Whitbread sees its hotel demand slow February 29, 2012 WHITBREAD has revealed a slowdown in fourth quarter sales at Premier Inn, the budget hotel chain, as consumers remained under pressure and demand for hotel rooms outside of the capital softened. The UK’s largest hotel and restaurant owner said like-for-like sales at Premier Inn fell 0.9 per cent in the 11 weeks to 16 February, [...]
Indian economic growth slowest for three years February 29, 2012 India’s economic growth slowed to its weakest annual pace in almost three years in the three months to December, as high interest rates and rising input costs constrained investment and manufacturing. Gross domestic product rose 6.1 per cent in October to December compared with a year earlier, a lower than expected increase, figures from the [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF WHITBREAD’S RESULTS? February 29, 2012 JAMIE ROLLO | MORGAN STANLEY Whitbread has reported fourth quarter like-for-like sales growth of 1.8 per cent, in line with our expectations but with a slightly different mix…With a stronger performance at Costa balancing the slightly weaker performance at Premier Inn we do not expect to see changes to consensus for 2012. WYN ELLIS | [...]
Profits up for money website February 29, 2012 PRE-TAX profits more than doubled for MoneySupermarket in 2011 as the price comparison website continued to attract cash-strapped consumers, reaching 140m visitors last year. The FTSE 250 company grew revenues 22 per cent to £181m, pocketing £24.3m before tax compared to £11m last year. It was boosted by strong performances in its money and insurance [...]
Camera-maker Jessops’ chairman calls it a day February 29, 2012 DAVID Adams will step down from his position as chairman of camera-maker Jessops this week. Martyn Everett will replace Adams from 1 March, joining from Chorion, the media rights firm that is home to Noddy and the Mr Men. Jessops welcomed Everett’s “wealth of experience in change management and delivering stakeholder value” in a statement [...]
Taylor Wimpey restores dividend February 29, 2012 Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said it had resumed paying a dividend as its tactic of focussing on margins rather than volume helped enable a swing back to profit. The company reported an underlying pretax profit of £90m in the 12 months to end-December, compared to a loss of 28 million pounds in 2010, on continuing operations [...]
ITV earnings up 13pc February 29, 2012 ITV reported a better than expected 13 per cent rise in adjusted earnings for the year, driven by growth in its own productions against a flat backdrop for advertising. The broadcaster, home to period drama Downton Abbey, soap-opera Emmerdale and ice-skating show Dancing on Ice, reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of £462M [...]
Retail figures surprise fuels recovery hopes February 28, 2012 HOPES that the economy is beginning to recover were boosted by upbeat retail sales figures published yesterday, although shoppers remained cautious of splashing out on big-ticket items. The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) distributive trades story showed 34 per cent of retailers reported increasing sales volumes in February while 36 per cent suffered a decline, [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF WHITBREAD’S RESULTS? February 28, 2012 JAMIE ROLLO | MORGAN STANLEY Whitbread has reported fourth quarter like-for-like sales growth of 1.8 per cent, in line with our expectations but with a slightly different mix…With a stronger performance at Costa balancing the slightly weaker performance at Premier Inn we do not expect to see changes to consensus for 2012. WYN ELLIS | [...]
HALMA RINGS THE CHANGES AND HIRES BROKERS WITH PAST LINKS February 28, 2012 THEY say that a City broker’s relationship with a client is usually a significant one and so it has proved at Halma, the safety, health and sensor technology group, which yesterday hired Investec and Credit Suisse as joint brokers. Out goes JP Morgan Cazenove. Both Investec and Credit Suisse benefit from relationships made by two [...]