Redrow swings back into profit September 9, 2010 British housebuilder Redrow swung to full-year pretax profit, well ahead of analyst expectations, thanks to an overhaul of the business, higher selling prices and more home sales. The company reported a full-year pre-tax profit of £0.7m, against last year’s pre-tax loss from trading operations before exceptionals of £44.2m and a total pre-tax loss of £140.8m. [...]
Regulator block NAB’s $12bn bid for Axa Asia September 9, 2010 Australia’s competition regulator blocked National Australia Bank’s $12bn (£7.8bn) bid for AXA Asia Pacific for a second time, dashing NAB’s efforts to cement its dominance in the world’s fourth-largest wealth management market. The decision clears the decks for Australia’s second-biggest fund manager, AMP, to take another tilt at AXA Asia Pacific after its cash and [...]
HMV sales plunge by 10pc in World Cup blow September 9, 2010 Music, books and games retailer HMV Group reported a 10.6 per cent fall in sales for the first quarter as the World Cup distracted customers from DVDs and books. The group, which is trying to widen its product mix with live music and ticketing, said it was pinning its hopes on a successful Christmas period. [...]
Home Retail Group says profit to dive by a quarter September 9, 2010 Home Retail Group forecast a 20-25 per cent reduction in first-half profit, with sales at its Argos stores continuing to fall as low income shoppers cut back on spending. The firm, which also owns the Homebase DIY business, said it expected to make a year to the end of February 2011 underlying pre-tax profit of [...]
Morrisons eyes move into online grocery September 9, 2010 Supermarket giant Morrisons has reported pre-tax profit of £412m for the first half – as it confirmed that it was considering a move into online retail. The profit was eight per cent down on the same period last year, but in line with forecasts. Underlying profit was up taking into account a one-off payment in [...]
Barclays dismisses bank break-up threat September 8, 2010 BARCLAYS executives have privately dismissed the idea that UK banks will be forced to break up their retail and investment banking operations, even though the government’s independent banking commission still has a year left to deliberate its options. Those close to the bank said yesterday that Barclays would not have appointed its investment banking chief [...]
BP gulf spill triggers new row September 8, 2010 BP admitted it made several mistakes that led to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill yesterday, but tried to deflect some blame to rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton in the first detailed report into the cause of the disaster. BP claimed in the report that “a sequence of failures involving a number of different [...]
AT A GLANCE | BP’S COUNTDOWN TO THE GULF OIL SPILL September 8, 2010 Weak cement work The day before the accident, cement was pumped down a pipe in the well, which squeezed back up the space between the pipe and the rock layers, known as the annulus. That “light, nitrified foam cement slurry” failed to block oil and gas from moving up into the annulus. Cement design, testing, [...]
A rare good news story about UK Plc September 8, 2010 FOR a country supposedly poised for a double-dip recession, we are doing surprisingly well. Take the factory figures released yesterday: manufacturing output rose strongly in July and is now up by 4.9 per cent over the past year, the fastest growth since 1994. The recovery in manufacturing is mainly reflecting higher demand for capital goods [...]
PM’s father dies in France September 8, 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron’s father has died after falling ill during a holiday in southern France. Conservative leader Cameron had flown to his 77-year-old father Ian’s hospital bedside earlier after the former stockbroker suffered a stroke and heart problems. The Prime Minister, who rushed to Toulon after being alerted by his mother, will remain in [...]
