Rank sees a lift from gamblers October 7, 2010 BRITISH gaming firm Rank Group forecast its full-year performance would be around the top of analysts’ estimates after all its businesses improved during the third quarter. Analysts are expecting full-year pre-tax profit to range from £48m to £53m compared with £49m for 2009, Rank, owner of the Mecca bingo hall and Grosvenor casino chains, said [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: ARE THE GOOD TIMES BACK FOR M&S? October 7, 2010 FREDDIE GEORGE | SEYMOUR PIERCE We are reiterating our ‘buy’ recommendation on the stock. First, the trading update does indeed indicate that general merchandise now has real momentum … while M&S’s food sales have been recovering, benefiting from the introduction of a branded range. RICHARD HUNTER | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN Management have again been careful to [...]
Bonuses for hedge fund IT staff jump October 7, 2010 Hedge fund IT staff have seen their bonuses double in the last year, according to new research. ReThink Recruitment says software developers with experience in algorithmic trading platforms – a form of automated high volume trading – can now expect 50 per cent bonuses, up from around 25 per cent last year. High-flying IT staff [...]
Carillion’s order book bulging October 7, 2010 support services firm Carillion said it has its largest ever pipeline of contract opportunities as UK local authorities look at outsourcing and it is on track to meet market expectations. The company said yesterday it was well positioned to take advantage of public service customers increasingly looking to outsource work to help them reduce costs [...]
DEO to resume trading on the AIM market following its first acquisition October 7, 2010 BRITISH oil explorer DEO Petroleum said last night it expects to start trading again on the Aim market this morning after agreeing a deal to buy a large stake in oil fields off the coast of Perth. DEO also announced a £16m share placing to fund its first ever acquisition, buy new exploration licences and [...]
Increased IPOs could herald market comeback October 7, 2010 AN increase in initial public offerings (IPO) on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the last quarter may signal the start of a market recovery, research suggested yesterday, despite the summer months being a traditionally quieter period for listings. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said listings on Aim increased from 10 in the second quarter, worth a total [...]
KKR to join Bankhaus on BHF bid October 7, 2010 PRIVATE equity house KKR is understood to be in talks with German group Bankhaus Lampe about a joint bid for BHF, a private bank owned by Deutsche Bank. KKR’s move could improve the buyout firm’s chances of winning over BHF’s sceptical management, which has so far expressed a clear preference for strategic bidders, making it [...]
SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR SITE CUTS 1,500 JOBS October 7, 2010 MORE than 1,500 jobs are to be axed at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria triggering union fears of a workplace bloodbath in the wake of public sector spending cuts. The GMB union claimed that the job losses – a mixture of redundancies and vacancies that will not be filled – were a direct result [...]
House prices plunge by £6k in one month October 7, 2010 HOUSE prices fell 3.6 per cent month-on-month in September, their largest fall since records began in 1983 wiping £6,000 off the value of a typical property around the country in a single month. Halifax, now part of Lloyds Banking Group and the country’s largest motgage lender, said yesterday in its closely watched index that the [...]
UK output expands in August October 7, 2010 BRITISH manufacturing output surged in August continuing a four-month upward trend and breaking a 16-year record, official data showed yesterday, easing fears the economy is on the verge of a sharp downturn. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said output increased 0.3 per cent in August taking the annual growth rate to six per cent, [...]