FedEx to buy new planes as profits rise December 15, 2011 FEDEX reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday and said it is buying 27 new Boeing aircraft to update its fleet for fuel efficiency and cost savings. The company also said it is deferring delivery of some Boeing freighter aircraft, adjusting for slowing volume out of Asia. The world’s second-biggest package delivery company reported second-quarter net [...]
HiWave sees losses widen December 15, 2011 HIWAVE Technologies reported losses of £3.9m for the 15 month period to 30 September, up from £2m in 2010. The company reached a turnover of £2m in the period, which was longer than usual due to a financial year change, just up from £1.9m in 2010. HiWave also reported total assets of £5.3m, a hefty [...]
WPP expands in Singapore December 15, 2011 ADVERTISING giant WPP has acquired a majority stake in Qais Consulting, the Singapore-based digital marketing agency, for an undisclosed amount. VML, the digital marketing arm of WPP, will be joined with Qais, which boasts Standard Chartered, the Singapore Ministry of Defence and Sony among its clients. Qais’ revenues for 2010 were S$4m (£2m) with gross [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 15, 2011 CAIRN ENERGY Investec rates the energy explorer “hold” with a target price of 291p. Despite the “early Christmas present” of a 154p per share dividend in the wake of Cairn’s deal with Vedanta, the broker remains cautious about the firm’s prospects, pointing to a lack of success in Greenland and weak growth in India. Investec [...]
Ex-Olympus chief slams shareholders December 15, 2011 THE WHISTLEBLOWER in Japan’s Olympus scandal, ex-chief executive Michael Woodford, blasted Japanese shareholders yesterday for failing to stand up for him, amid signs that domestic and foreign investors are split over his campaign to be reinstated. Woodford, an Englishman who was a rare foreign CEO in Japan, went public with his concerns over crooked accounting [...]
Spanish borrowing costs fall December 15, 2011 Spain saw solid demand for medium- and long-term bonds paying over two percentage points less to issue a 5-year bond than Italy this week, as Madrid’s cost cutting helped ease concerns it was the euro zone’s weakest link. But while the Treasury also paid much less to sell two 10-year bonds than a similar issue [...]
UK factory orders drop December 15, 2011 Factory orders suffered their biggest drop in more than a year in December after a further weakening of export prospects due to the euro zone debt crisis, the CBI’s industrial trends survey showed on Thursday. The Confederation of British Industry survey’s total order book balance fell this month to –23 from -19 in November, the [...]
Retail sales fall 0.4pc in November December 15, 2011 Retail sales fell by 0.4 per cent in November from October, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics The fall is slightly more than the 0.3 per cent monthly drop that economist had forecast and comes amid big discounting by High Street stores Excluding fuel, retail sales fell 0.7 per cent on the [...]
German manufacturing slows for third month December 15, 2011 German manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in December and looked unlikely to provide a lift to Europe’s largest economy soon as new orders continued to dry up, a survey showed. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector by Markit showed a slight improvement, edging up to 48.1 from 47.9 in November, but [...]
Sports Direct to hit profit forecast December 15, 2011 Sports Direct, Britain’s biggest sporting goods retailer, posted a two per cent rise in first-half profit and said it was on track to meet its target for the year. The firm, controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, said it was confident of reaching its full year target for underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation [...]