Lonmin returns to profit after turbulent year November 12, 2013 SOUTH African platinum miner Lonmin soared to the top of the FTSE 250 yesterday morning, after swinging back into the black following a challenging year. The firm said full-year production, sales and cash costs beat its own guidance and posted pre-tax profits of $140m (£87.5m), which exceeded analysts’ forecasts. Lonmin reported pre-tax losses of $698m [...]
Analyst Views: What’s your long term view on Lonmin in light of yesterday’s results? November 12, 2013 MARC ELLIOTT INVESTEC Lonmin took a lot of pain last year and operationally they did brilliantly in these results. The long-term outlook for the firm should be pretty positive, as platinum is an industrial metal, used in the automotive industry. Once supply tightens, metal prices will go up and boost Lonmin further. NICK HATCH WESTHOUSE [...]
Gulf Keystone confirms court win November 12, 2013 Aim-listed oil and gas explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum yesterday confirmed that an English court had dismissed all claims by Excalibur Ventures, which argued that it was owed a 30 per cent interest in GKP’s assets in Kurdistan. The court has set 13 December as the date to hand down its full judgement, having provided a [...]
BG Group completes LNG sale November 12, 2013 BG Group, the FTSE 100-listed oil and gas explorer, yesterday said it has completed the sale of its stake in the Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Australia to China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for $1.93bn (£1.21bn). Under a separate agreement, BG Group will supply CNOOC with an additional five million tonnes [...]
Sable resource boost at Nimba November 12, 2013 Aim-listed iron ore explorer Sable Mining yesterday announced a 32 per cent increase in its mineral resource at the Nimba iron ore project in south-east Guinea, following further exploration drilling. “This updated resource statement represents an important step towards the ongoing delineation of our 200m tonnes exploration target, and once again highlights the quality and [...]
M&S targeting booming India retail markets November 12, 2013 RETAILER Marks & Spencer is looking overseas to try to stem a steady decline in clothing sales, focusing on India to replicate a move towards more stylish fashions that has failed to convince consumers at home. Britain’s biggest clothing retailer said yesterday it planned to make India its biggest foreign market, increasing its store count [...]
Fraud Office ordered to disclose files in botched Tchenguiz case November 12, 2013 THE SERIOUS Fraud Office (SFO) was yesterday ordered by a High Court judge to disclose an additional 85,000 documents relating to a collapsed investigation. The documents relate to the SFO’s investigation into property entrepreneur Vincent Tchenguiz. The SFO arrested him and seized documents in an investigation into failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing – in a series of [...]
Gravity tops box office with £6.2m weekend November 12, 2013 WARNER Bros Pictures’ blockbuster Gravity, starring George Clooney (pictured) and Sandra Bullock, took the top spot at the UK box office in its opening weekend, taking £6.2m in ticket sales since it was released last Thursday. Eighty-nine per cent of ticket sales were for 3D-showings of the film, the biggest 3D share of any blockbuster in [...]
Retailers predict Mega Monday rush November 12, 2013 UK retailers are bracing themselves for a leap in online traffic this Christmas, with 2 December predicted to be the busiest internet shopping day of the year. According to research by Barclays bank nearly two thirds of high street retailers (63 per cent) surveyed expect website traffic to increase by 11 per cent on 2 [...]
Shops lost £3.4bn to crime last year November 12, 2013 Shoplifting, fraud and organised retail crime cost the UK high street more than £3.4bn last year, data released today shows. The report by market research Euromonitor International for retail security firm Checkpoint Systems shows that the cost of these losses to UK shoppers averaged £124.60 per household and represented 1.2 per cent of retail sales [...]
