Go-Ahead hails buses for profit September 5, 2013 LONDON buses have helped Go- Ahead Group beat profit forecasts for the year. The FTSE 250 firm said pre-tax profits fell eight per cent to £86.2m, though this was ahead of analyst forecasts, as bus revenues rose 11.4 per cent to a record £78.2m. Rail profits, however, fell 39 per cent to £24.3m as the [...]
EasyJet back on the ascent as its traffic over the summer bounces September 5, 2013 SHARES in budget airline EasyJet bounced yesterday as it posted a 3.9 per cent jump in passengers during August to 6.1m. The budget carrier, whose shares had been slammed by a shock profit warning from rival Ryanair on Wednesday, said its planes were 1.1 percentage points more full compared to a year ago. In the [...]
Betfair feels better for slimming down September 5, 2013 BETFAIR is starting to reap the benefits of cost-cutting and its focus on attracting more punters in well regulated betting markets such as Britain and Ireland, the online gambling company said yesterday. Betfair has been forced to defend its strategy after rejecting a £1bn takeover by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in May. Revenues [...]
Dixons Retail offloads troubled Pixmania arm September 5, 2013 DIXONS Retail is to sell its loss-making French business Pixmania to German industrial conglomerate Mutares, a year after taking control of the business. The electronics chain said yesterday it will provide Mutares with a dowry of €69m (£58m), which will be ringfenced to help turn the business around. The deal, which will take around four [...]
Dixons Retail offloads troubled Pixmania arm September 5, 2013 DIXONS Retail is to sell its loss-making French business Pixmania to German industrial conglomerate Mutares, a year after taking control of the business. The electronics chain said yesterday it will provide Mutares with a dowry of €69m (£58m), which will be ringfenced to help turn the business around. The deal, which will take around four [...]
Bottom Line: Investors are right to cheer next stage in this retailer’s recovery September 5, 2013 DIXONS may have turned in a decent set of first quarter results yesterday, but what really had investors piling in was the long-awaited disposal of problem child Pixmania – even though it came with a £58m dent to the balance sheet. They’re right to be breathing a sigh of relief. Though the dowry is large, [...]
Spirit basks in warm summer September 5, 2013 SPIRIT Pub Company, the firm behind brands such as Chef & Brewer, Flaming Grill and Fayre & Square, has enjoyed a sales boost from the warm summer weather, it said yesterday. The company’s managed pubs have experienced a growth in like-for-like food and like-for-like drink sales of 4.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively [...]
Glaxo suffers setback in trials for its new vaccine for cancer September 5, 2013 AN EXPERIMENTAL cancer vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline failed to help melanoma patients in a closely watched late-stage clinical trial, dealing a blow to the pharma giant’s high-risk, high-reward project. Britain’s biggest drugmaker said yesterday that it would continue with the Phase III trial of its Mage-A3 therapeutic vaccine to see if it benefited a subset of [...]
BG Group sells stake in LNG asset September 5, 2013 FTSE 100-listed oil and gas company BG Group yesterday said it has completed the sale of its final 20 per cent stake in Quintero LNG, a Chilean liquid to natural gas terminal, for $176m (£113m). The previously announced deal was part of an agreement to sell BG Group’s entire 40 per cent stake in Quintero [...]
Union Jack’s losses widen September 5, 2013 Aim-listed energy explorer Union Jack Oil’s pre-tax losses widened to £238,246 in the first half of 2013, almost doubling from losses of £142,573 the previous year. The firm also revealed in yesterday’s first-half results statement that it had made no revenues over the period, which was flat on last year. However, the company said that [...]
