THE TIPSTER: KINGFISHING FOR A FIX February 18, 2013 THE challenging consumer backdrop doesn’t augur well for Kingfisher, and this will show when the retailer issues its trading update on Thursday. Shares have traded within a range between 270p and 290p for the last year. But some in-house refurbishments, like improving cost structures and gross margins, may be just the fix it needs. ETX [...]
TNT Express planning emerging market disposals on fresh losses February 18, 2013 TNT Express, whose $7bn (£4.5bn) takeover by United Parcel Service was blocked last month, reported a fourth-quarter loss yesterday and said it was looking to sell troubled businesses in Brazil and China. The collapse of the UPS deal leaves the Dutch express delivery firm having to confront a weak European market on its own. It [...]
Crest Nicholson rejoins market with £107m lift February 18, 2013 CREST Nicholson kicked off its first official day of trading on the London Stock Exchange yesterday after the housebuilder last week completed London’s largest public listing so far this year at £553m. Shares in the company edged down by 0.75 per cent to 262.38p – still significantly above its original listing price of 220p and [...]
Traders can profit from the flurry of mega-deals February 18, 2013 WILL 2013 be the year the bulge bracket banks have been waiting for? Since 2008, headline-grabbing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals have been few and far between. But the flurry of activity at the start of February, the most since 2005, suggests things may be about to change. Last week, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway teamed [...]
Carlsberg hit by Russia sales and rising costs February 18, 2013 DANISH brewer Carlsberg said yesterday it had scrapped its profit margin target for eastern Europe, blaming volatile markets and raw material costs, and dampening hopes the region can offset sluggish demand in western Europe. The world’s fourth-biggest brewer said that sales growth had stalled in its key Russian market and the cost of an efficiency [...]
Flood defence contract delayed after West Coast Mainline fiasco February 18, 2013 THE ENVIRONMENT Agency is to relaunch the competition for a major contract to build flood defences after the process was delayed by the West Coast Mainline fiasco. The procurement process was delayed after last year’s decision to award control of one of the country’s main railway routes to FirstGroup. Existing operator Virgin Rail successfully challenged [...]
City Moves for 19 February 2013 | Who’s switching jobs February 18, 2013 Barings The asset management firm has announced the appointment of Angus Woolhouse as global head of distribution. Woolhouse has over 20 years’ experience in the asset management industry, and has held senior roles at Gartmore, Invesco and HSBC Asset Management. Colliers The commercial real estate services company has appointed Mark Emburey as a director in [...]
RHETORIC RARELY SHIFTS CURRENCIES February 18, 2013 DURING the first Obama administration, Treasury secretary Tim Geithner took as many opportunities as possible to bleat about China refusing to devalue its currency – the yuan or the renminbi – against the dollar. The US and other countries were nursing gargantuan trade deficits with China. Clearly, the Chinese economic star was then in the [...]
A weak pound helps UK exports but it risks a currency civil war February 18, 2013 AS David Cameron talks up British exports in India, it might seem good news that the pound sank yesterday. A weaker currency makes exports cheaper (to pay the price in pounds takes less foreign currency). In theory that boosts demand and, so the argument goes, rebalances the economy towards opportunities in emerging markets. It also [...]
Google faces EU measures over privacy policy February 18, 2013 EUROPEAN regulators threatened action against Google yesterday over recent changes to the web firm’s privacy policy. French data commissioner CNIL, which has led the EU’s 27 data regulators in pursuing Google, yesterday said the company had failed to adequately respond to demands to change its privacy rules. Last year, Google merged 60 policies into just [...]
