ANALYST VIEWS: CAN PACE DELIVER ON ITS TURNAROUND STRATEGY? March 6, 2012 JONATHAN IMLAH | COLLINS STEWART While the short term outlook is better than expected, the medium to long term negatives will continue to outweigh the positives. The price reflects scepticism at Pace’s ability to execute its turnaround plan and fundamental questions about the long term relevance of the set-top box – and both assumptions are [...]
LOVE IS ALL AROUND AS CUPID EXPANDS MORE March 6, 2012 Online dating company Cupid more than doubled revenues last year from £25.7m to £53.6m, half of which was generated outside the UK in one of the 15 countries the website now operates in. The Edinburgh-based group grew pre-tax profits 67 per cent to £7m website subscribers grew to 486,776. The firm also announced it had [...]
Textile rental boosts Johnsons March 6, 2012 Year-end profits at Johnson Service Group grew to £13.7m on revenues of £242.3m in 2011, up from £4.5m the year before. The results were boosted by a £15.4m operating profit from its textile rental division, which provides linen to the hotel, catering and corporate hospitality markets. However earnings from the firm’s flagship dry cleaning arm, [...]
UK tops list of matured loans March 6, 2012 Half a trillion dollars of European leveraged buy-out loans are due to mature between now and 2016, according to law firm Linklaters. The largest burden will fall on the UK with $172bn of loans that need refinancing, compared to $86bn in France and $83bn in Germany. The telecoms sector is set to take the biggest [...]
Bwin.party sells poker website March 6, 2012 Gaming hybrid Bwin.party has agreed to sell Ongame, its business-to-business online poker network, to US rival Shuffle Master for a maximum of €29.5m. The digital entertainment business has been trying to offload Ongame since June as part of a strategy to divest peripheral parts of the business since Bwin and Partygaming’s merger. Shuffle Master will [...]
RWE to scale back its asset sell-off plans March 6, 2012 RWE, Germany’s second-biggest utility, plans to sell fewer assets after finding another €1bn (£834m) of cost cuts and raising its capital as it positions itself for a future without nuclear power in its home market. The company, which owns British utility NPower, reported a 45 per cent drop in 2011 net profit yesterday. It now [...]
Apple can even generate buzz with no product March 6, 2012 APPLE’S new iPad has had an impact even before it is unveiled. The product’s overall Buzz score on YouGov’s BrandIndex has increased by two points since the announcement of its release less than a week ago. Looking at longer term trends over the last year, we have seen the uninterrupted rise in its recommend scores [...]
EasyJet back in traffic growth March 6, 2012 BUDGET airline EasyJet has reported a 3.7 per cent year-on-year rise in passenger numbers for February. EasyJet carried 3.97m passengers last month, compared with 3.83m a year ago. The figures mark a return to strong passenger growth for the airline, after it posted a fall of 0.4 per cent in January. Its load factor, a [...]
Aviation boosts John Menzies March 6, 2012 JOHN Menzies yesterday posted a full-year pre-tax profit that topped expectations, boosted by contract wins in its airline ground handling business. John Menzies, which also distributes newspapers in the UK, said it made a positive start to the year and was trading in line with its expectations. Its Menzies Aviation unit reported a 31 per [...]
Fresnillo sees silver price lift its profits March 6, 2012 FRESNILLO, the world’s largest primary silver producer, said high metals prices boosted 2011 profit and helped more than double its final dividend, offsetting rising electricity prices, wages and the cost of tighter safety controls. The Mexican miner has no debt and $685m (£434m) in cash on its balance sheet at the end of 2011, but [...]