ANALYST VIEWS: HOW SERIOUS IS THE SALES BLOW AT HRG? October 20, 2011 KEITH BOWMAN | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN For now, investor concern continues to be fully vindicated. Profits have missed already lowered forecasts, with Argos suffering. The company remains in a very difficult place, with downbeat management outlook comments likely to foster further profit downgrades. Consensus opinion is a sell. PHILIP DORGAN | PANMURE GORDON We find it [...]
Mortgage lending rises October 20, 2011 Gross mortgage lending rose four per cent on the year to £12.9bn in September, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said, although it said the level of housing market activity was subdued. The CML said gross lending in the third quarter of this year to £38.6bn, up 15 per cent from the second quarter, and two [...]
Oddbins toasts return to high street trading October 20, 2011 WINE specialist Oddbins will from today start trading from 37 revamped shops with a new range of 475 wines. The company plunged into administration in March but some shops were bought by Whittall’s Wine Merchants, a subsidiary of Raj Chatha’s EFB Group. Under the new management the shops remained open but are now relaunching. The [...]
BUSINESS HONOURS FOR INDIAN TYCOONS October 20, 2011 THERE was a reason Boris Johnson couldn’t attend the launch of Sonia Purnell’s Just Boris biography on Tuesday night. The London mayor was otherwise engaged presenting KP Singh, the chairman of India’s largest real estate developer DLF, with the entrepreneur of the year award at the Asian Awards. Singh, the Forbes billionaire who has made [...]
Sky profits as customers spend more October 20, 2011 BSKYB, the satellite TV giant, yesterday said it had increased first quarter profits in “tough” circumstances by squeezing more cash out of existing customers. The average Sky customer spent £535 in the three months to the end of September, a £25 increase on the same period last year, after the satellite broadcaster boosted the number [...]
Subscriber slowdown is not important October 20, 2011 Analysis by INVESTORS in BSkyB shouldn’t get too wound up about slowing growth in subscriber numbers. While the timing might have something to do with the consumer downturn, new customer additions were always going to tail off after the company passed the 10m mark. Indeed, just two years ago, many bearish analysts thought the 10m target [...]
Motorola in phone launch to rival Apple October 20, 2011 MOTOROLA yesterday set out to show it is still a force in the mobile market with a “reboot” of its top-selling Razr handset, saying the phone is “out of the league” of rivals Apple and Samsung. The ultra-thin device, the first launched since Google announced its $12.5bn (£7.91bn) takeover of the firm, looks set to [...]
Blackstone buys historic camera firm October 20, 2011 PRIVATE equity giant Blackstone bought a piece of European cultural history yesterday when it took a stake in German camera-maker Leica. Blackstone spent upwards of €122m (£106.47m) to buy a 44 per cent share in Leica Camera from Austrian billionaire Andreas Kaufmann. The roots of Leica go back to 1907, when Max Berek began producing [...]
Permira buys telecoms firm in $1.5bn deal October 20, 2011 PRIVATE equity house Permira sparked hopes of a gradual recovery in buyouts yesterday as it agreed to pay $1.5bn (£950m) for the call centre software business of Alcatel-Lucent. Permira clinched the cash deal for Genesys, at the top end of expectations, after six months of talks between Alcatel-Lucent and possible bidders. Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Siemens [...]
CIC: problem is Europe’s sloth October 20, 2011 EUROPE’s problems are down to its work-shy population, according to the head of China’s sovereign wealth fund. Jin Liqun, chairman of the China Investment Corporation, which manages about $300bn in assets, said: “The root cause of trouble is the overburdened welfare system, built up since the second World War in Europe — the sloth inducing, [...]