Cond Nast profits slump October 29, 2009 Condé Nast’s London-based international arm saw its profits fall 12 per cent to £33.5m in 2008, as both advertising and subscriptions were hit by the recession. The Vogue publisher’s annual accounts filed at Companies House showed that its UK magazines subsidiary, Condé Nast Publications, saw profits drop by 14 per cent to £18.9m in the [...]
BAE announces 500 job cuts October 29, 2009 Union leaders expressed their "bitter disappointment" yesterday as defence giant BAE Systems announced plans to cut over 500 jobs in its Land Systems division. News on the job cuts comes just days before the company is due to submit a bid which would allow it to supply the British Army with a new scout vehicle. [...]
Kentz wins contract in Qatar October 29, 2009 Kentz said yesterday it had received a multi-million dollar contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of a project for Laffan Refinery in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. The contract included full site development of the main fuel truck distribution point for the Laffan refinery tank farm. Qatar Petroleum holds a 51 per cent stake [...]
Lufthansa forecasts grey skies October 29, 2009 Deutsche Lufthansa provided a gloomy outlook for the airline industry yesterday, saying any green shoots of recovery were being swamped by pricing pressures in both passenger and cargo services. It said it was still too early to give the all-clear for the air cargo industry. Drops in volumes were not as severe as in prior [...]
NOMURA PREPARING FOR OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE VARSITY CLASH October 29, 2009 THE City’s rugby aficionados and former Oxbridge contingent are already gearing up for this year’s Varsity match, which is being sponsored for the second year running by Japanese bank Nomura. Nomura stepped in at the last minute to save the day after it rescued the European operations of failed bank Lehman Brothers, the event’s former [...]
Standard Life hit as market woes return October 29, 2009 INSURER Standard Life yesterday reported a 15 per cent fall in sales for the first nine months of the year. The drop reflected weak financial markets and was broadly in line with forecasts. Britain’s fourth-biggest insurer by market value, revealed that life and pensions sales for the nine months to 30 September were £10.5bn – [...]
Qinetiq chief executive quits one day after critical RAF Nimrod crash report October 29, 2009 THE chief executive of defence research business Qinetiq, Graham Love, stood down yesterday – a day after the company was heavily criticised in a report into the fatal RAF Nimrod aircraft crash in 2006. Love, who was with Qinetiq for eight years, will leave on 30 November but remains as a consultant to the group. [...]
MetLife posts its third quarterly loss in a row October 29, 2009 METLIFE, the largest life insurer in the US, yesterday posted a quarterly loss, hurt by investment losses, some of which were tied to improvement in the company’s own credit spreads. The group’s operating results in the latest quarter matched Wall Street expectations and the results showed growth in sales across most of MetLife’s business operations, [...]
CITY VIEWS: WOULD YOU CUT DOWN THE AMOUNT OF COFFEE YOU BUY? October 29, 2009 DANIEL VIPOND RFIB LIMITED“I wouldn’t cut back on coffee. I have a coffee every day. I don’t worry about the economics behind the coffee. It’s a staple dietary requirement. Petrol seems to have a more dramatic effect on consumers, but coffee is not as expensive so becomes a necessity.” SHARON LOWER CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD“Not at [...]
Home loans surge but British consumer remains subdued October 29, 2009 MORTGAGE approvals soared to their highest levels in 18 months but credit card lending remained subdued as recession-hit consumers paid back their debts for the third successive month. Data from the Bank of England showed that a total of 56,215 mortgages were approved in September, up from 52,970 in August and above expectations, indicating that [...]