Oil rig safety could delay projects October 15, 2013 A shortage of skilled oil and gas safety engineers will cause delays to projects in the near future, a new study warns. Josh Finlay, consultant at Interim Partners, which undertook the research, told City A.M. that an ageing workforce qualified to do safety checks on oil rigs means that demand will outweigh supply in five [...]
Bellway expects strong demand as profits jump October 15, 2013 BRITISH housebuilder Bellway said easing mortgage lending and improved consumer confidence helped it deliver a 34 per cent rise in full year profit, and said the current year had started strongly. The Newcastle-based company said yesterday pre-tax profit for the year to 31 July rose to £140.9m, from £105.3m, on a 10.6 per cent increase [...]
Summer sales up 10 per cent on the Eurostar October 15, 2013 EUROSTAR has said the British economy is picking up speed, taking sales of its cross-Channel train tickets with it in the third quarter of 2013. The firm said yesterday that sales rose 10 per cent on last year to £207m, as 2.7m passengers took trips between the UK and the continent, up five per cent. [...]
H&M revenues catch a chill in September October 15, 2013 HIGH street clothing giant H&M yesterday said like-for-like sales fell by two per cent in September compared with the same month last year. This was in line with expectations but was a significant fall on the 11-month high of four per cent growth reported in August.
SoftBank to buy Finnish mobile games maker in a £960m deal October 15, 2013 JAPANESE tech and telecoms group SoftBank is to buy a majority stake in Finnish mobile game maker Supercell, sharing the ¥150bn (£960.09m) price tag with subsidiary GungHo Online Entertainment. SoftBank said yesterday that the funding for a 51 per cent stake would be split 80-20 with GungHo, with the deal valuing the Finnish company at [...]
Alitalia investors approve share issue to keep firm from crashing October 15, 2013 INVESTORS in Alitalia unanimously approved a €300m (£253.5m) share issue to keep the near-bankrupt Italian airline flying yesterday. Alitalia’s biggest investor Air France-KLM, which had said it would seek tough conditions as part of any involvement in the capital raising exercise, gave its approval along with the airline’s other shareholders during an all-night meeting. The [...]
AstraZeneca to spend £275m on cancer firm October 15, 2013 DRUGS maker AstraZeneca said yesterday its MedImmune unit is buying biotech company Spirogen for up to $440m (£275m) to bolster its research and development pipeline in cancer treatments. Privately held Spirogen focuses on antibody-drug conjugate technology, which has the potential to directly target cancer tumours while safeguarding healthy cells, AstraZeneca said. AstraZeneca said it would [...]
Shanks dumps majority of solid waste business on Biffa for £9m October 15, 2013 LONDON-LISTED waste management business Shanks yesterday said it has agreed to sell the majority of its UK solid waste business to peer Biffa for £9.5m. In addition, Shanks will divest its remaining UK solid waste business – which collects, sorts and processes commercial and industrial waste – by selling its Blochairn and Kettering materials recycling [...]
City Moves for 16 October 2013 | Who’s switching jobs October 15, 2013 Taylor Wessing The law firm has announced the hire of Matthew Jones as a partner in its construction and engineering group. He was most recently at Nabarro, where he was a partner and head of its infrastructure group. JP Morgan Private Bank Pedro Gil has been appointed as an equity strategist for Europe, the Middle East [...]
Best of the Brokers for 16 October 2013 October 15, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com CSR UBS has upgraded the software group from “sell” to “neutral” with a price target of 530p following a recent dip in the share price. The broker thinks the current value reflects seven per cent annual growth, and expects to see third-quarter results [...]
