UK drug developer Vernalis looks to raise £40m for US expansion April 26, 2016 Drug developer Vernalis, maker of cough and cold treatments, is looking to raise £40m from a share issue to fund US expansion and bring more products to market. The AIM-traded firm has issued 80m shares at 50p each. Vernalis currently has four US cough and cold programmes under development and is also planning on rolling out and relaunching two existing products. Ian Garland, chief executive of [...]
Procter & Gamble beats expectations but warns over its fourth quarter sending the share price lower April 26, 2016 Procter & Gamble shares dropped in early trading in New York after the company announced third-quarter earnings above estimates, but warned its results in the fourth quarter will be worse than last year. The global consumer goods company, which makes everything from shampoo to toilet paper, said profits rose to $2.75bn (£1.88bn), or 97 cents per share, up from $2.15bn, or 75 [...]
US and Europe are driving profits at Fiat Chrysler sending the share price higher April 26, 2016 Fiat Chrysler has reported first-quarter profit almost doubled to €1.3bn (£1bn) on the first three months of last year, up 88 per cent. The company, owner of the Jeep and Ram brands, has been focusing on higher-priced sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickup trucks in the US. Sales of Jeeps globally rose 15 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. Car [...]
There’s still more to come from UK banks’ connections to the Panama Papers, says the financial watchdog April 26, 2016 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is still looking into the link between UK banks and the so-called Panama Papers tax avoidance leaks. The financial watchdog has written to around 20 banks and other financial institutions asking about their connection to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The FCA gave firms a deadline of 15 April to undertake an initial review but there's still a [...]
End of tax year investor rush drives positive fund sales in March April 25, 2016 Net retail investor sales shot up to £379m last month as punters rushed into fixed income, mixed asset and targeted absolute return funds. Cautious investors backed out of equity funds, however, with an outflow of £459m, according to the the Investment Association's monthly statistics release. Investors are still nervous after worldwide share issues slumped to a seven-year [...]
Smaller firms fail to plug hole in the FTSE left by big oil, big mining, and big finance one year on from record high April 25, 2016 Despite a FTSE fightback over the last few months, the blue-chip index remains well off its record close high of 7,103.98 set almost a year ago on 27 April 2015. Since February the FTSE 100 has added around 700 points after sinking as far as 5,536.97. It's now under 1,000 points of its high, but the recent rally already [...]
Xerox’s revenue slips on printer sales slowdown as it refocuses on services, share price nosedives April 25, 2016 Printer and copier maker Xerox has posted a 4.2 per cent fall in quarterly revenue to $4.28bn (£2.96bn) from $4.47bn a year earlier after a strong dollar dragged on already low sales of its hardware. Profit dropped to $34m, or three cents per share, in the first quarter, from $225m, or 19 cents per share, in the same period of 2015. Analysts [...]
Saudi Aramco set to be valued at more than $2 trillion as Saudi Arabia confirms five per cent stake sale April 25, 2016 Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's state owned oil company, will be valued at over $2 trillion (£1.38 trillion) when less than five per cent of the company is sold through an initial public offering. The valuation would make it the most valuable company in the world, over taking Apple which has a market capitalisation of $607bn. The [...]
Warnings over number of interest-only mortgages maturing in 2016 as wave hits April 25, 2016 Up to 20,000 interest-only mortgage holders across the country could be without plans to repay their home loans when they mature this year. As many as 40,000 interest-only mortgages are set to be called in during 2016, kicking off a new wave of maturities expected to run until 2020. The high level of mortgages reaching maturity has sparked [...]
Week ahead: Brexit expected to knock GDP and earnings April 25, 2016 Concerns over Britain leaving the European Union are expected to have weighed on gross domestic product (GDP) over the first quarter of 2016. Economists are expecting to see growth cooled to 0.4 per cent in the last three months, when the latest numbers are released on Wednesday. In the fourth quarter of last year the [...]
