Lloyd Webber diagnosed with cancer October 25, 2009 ANDREW Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a publicist for the composer and theatre tycoon confirmed yesterday. “The condition is in its very early stages,” said the publicist. “Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year.” Lloyd Webber is best known for [...]
Crown portfolio values jump October 25, 2009 THE Queen has given the recession a royal kicking as the valuation of her property portfolio has jumped £500m over the past six months. Crown Estates, which manages urban, rural and marine property has reported a lift in its portfolio value to £6bn, due to a boost from the jump in farming land values. The [...]
Virgin eyes Scottish RAF base for Galactic take off October 25, 2009 VIRGIN GALACTIC, the commercial space flight project from Richard Branson, is seeking government support to launch flights from Scotland. The group’s president, Will Whitehorn, has been in talks with science minister Lord Drayson about opening an operation at RAFLossiemouth in Moray. Virgin says there is great potential for launching into polar orbit from Scotland, but [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 25, 2009 BELLWAYKBC Peel Hunt says that Bellway played both the upswing and the downswing better than its competitors, but still issued a “Sell” recommendation for the home construction company. It says valuations have been based on the wrong metric and it cannot justify the current share price. It has set a target price of 600p. NESTLEDespite [...]
Turnaround force tasked with rescuing JAL as it slashes jobs and subsidiaries October 25, 2009 JAPAN AIRLINES (JAL), the ailing carrier which is getting a massive handout from the Japanese government, will be run by a state-owned body in charge of turning it around, it emerged over the weekend. The airline is striving desperately to avoid bankruptcy, seeking aid from banks and the government. Liabilities at the carrier would exceed [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 25, 2009 AvivaThe insurer has appointed Patrick Regan as its new chief financial officer, effective from February next year. Regan is currently group chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Willis Group Holdings, the insurance broker. He has also previously held positions within the industry as group financial controller at RSA and as finance and claims [...]
Campari’s chief is taking a breather before returning to the M&A trail October 25, 2009 Having forked out a cool $2bn (£1.2bn) on 16 separate acquisitions over the past 15 years, it is no wonder that Campari – the world’s sixth largest drinks firm – is now calling for a temporary halt to the spending. Its chief executive, Bob Kunze-Concewitz, recently struck a cautious note due to the downturn that [...]
Oil and drugs dominate in UK as third quarter results begin October 25, 2009 FOCUS will turn away from economic data and bank profits this week, with the spotlight now on oil titans, who will dominate the corporate reporting this week. FTSE 100 life assurance group Friends Provident kicks the week off today with a trading update, but industry giants BP, BG Group and Shell will be the big [...]
USGDP will be the major trader focus October 25, 2009 THIRD quarter earnings season is well and truly under way, and this week we are faced with a barrage of results from both sides of the pond. In the UK we have BP reporting tomorrow, BG Group and GlaxoSmithkline on Wednesday and AstraZeneca and Royal Dutch Shell out on Thursday. ExxonMobil, Procter and Gamble and [...]
Supply trouble to keep cocoa futures on an upward trend October 25, 2009 WITH oil and gold constantly hitting the headlines, it’s all too easy for spread betters to take the (relatively) easy route and stick to trading the big commodity markets. But given how strongly some of the so-called soft commodities such as cocoa and sugar have performed over recent months, it is clear that extending your [...]
