Provident Financial boosted by lower bad debt charges February 28, 2012 LOWER bad debt charges boosted full-year profits at sub-prime lender Provident Financial, and the company said yesterday that it was confident of further growth in 2012, lifting its shares to their highest level since February 2001. Provident Financial, which lends to people who cannot get credit from mainstream banks and whose roots date back to [...]
Should UK forces intervene in Syria? February 28, 2012 AFTER Syria’s United Nations envoy stormed out of an emergency meeting yesterday, leading the US to denounce President Assad’s regime as “delusional”, we’re asking our City panel what they think of escalating violence in the country. Fayassal al-Hamwi, Syria’s ambassador in Geneva, accused members of the UN Human Rights Council of promoting terrorism and prolonging [...]
SONY ASKS BRUSSELS FOR EMI BID APPROVAL February 28, 2012 A CONSORTIUM led by Sony has asked Brussels to give the green light to its EMI takeover bid, which would see the record label’s music publishing business (owner of the rights to Beyonce’s music) bought by the group for $2.2bn (£1.38bn). The European Commission has until 2 April to respond. Indie music representative Impala has [...]
Elementis falls as profits grow February 28, 2012 Shares in Elementis fell by almost five per cent yesterday, making it one of the biggest losers on the London Stock Exchange, after the speciality chemicals supplier reported 2011 results below analyst expectations. Despite raising its full-year dividend as adjusted pre-tax profit rose by over a third, shares dipped by seven per cent, before recovering [...]
SDL cheered by North America February 28, 2012 SDL yesterday posted a higher full-year profit on strong demand for its translation services in North America and its growing web content management offering. The company – which provides translation services for multinationals including Hewlett-Packard, Bosch and Microsoft – said its sales pipeline remained robust, and raised its final dividend by 5.5 per cent. SDL’s [...]
Quieter markets hit Worldspreads February 28, 2012 Spreadbetting group Worldspreads has said it now expects a loss in the year to 31 March, after “benign” market conditions and low volatility affected revenues. The company also said its finance chief Niall O’Kelly will leave after eight years.
Crossrail train work has to benefit Brits February 28, 2012 BOMBARDIER’S hopes have been raised over lucrative work to build trains for London’s Crossrail project, after the government said the supplier must fulfil the contract in a way that benefits Britain. The Canadian firm, which has a factory in Derby, will compete with Hitachi, Siemens and Spanish group CAF for the contract to supply around [...]
Growing confidence should drive spending February 28, 2012 TODAY I can report some positive news from the February figures of YouGov’s Household Economic Activity Tracker (HEAT). Consumer confidence continues to rise with the overall HEAT Index (a composite of eight current and forward looking metrics) moving from 92 to 93. This may be a small increase, but the real story is that the [...]
Satnav maker TomTom warns on 2012 as smartphones dominate its market February 28, 2012 STRUGGLING Dutch satellite navigation systems maker TomTom said sales and profit will continue to fall this year as more consumers opt for free software on smartphones, hitting its shares. “The visibility in our core PND [personal navigation device] markets is limited as there remains great uncertainty about the rate of decline of customer demand for [...]
Fuel bill set to knock profits at Aer Lingus February 28, 2012 IRISH airline Aer Lingus warned yesterday that its profit would fall this year due to higher fuel costs, and that a growing pension deficit had the potential to spark industrial action that would hurt the company. The airline beat analyst expectations by posting an operating profit of €49.1m (£41.6m) in the year to December, compared [...]
