Vietnam pays off for Soco March 14, 2012 Soco International’s profit jumped more than five-fold on the back of a key oil field in Vietnam coming onstream last year, and said it was confident of achieving the field’s targeted output by the third quarter of this year. The group reported a pre-tax profit of $158.6m (£101.2m) for 2011, compared with $30.9m a year [...]
BA drops Kingfisher alliance March 14, 2012 British Airways yesterday said it has suspended its code sharing agreement with India’s troubled Kingfisher Airlines. Kingfisher Airlines is “undergoing a financial restructure,” said Christopher Fordyce, regional commercial manager for south Asia at British Airways, without elaborating the reason for the suspension. Cash-strapped Kingfisher said yesterday it will cut back its overseas flights as the [...]
SIG forecasts flat 2012 sales March 14, 2012 Building products group SIG said yesterday that volumes would be at best flat in 2012, but it expects new branches and price increases to help it get through a tough construction market in Europe. The firm said its annual underlying pre-tax profit grew 27 per cent to £81.7m.
Tullow Oil’s earnings rise 500 per cent March 14, 2012 OIL explorer Tullow Oil’s profits surged last year thanks to the ramp up of a major new field in Ghana and the buoyant price of crude, allowing the company to announce a doubling of its dividend yesterday. Tullow said pre-tax profits rose 499 per cent to $1.07bn (£683m) in 2011, on sales revenues up 111 [...]
Wall St sees end of 5-day winning run March 14, 2012 THE S&P 500 broke a five-day streak of gains yesterday as investors found little reason to extend a rally that took the benchmark index to four-year highs. Momentum continued in Apple, as its shares climbed 3.8 per cent to $589.58 following positive analyst comment. Morgan Stanley and Canaccord Genuity both lifted their price targets to [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 14, 2012 G4S Exane BNP Paribas downgraded G4S from “outperform” to “neutral” after the security group posted a drop in annual profits. Exane said the results, which included a £50m cost from last year’s failed merger with Danish catering firm ISS, were “uninspiring”. It held the target price at 305p but highlighted a “loss of management credibility” [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 14, 2012 May Gurney May Gurney, the support services business, has appointed Mark Hazlewood group finance director. He joined May Gurney in November 2010 as group corporate development director and led the successful acquisition of both Turiff and TransLinc. He has also held interim responsibility as finance director of the group’s regulated services division. Hazlewood previously worked [...]
It’s not just lawyers who prosper in law March 14, 2012 LAW is bigger business than ever. Freshfields employs 5,000 people and has twenty-seven offices in sixteen countries. Linklaters also has twenty-seven offices in twenty countries. Its revenues in 2010-11 were £1.2bn. Of course, this is good news for lawyers. But non-lawyers work for law firms too. Of Freshfields’ 5,000 staff members, 2,000 are business services [...]
JOBS of the WEEK March 14, 2012 Litigation solicitor Central London £70k-£90k An international law firm needs a litigation and dispute management solicitor to join its offices in London. The successful applicant will have extensive experience, acquired at a recognised City practice. www.cityamcareers.com/job/6991 Compliance director Central London £80k-£100k, plus bonus A leading global services company needs an experienced compliance professional to provide [...]
Miners put end to FTSE’s positive run March 14, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index retreated yesterday, having flirted with the 6,000 level due to a more promising global economic outlook and robust earnings, with heavily weighted miners hit by concerns over Chinese demand. After five successive days of gains, the longest winning streak since last summer, the FTSE 100 ended down 10.48 points, or 0.2 [...]
