Playtech upbeat about 2012 January 24, 2012 Online gaming software provider Playtech said it was optimistic of meeting full year expectations after revenues grew by 89 per cent year-on-year to £58m in the fourth quarter. The coming year bodes well for the group, which plans to take advantage of the opening of online gambling markets. The company, which was founded in 1999, [...]
Confidence at London firms falls sharply January 24, 2012 CONFIDENCE among London’s businesses has plummeted to its lowest level in two and a half years, according to a downbeat survey released this morning. Targeted tax cuts are needed to help kick start economic expansion in London, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) demanded. Fewer than four in 10 (38 per cent) of [...]
Child’s play: the UK toy market in 2011 January 24, 2012 THE UK was the top European market for toy sales in 2011, despite modest growth of just three per cent over the year. Sales in the Christmas week boosted figures, climbing 15 per cent thanks to the extra shopping day as Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday. In that one week alone sales totalled £131m, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 24, 2012 RYANAIR Espirito Santo rates the airline “buy” and has a target price of €4.60. The broker is expecting the firm to post a net loss of €18m in its quarterly results next week, on revenues of €806m. It thinks Ryanair’s current trading is on track and that the firm’s decision to cut capacity over the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 24, 2012 Liberum Capital Mark Godridge has joined the investment bank as chief executive of its US subsidiary Liberum Capital Inc. He joins from JP Morgan Cazenove, where he has led the European and emerging market sales team since the merger of the two companies in 2010. In the five years preceding the buyout, Godridge was president [...]
Codelco confident of Chile win January 24, 2012 Chilean state copper giant Codelco is confident it will triumph over Anglo American in a bitter legal battle centered on a disputed stake in the global miner’s assets in the country’s south. But it will be a long haul, Codelco’s lawyer Pedro Pablo Gutierrez said. He estimated the battle could drag on for three to [...]
DuPont misses Street forecasts January 24, 2012 DuPont’s quarterly revenue missed Wall Street expectations yesterday as its customers bought fewer solar-panel materials and digital television parts, offsetting strong demand for chemicals used in agriculture. Fourth-quarter profit was slightly ahead of Wall Street’s estimates, however, after DuPont raised prices by an average of 14 per cent. Without the increase, revenue would have been [...]
It’s a fix: Coalition plans for Britain’s energy market are likely to boost fuel poverty January 24, 2012 OVER twenty years since Britain laid the groundwork for electricity privatisation and delivered the most liberalised electricity market in the world, the coalition’s new energy “market” reforms will artificially fix the price of electricity in an effort to support more wind energy and kick-start the building of new nuclear power stations. Top-down controls will distort [...]
Forget the Kate Effect: we need Maggie Power January 24, 2012 IT’S a very dreary landscape out there right now for retailers. Unless, of course, you happen to be one of the lucky few – Burberry is one such brand. It can do no wrong, it seems, and never less so than when the Duchess of Cambridge is seen sporting its togs. After being spotted wearing [...]
Strippers can show us bankers’ just rewards January 24, 2012 THE lap-dancers of Stringfellows, the West End strip club, have already rendered great service to the banking industry. But there is one more service they could provide. By their example, we could answer the questions – now also political issues – of how and how much investment bankers should be paid. Lap dancers receive performance-related [...]
