Pawnbroker sees profits boom February 21, 2012 Pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond raised it interim dividend on the back of a higher first-half profit, as more hard-up Britons pawned or sold gold jewellery for cash. First-half profit before tax rose 12 per cent to £12.1m and the company’s pledge book was up seven per cent to £38.3m. The firm, which also offers cheque [...]
ICAP buys shipbroker and targets Asia growth February 21, 2012 ICAP, the world’s largest interdealer broker, has announced the purchase of Singaporean firm Island Shipbrokers as it looks to boost its influence in the Asian market. Island’s core business is the chartering, sale and purchase of oil tankers and it has been working closely with ICAP for several years. ICAP Shipping began as a dry bulk [...]
German cars win style race for UK’s drivers February 21, 2012 NEXT week sees the first 2012-plate registered cars roll onto the streets. YouGov’s BrandIndex data indicates that the cars consumers would prefer to drive away are German. The Index rankings have four German brands in the top five: Volkswagen leads the way with a score of +31, followed by Audi on +29, Mercedes, Jaguar (the [...]
Tata doubles Jaguar Land Rover funds February 21, 2012 TATA Motors will double investments in its Jaguar Land Rover brands to £1.5bn a year, even as the Indian carmaker warned that it will be a challenge to sustain high margins at its key profit generator. With soaring revenues and expanding margins, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has driven the company’s growth in recent quarters, as [...]
Profit warning at Gooch & Housego February 21, 2012 Optical components maker Gooch & Housego has issued a full-year profit warning, saying demand for some of its industrial laser products was considerably weaker than it had expected, and that it would cut costs where possible. The company said it expected profits for the year ending 30 September to be “significantly below” its previous expectations, [...]
Tullow finally seals $2.9bn Uganda deal February 21, 2012 OIL firm Tullow Oil said yesterday a long-awaited $2.9bn (£1.8bn) deal to bring in French oil major Total and Chinese group CNOOC as partners to develop its oil fields in Uganda closed yesterday, paving the way for commercial oil production to start in the African country. The conclusion of the deal marks the transfer of [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 21, 2012 ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT Peel Hunt has downgraded its recommendation on the asset manager from “buy” to “hold” but upgraded its estimates and target price on the stock, with the latter climbing from 270p to 280p. The broker says strong performances in its key equity funds have led to upgrades of 2012 and 2013 estimates by [...]
Vedanta buoyed by shake-up February 21, 2012 Miner Vedanta, responding to speculation it could merge two separately listed Indian subsidiaries, said yesterday it aimed to simplify and consolidate its structure. The FTSE 100-listed company trades at a discount to the sector, because of its gearing and because of a structure which means it finds it harder to repatriate cash from subsidiaries to [...]
Drax ditches biomass plant plan February 21, 2012 Britain’s coal-fired power producer Drax has scrapped plans to build a dedicated biomass plant on its site in North Yorkshire, but said it was ready to invest in biomass-fuelled power generation if given appropriate regulatory support. The company claimed state support levels for using only biomass in power generation were still too low. For 2011, [...]
Dragon Oil sees profits surge February 21, 2012 Dragon Oil said yesterday its profits surged 76 per cent in 2011, helped by a production ramp up at its Turkmenistan oil field and a higher oil price, though was silent on whether it would proceed with a takeover bid for explorer Bowleven. Dragon Oil posted full-year operating profit of $856.2m (£542m). It said in [...]
