Fortis replaces chief exec June 15, 2009 BELGIAN Insurance group Fortis, yesterday announced the departure of its chief executive Karel de Boeck, after just seven months at the helm. The group named insurance veteran Bart De Smet, as his successor. He will become the fifth new chief executive at Fortis in under a year. It is understood that De Boeck was ousted [...]
CITY FOLK FANCY THEIR CHANCES AT ASCOT June 15, 2009 HALF the City is due to decamp to Berkshire this week for Royal Ascot, which runs from today until Saturday. As usual, the raft of financiers meandering about the racecourse will be a mix of those enjoying a corporate jolly and those who’ve invested their wealth in horses – two of whom are tipped as [...]
Morgan Stanley in Keydata interest June 15, 2009 MORGAN Stanley, the US investment banking giant, has joined a growing list of parties expressing interest in buying collapsed structured product provider Keydata. The bank already offers its own structured products to UK investors through the Morgan Stanley IQ brand, but it is thought to be keen to snap up the £2.8bn of assets Keydata [...]
Majestic profits hit as City champagne spending loses fizz June 15, 2009 WINE warehouse chain Majestic Wine saw its profits tumble last year as the recession took its toll, with champagne sales to the business world performing performing particularly badly. Majestic said yesterday its core pre-tax profit fell 22.3 per cent to £12.7m over the year to end of March, while sales grew 2.4 per cent to [...]
Matalan shrugs off the retail gloom as sales rocket on new product lines June 15, 2009 BUDGET fashion chain Matalan yesterday said it was defying the retail gloom as it reported a 8.2 per cent boost in like-for-like sales for the 14 weeks to 6 June. The group, which has 203 outlets across the UK, said it had seen a jump in footfall due to the introduction of new product lines [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 15, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMESBLU-RAY SALES FAIL TO OFFSET DECLINE OF DVDHollywood’s expensive bet on Blu-ray technology has failed to prevent a sharp decline in home entertainment sales, dealing a blow to the film industry as it grapples with the global economic downturn. The industry’s revenues fell by more than $2.6bn in 2008 as sales of standard DVDs [...]
TENSIONS IN TEHRAN June 15, 2009 Tens of thousands yesterday flocked onto the streets in Tehran, defying a government ban to join a mass rally in protest at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed election win. Later fatal shots killing at least one protester were fired, prompting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to order a probe into the election.
HOW DID MAJESTIC WINE PERFORM GIVEN THE TOUGH ECONOMIC CLIMATE? June 15, 2009 FIONA ORFORD-WILLIAMS EDISON“Majestic managed respectably under the circumstances – it’s not exactly a surprise that it took a heavy hit from corporates cutting back on champagne. It would have been more squeezed if it were flogging basic entry-level plonk wines, since the mid to high end is more resilient.” CHARLES PICK FINNCAP“The results are in [...]
Euro banks facing $283bn writedowns June 15, 2009 EUROZONE banks may need to write down another $283bn (£146bn) on bad loans and securities over the next 18 months, the European Central Bank (ECB) said yesterday. The sum comes on top of an estimated $366bn in writedowns by eurozone banks since the start of the financial crisis in mid-2007, which shows more pain ahead for [...]
Virgin and Universal team up June 15, 2009 Virgin Media is to launch an unlimited music download subscription service through a partnership with the world’s largest music company, Universal. The service, described by the two companies as a world first, would allow Virgin Media broadband customers to stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from Universal’s entire catalogue [...]
