acquisition by the end of June, it said [...]