Monitise set to treble its half-year revenue to £15m December 14, 2011 MOBILE banking company Monitise yesterday announced an expected revenue of three times last year’s figure for just the first half of the 2012 financial year. Revenues for the six month period to 31 December 2011 are expected to reach £15m, up from £5.3m in the same period last year. This is already higher than the [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF LOGICA’S PLANS? December 14, 2011 JULIAN YATES | INVESTEC In light of the pressure the business was under at the H1 2011 results, we were expecting a restructuring, so today’s news is not a surprise, although the timing has come a little earlier than we would have anticipated. WILL WALLIS | NUMIS Given that Q411 will be around zero per [...]
Swisscom writedown in Italy December 14, 2011 Swiss phone company Swisscom will suffer a €1.3bn (£1.1bn) writedown, after paying too much for Italian broadband operator Fastweb amid Eurozone troubles. Since Swisscom paid €4.6bn for Fastweb in 2007, the unit’s value has fallen by around 35 per cent. However, chief executive Carsten Schloter insisted he remains committed to Fastweb, adding that exiting Italy [...]
MySpace loses top 10 slot December 14, 2011 MySpace has dropped out of the top 10 list of UK social networks for the first time since records began, replaced by relative newcomer Stumble Upon, according to a report released yesterday from Experian Hitwise. Facebook continues to top the list, with over 50 per cent of visits, followed by YouTube with 24 per cent. [...]
Expansys expands abroad December 14, 2011 Consumer electronics retailer Expansys yesterday reported a pre-tax profit of £0.8m for the six months to 31 October, compared to a loss of £39,000 in the same period last year. The company, which counts Dragon’s Den co-star Peter Jones among its biggest shareholders, said the swing into the black was due to strong growth in [...]
Stores worried by decline in footfall December 14, 2011 THE LEVEL of Christmas sales this year remains “on a knife edge” as retailers nervously wait to see if consumers will splash their cash in the final run up to the big day. Earlier this month people flooded to shops to spend their November pay packages, yet the subsequent week saw a demoralising drop in [...]
London’s output up slowly but Wales and Midlands boom December 14, 2011 VALUE added by production activity in the capital saw the slowest growth out of all UK regions in 2010, figures out yesterday from the Office for National Statistics revealed, which analysts blame on the financial and business services sector contracting in the year. Gross value added (GVA) per head rose by 0.7 per cent in [...]
Morrisons to create 7,000 new jobs as it opens branches and warehouses December 14, 2011 WM MORRISON Supermarkets said it will create over 7,000 new jobs next yet, as it opens 25 new stores and develops its manufacturing and logistics operations. Britain’s fourth largest grocer behind J Sainsbury, Asda and market leader Tesco said many of the new jobs created next year will be skilled positions such as butchery, bakery [...]
JAPAN STAYS STRONG AFTER THAI FLOOD December 14, 2011 Japan’s industrial output rose 2.2 per cent in October in a sign the impact of flooding in Thailand was less than feared, revised data published yesterday showed. However, economists still fear that Europe’s debt crisis and global growth worries may dampen production in coming months. The output figure compares with an initial reading of a [...]
L&G warns of recession in 2012 December 14, 2011 The UK and the Eurozone are both facing recession next year, Legal & General Investment Management forecast yesterday. The asset manager warned that the Office for Budget Responsibility “remains too optimistic” about 2012, with an over-reliance on the private sector propping up its growth figures. Equity investors should head to the US rather than Europe [...]