Charles Taylor warns on profit August 18, 2010 Insurance consultancy Charles Taylor Consulting warned yesterday full-year earnings would miss earlier estimates, after its first half was hit partly by weak public sector business, sending its shares down 22.5 per cent. For the six months ended 30 June, the company posted a nearly flat pre-tax profit of £5.7m. Adjusted pre-tax profit was down one [...]
Ambrian snaps up Masefield August 18, 2010 Specialist investment bank Ambrian Capital said yesterday it had acquired Masefield Biofuels, which focuses on biodiesel produced from palm oil, from the Masefield Group. It did not reveal the price. Ambrian said it would invest $5m (£3.2m) of capital into the new company, to be called Ambrian Energy and be headed by Bernd Sturmheit who [...]
Mazda recalls 320,000 US cars August 18, 2010 Japan’s Mazda is recalling nearly 320,000 vehicles in North America over a potentially deadly malfunction in their power steering, US authorities said yesterday. The recall of its popular Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 models was issued for vehicles manufactured between 2 April 2007 and 30 November 2008, affecting a total of 319,714 cars in the [...]
Swiss Life’s German unit comes good August 18, 2010 SWISS Life’s profits nearly doubled in the first half of the year on the back of a strong performance by German subsidiary AWD, allaying fears the insurer could be forced into an embarrassing writedown of AWD’s value. Switzerland’s biggest life insurer also said it was on track to achieve key margin targets for 2012 after [...]
Westfield sees sales boost at its London mall August 18, 2010 MALL owner Westfield Group yesterday said sales at its London mall were up 17 per cent in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. The mall, at Shepherd’s Bush, is on track to hit its target of £800m in takings this year after being boosted by tourist numbers, the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 18, 2010 SRL Global Alex Lowe, the former chief executive of Man Global Strategies (MGS), has joined the asset management technology firm as its new managing director. Lowe worked at MGS, part of Man Group, for six years – three years of which were at the helm of the company. SRL was initially established as a joint [...]
Bank of England voted 8-1 to freeze interest rate August 18, 2010 Bank of England policymakers considered the case for both easing and tightening policy this month, before voting eight to one to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5 per cent, minutes showed. Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance called for a 25 basis point rate hike for the third month running, minutes of [...]
BHP Billiton launches hostile bid for Potash August 18, 2010 BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, has launched a hostile $39bn (£24.9bn) bid for Potash Corp after the Canadian fertiliser group’s board rejected the world’s largest takeover offer this year. BHP Billiton said it was submitting it directly to shareholders and bypassing Potash Corp’s board, which a day earlier called the bid of $130 a [...]
Maersk swings back to profit and raises forecast August 18, 2010 Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, has returned to profit in the first half of the year. The group reported a net profit of 14.15bn Danish kronor (£1.57bn), while revenues grew by 20 per cent. In the same period a year ago it had reported a loss of 3.02bn kronor. Meanwhile, DP World, the [...]
Henderson hit by “fragile” investors August 18, 2010 Anglo-Australian fund manager Henderson Group posted lower-than-expected profits in the first half as outflows accelerated in the second quarter on volatile markets and “fragile” investor confidence. Henderson said pre-tax profit was £41.6m in the first six months. That compared to its own estimate of between £47m and £49m. Last month the fund manager announced it [...]