RBS posts profit as investors await share sale July 30, 2015 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) reported an unexpected profit in the second quarter yesterday, with the majority state-owned bank boosting its stock ahead of an impending sale of shares currently held by the UK government. RBS made an attributable profit of £293m, up 27 per cent on the same period last year. Analysts had expected a [...]
Expansion plan boosts Intu’s income July 30, 2015 SHOPPING centre landlord Intu yesterday unveiled a “significant increase” in rental income and earnings in the first half of the year, thanks to acquisitions in Spain and expansion in the UK. The owner of the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Lakeside in Essex recently bought the Puerto Venecia centre in Zaragoza and a site of [...]
Strong UK job market helps boost profits at recruiter Robert Walters July 30, 2015 GLOBAL recruitment firm Robert Walters delivered a 74 per cent rise in profit before tax during the first half the year, it announced yesterday. It raked in £377.6m in revenue over the period, up from £310m during the same time last year. Income from fees in the UK climbed 20 per cent to £38.7m. Strength [...]
Brazil’s Vale swings back to profit despite lagging commodity prices July 30, 2015 BRAZILIAN mining firm Vale managed a return to profit in the second quarter, despite flagging commodity markets. Profit climbed to $1.7bn (£1.1bn) in the period, up from a $3.1bn loss in the first quarter, and improving on the $1.4bn profit reported for the second quarter of 2014. The group also posted record second quarter iron [...]
Oil companies on the brink as capex projects are cancelled July 30, 2015 The collapse in oil prices has tested exploration and production companies like never before. Around $200bn of capex projects have been cancelled, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie, and since March at least six oil companies have filed for bankruptcy. A report issued by Goldman Sachs recently ranked 28 businesses by the strength [...]
City Moves for 31 July 2015 | Who’s switching jobs July 30, 2015 Allianz Worldwide Care The health and life insurance firm has appointed Ida Luka-Lognoné as chief executive. Before joining Allianz Worldwide Partners’ executive committee in January 2014, responsible for strategy, innovation, and market management, she was chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Allianz Global Assistance. Luka-Lognoné has also held roles at Elvia Travel [...]
Astrazeneca’s revenue better than forecast July 30, 2015 ASTRAZENECA revenue fell by a smaller-than-expected seven per cent in the second quarter, as income from selling rights to medicines offset generic competition to older drugs and a strong dollar. The drugmaker increased its revenue forecast for the year and said it now expected a low single-digit percentage decline, against mid single-digit previously, while core [...]
Gillette owner P&G shaves a bit off the Dow – New York Report July 30, 2015 WALL STREET ended flat yesterday as investors digested mediocre corporate earnings and new data showed that the economy grew more quickly in the second quarter. Procter & Gamble, owner of Gillette, Facebook and Whole Foods Market all fell after quarterly reports left investors wanting more. US economic growth accelerated in the June quarter as solid consumer [...]
Milton Friedman has been proven right about the “gnomes” from Brussels July 30, 2015 The American Nobel laureate Milton Friedman (1912-2006), who would have turned 103 today, was not a big fan of the European project. We can ascertain Friedman’s views on the euro by looking back to the early 1950s. At the time, Germany was battling with a large current account deficit, and Friedman published a memo on [...]
Why the Bank of England should follow the Fed and raise interest rates this year July 30, 2015 GDP figures out earlier this week confirmed that the UK economy is growing well. In five of the past six quarters, UK GDP has risen by 0.7 per cent or more. The annualised growth rate over this period has been 3 per cent. The services sector has been the main engine of growth. Retail, distribution [...]
