ARE YOU CHEERED BY KINGFISHER’S UPDATE? September 17, 2009 RICHARD HUNTER HARGREAVES LANSDOWNThe inadvertent leak of the positive surprise has today been confirmed by Kingfisher, which has enjoyed a 35 per cent hike in profits. Good weather, the removal of competition such as MFI, a close eye on cost and stock control and the revamping of its offerings have all helped. MATTHEW MCEACHRAN SINGER [...]
Profits slide at John Lewis as crunch hits September 17, 2009 THE John Lewis Partnership, seen as a bellwether for middle-class consumer confidence, yesterday reported a 20 per cent dive in first-half profits. Despite a strong performance from its grocery chain Waitrose, the group said pre-tax profits were down by £21m to £86.3m in the six months to 1 August. The group’s department store, famed for [...]
PAI in move to shrink 5.4bn buyout fund September 17, 2009 PAI PARTNERS, mainland Europe’s biggest private equity group, has offered to let its investors halve their commitments to a €5.4bn (£3.3bn) buyout fund as it seeks to resolve a row over its future. The Paris-based group, whose two top executives quit last month, made the non-binding offer on its most recent fund in a letter [...]
SUITS YOU SIR September 17, 2009 US BILLIONAIRE investor Warren Buffett yesterday emerged as a style icon, after turning Chinese suitmaker Dalian Dayang Trands into China’s best-performing clothing stock. Shares in Trands surged 229 per cent after Buffett, 79, was said the firm’s suits were “wonderful”. Retail investors interpreted the Sage of Omaha’s comments as a sign that he will invest [...]
Balfour raises 380m to buy rival US firm September 17, 2009 CONSTRUCTION firm Balfour Beatty yesterday said it has agreed to buy US project management firm Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626m (£380m), in a deal partly funded by a surprise rights issue. The group said it was launching a fully underwritten £353m cash call to fund the acquisition, which it believes will give it a leading position [...]
M&Ain focus in Credit Suisse’s buyer/seller list September 17, 2009 KRAFT’S bid last week for UK confectionary giant Cadbury will be the first of many buyout attempts, according to a Credit Suisse analyst. The analyst at the Swiss bank Richard Kersley yesterday sent out a table of companies that he believes are the most likely to buy a rival and of those companies that look [...]
BBC hits back at Bradshaw as row grows September 17, 2009 THE BBC’s embattled director general Mark Thompson yesterday accused the government of trying to abolish the BBC Trust because the independent governing body opposed its own point of view. Thompson’s attack on the government came at the Royal Television Society Cambridge conference, in which he responded to culture secretary Ben Bradshaw’s comments that the BBC [...]
A little bit of optimism in the air for media folk September 17, 2009 EMMA KEENS AT THE RTS THE great and the good of the television industry were in a surprisingly upbeat mood yesterday as they gathered for the Royal Television Society Cambridge convention. Surprising when you consider that commercial networks have experienced what ITV chief operating officer John Cresswell described as “a dose of recession shock therapy”. [...]
The Observer gets a reprieve September 17, 2009 THE Observer has been saved for the time being, with its owners deciding on increasing the integration between it and its daily stable-mate, the Guardian, in preference to a closure of the Sunday title. Yesterday Guardian News & Media said it had been working on a plan for further editorial integration between the two titles, [...]
Google plans to print 2m books September 17, 2009 GOOGLE yesterday unveiled plans to print 2m books after striking a deal with a book printing company. Over the last seven years, Google has been scanning millions of out-of-print books from libraries and made them searchable on the internet. But now bookstores that purchase the Espresso Book Machine – which is made by Google’s partner [...]
