Wessex shares surge as Total lines up bid to snap up more assets in Guiana March 19, 2012 SHARES in oil company Wessex Exploration soared more than 30 per cent yesterday after French major Total said it is looking to buy the company for around £71m. Total confirmed it has made an approach with a potential cash offer to buy the company for 10p a share. Wessex owns a 1.25 per cent interest [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 19, 2012 Patron Capital The pan-European institutional investor has appointed Mark Collins as chairman of its UK investment division, as it looks to invest over £1bn in the UK market over the next year. Collins will also become a partner of Patron Capital Advisers, the investment adviser to Patron’s funds. Collins was formerly managing director of the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 19, 2012 JD WETHERSPOON JP Morgan Cazenove rates the pub chain “underweight” and has raised its target price from 381p to 390p. The broker has trimmed its like-for-like sales growth for 2012, from two per cent down to one per cent, following half-year results earlier this month that showed a sales dip. However, JP Morgan’s earnings per [...]
EPISODE 49 – SOME PARTY REFLECTIONS March 19, 2012 I’m driving Noel to school the day after his birthday party. In the rear view mirror I see him sitting in the back of the car, looking dreamily out of the window. “So how does it feel to be seven, Long John Silver?” Noel ignores my question. “Daddy, when was it that all the bankers [...]
Apple to pay dividend from $98bn cash pile March 19, 2012 Apple chief executive Tim Cook has fulfilled a longstanding desire of investors by initiating a quarterly dividend and share buyback that will pay out $45bn (£28bn) over three years. The world’s most valuable technology company will start paying its first dividends since 1995 – a regular quarterly payout of $2.65 a share – in July, [...]
Minimum wage to rise by 11p an hour March 19, 2012 The minimum wage is set to rise by 11p to £6.19 an hour from October, while the rate for under-21s will be frozen. The increase in the adult rate represents a 1.8 per cent rise. The cost of living increased by 3.6 per cent in the year to January, according to the Consumer Prices Index. [...]
WorldSpreads plunges into administration March 19, 2012 Financial spread-betting company WorldSpreads Group, which suspended its shares last week over possible irregularities in its accounts, has gone into administration and warned it owes clients millions of pounds. The Dublin-based company, which runs online and telephone trading services, said on Monday Jane Moriarty and Samantha Bewick from accountancy firm KPMG had been appointed as [...]
Banks and miners stall FTSE rally March 19, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged lower today as last week’s rally was ended by investors steering away from banking and energy stocks. Banks have led the market higher over recent sessions following a deal over Greek debt and improving market sentiment toward the stocks which have been hit by market volatility over the past year. They [...]
TNT accepts Sweetened £4.3bn UPS bid March 19, 2012 United Parcel Service will pay 5.2 billion euros (£4.31bn) for Dutch peer TNT in a deal that will make the U.S. company the biggest package-shipper in Europe with 45bn euros in global sales. TNT said on Monday its executive and supervisory boards unanimously supported UPS’s offer of 9.50 euros per share, up from an initial [...]
Premier Foods profit tumbles by 29pc March 19, 2012 Britain’s Premier Foods PLC (PFD.L) reported a 29 percent decline in profit from its ongoing businesses in 2011 and said it expected trading to remain challenging, impacted by high levels of promotional activity and cost inflation. The group, which owns brands such as Hovis, Mr Kipling and Batchelors, said that it made a trading profit [...]