Christchurch hit by FSA fine May 1, 2012 ■ Financial watchdog the FSA has slapped small portfolio manager Christchurch Investment Management with a £26,600 fine for failing to properly protect client money. Compliance officer David Thornberry was also fined and banne
Imperial offers share buyback as sales grow May 1, 2012 IMPERIAL Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest cigarette group, set a £500m share buyback yesterday and said it saw a return to sales growth as the company put last year’s problems behind it. The British firm, which sells over 340bn cigarettes a year, reported that half-year earnings beat forecasts as it gained from the ending of a [...]
Reckitt Benckiser’s focus on key brands and markets pays off May 1, 2012 CONSUMER goods group Reckitt Benckiser reported a slightly better than expected four per cent rise in underlying first-quarter sales yesterday as a new focus on its top brands and faster growing markets started to pay off. New chief executive Rakesh Kapoor, who took over last September after Bart Becht’s shock decision to retire, said the [...]
Look for a job, Dewey tells staff May 1, 2012 LAW firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, struggling with a debt crisis and criminal probe of its former chairman, has “encouraged” its partners to seek new jobs, one partner said, citing an internal memo. The firm, which has a significant presence in London, is in talks with “many potential merger partners” as it races to extend deadlines [...]
Pfizer beats as cost cuts help May 1, 2012 PFIZER reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday as cost controls partly offset plunging sales of its Lipitor cholesterol fighter, which now faces competition from cheaper generics. The largest US drugmaker said yesterday that it had earned $1.79bn (£1.1bn) in the first quarter. That compared with $2.2bn a year earlier, when results suffered because of a litigation [...]
Heathrow gets extra staff for border checks May 1, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT has promised to bring in more staff to speed up immigration queues at Heathrow airport following complaints from businesses and passengers. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways parent IAG, warned yesterday that “we have a crisis, it has been there for some time and we need urgent action” to put an [...]
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TWO HOUR QUEUES AT HEATHROW? May 1, 2012 RICHARD DIXON MORGAN SINDALL It is a bad advertisement for London. We are presenting ourselves as a centre for international business. Ahead of the Olympics it doesn’t seem satisfactory at all. CHRIS LARGE ORIEL GROUP Queues are equally long at airports abroad, but there does have to be more work done to reduce the lengths [...]
New law to criminalise squatting May 1, 2012 JUSTICE Minister Crispin Blunt pledged police would be able to take “quick and decisive” action to deal with squatters after Parliament passed a new law. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which was designed to protect the rights of homeowners, will come into force in September and for the first time makes [...]
Jones Lang LaSalle beats profit hopes May 1, 2012 JONES Lang LaSalle, one of the world’s biggest real estate services companies, last night reported net earnings that easily beat Wall Street’s forecast. The US-listed firm, which is among the agents acting for the Shard skyscraper, said first-quarter net income surged to $14m (£8.6m), compared to $1.5m a year ago, during a traditionally quiet season [...]
US school buses boost National Express sales May 1, 2012 TRANSPORT firm National Express Group said it had traded well in the first quarter of 2012, driven by strong growth at its rail and North American school bus businesses. National Express said yesterday revenues at its C2C commuter rail service, which runs into central London, grew 10 per cent in the first three months of [...]
