Sara Lee sued by Nestle for patent abuse June 15, 2010 NESTLE is suing US food group Sara Lee in France for patent infringement of its Nespresso coffee system, the Swiss company said yesterday, aiming to protect its top-selling product. The premium coffee product, which has been growing at double-digit percentage rates, has recently been exposed to competition in France, where Sara Lee as well as [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BELLWAY’S PERFORMANCE? June 15, 2010 JON BELL | SHORE CAPITAL “Encouragingly, circa 1,800 reservations have been taken for completion in the next financial year. The company has a very strong balance sheet (£55m of net cash) which will enable management to buy land at the correct price points. The discount to NAV (circa 25 per cent) is unwarranted.” CHRIS MILLINGTON [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 15, 2010 City Index The spread betting firm has appointed Sandy Jadeja as its new chief technical analyst. Jadeja has 23 years of experience in technical analysis, trading psychology and global financial markets commentary. Prior to joining City Index, he was the chief market strategist at FX-focused trading platform provider Capital Market Services. He has also worked [...]
Infineon mulls €1bn wireless unit sale June 15, 2010 GERMAN chipmaker Infineon has hired JP Morgan (JPM) to map out a possible divestment of its mobile phone chip unit. The US investment bank is looking into a range of options, including a sale, reports said yesterday. Industry sources said Infineon has already held talks with PC chip giant US-based Intel. Some analysts have said [...]
Outrage starting to ease in oil spill situation June 15, 2010 IN the last two weeks of this saga we have seen tensions in US-UK relations rise at the highest levels, with Obama accused of anti-British sentiment and Cameron called on to intervene, while BP chief executive officer Tony Hayward has been widely accused of callousness in the face of the environmental disaster. BrandIndex tracks the [...]
Ted Baker sees strong future as sales surge June 15, 2010 BRITISH retailer Ted Baker has seen an 18 per cent hike in revenue after store sales in the UK and overseas remained strong and ahead of the company’s expectations. Sales for the half-year period ending 12 June were up by 20.4 per cent from last year, while Ted Baker’s wholesale business saw an 8.2 per [...]
Best Buy’s low sales disappoint June 15, 2010 Top US electronics firm Best Buy reported lower-than-expected sales and profit yesterday, hurt by rising costs to expand its business and signs of weaker consumer demand. Net profit was $15m, or 36 cents a share, for the three months ended 29 May, compared with $153m, or 36 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on [...]
Eskom names new chief executive June 15, 2010 South Africa’s Eskom yesterday appointed Brian Dames as its new chief executive, the power utility said in a statement. The announcement comes as wage negotiations between Eskom and unions are deadlocked, with workers threatening to strike by the end of the week. Unions want an 18 per cent pay increase plus housing allowances while Eskom [...]
The accidental transport secretary turns his sights on planes and trains June 15, 2010 IT wasn’t meant to be like this. If the Tories had won an outright majority on 7 May, Philip Hammond would have gone to the Treasury as chief secretary and implemented the toughest spending cuts in a generation. As part of the coalition agreement, however, he had to step aside for a Liberal Democrat and [...]
BRIGHT STARS GATHER AT CITY’S ANNUAL OSCARS June 15, 2010 THOMSON Reuters rolled out the (imaginary) red carpet yesterday for the annual Extel awards, commonly known as the “Oscars” of the City. This year’s affair, hosted by perky Today presenter John Humphrys, was decidedly more upbeat than in 2009, when “credit crunch” presenter Axel Threlfall of Thomson Reuters’ multimedia platform Project Insider quipped that he [...]
