Fuel group calls for full inquiry into secretive petrol pricing process as oil continues to decline November 10, 2014 CAMPAIGN group FairFuel UK warned yesterday that petrol prices were not guaranteed to fall in tandem with the decline in benchmark oil prices. Brent crude dropped to a four-year low of $82 last week, and Asda, Morrison’s and Tesco all responded with a similar downward adjustment. This follows a call from chief secretary to the [...]
Songbird Estates rejects Qatar bid: Investors way off with Canary Wharf proposal November 10, 2014 Songbird Estates, the majority shareholder of London’s Canary Wharf, values itself at over 25 per cent more than the recently rejected £2.2bn takeover bid from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Brookfield Property Partners. Songbird – which owns 69 per cent of Canary Wharf Group, the owner of the east London-based financial district—rebuffed the takeover [...]
Ovo Energy to launch second partner project November 10, 2014 INDEPENDENT energy supplier Ovo is continuing to put pressure on the big six with its second community partnership, this time in Sussex. The firm is partnering with Community Energy South to launch the Sussex Energy Tariff in the spring of 2015. According to Ovo, the project could save residents up to £200 a year off [...]
Genel poised to reveal lucrative Turkey gas deal November 9, 2014 OIL COMPANY Genel Energy may be preparing to unveil a gas supply deal with Turkey this week. According to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML), the London-listed firm could stand to benefit from gas agreements between Kurdistan and Turkey, which could see Kurdistan supplying as much as 10 per cent of Turkey’s gas [...]
Hester says RSA recovery is on track but premiums dip by £1bn November 6, 2014 Insurance firm RSA saw its shares decline by almost five per cent yesterday as it reported premiums of £5.68bn for the first nine months of 2014, down nine per cent from £6.74bn last year. The company said profit for the third quarter was “strong”, due to £198m gains from its disposals of Noraxis and its [...]
Sour first half for Tate & Lyle as profits plummet by 40 per cent November 6, 2014 SUGAR manufacturer Tate & Lyle revealed yesterday that operational and supply-chain disruption had led to a 40 per cent drop in profit in the first six months of the 2014 financial year. Profit before tax fell from £173m to £104m during the period, while sales dropped from £1.5bn to £1.2bn, a 21 per cent decline. [...]
Cobham stays strong despite military cuts November 6, 2014 SHARES in technology firm Cobham rose 1.4 per cent yesterday, after the company reported that its trading performance in the first nine months of 2014 had been in line with expectations. The group added that it had continued to make progress towards the achievement of its various significant aerial refuelling engineering milestones, although further progress [...]
Profits stay flat as volumes dip at coke bottler November 6, 2014 COKE bottler Coca-Cola HBC reported flat profits in the third quarter of 2014, at €148.2m (£115.9m), compared with €148.1m in the same period last year. Sales revenue dropped by more than five per cent, from €1.9bn to €1.8bn, with volumes down by 4.8 per cent, from 575m unit cases to 548m. The company, which is [...]
London brokers Hyperion Group and RKH reveal plans to merge November 5, 2014 Private insurance brokers Hyperion Insurance Group and R K Harrison Holdings (RKH) revealed yesterday that they were in exclusive merger discussions. David Howden, currently chief executive at Hyperion, will take on the same role at the top of the combined group. RKH chief executive Paul Bridgwater is to step down. A spokesman for Hyperion said [...]
Ageas UK improves combined ratio despite declining profits November 5, 2014 INSURANCE group Ageas UK reported a £64.8m profit for the first nine months of 2014, down from £73.7m posted for the same period last year. The company improved its combined ratio in the third quarter of 2014, at 96.6 per cent compared with 98 per cent in 2013. Ageas owns Tesco Underwriting, but does not [...]
