Brand Index: Welby’s challenge highlights how vulnerable Wonga is July 30, 2013 LAST week, in an interview with Total Politics magazine, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said that he has told Wonga CEO Errol Damelin he wants to compete the payday loans company out of existence by strengthening credit unions. Mentions of Wonga were seen by 45 per cent of UK Twitter users on Thursday and [...]
GKN tops FTSE as planemakers hike production July 30, 2013 ENGINEERING firm GKN topped the FTSE 100 yesterday after beating forecasts with a five per cent rise in half-year profits to £278m. The results were boosted by a strong performance from GKN’s aerospace unit, which makes airframes for Airbus and Boeing. The division posted a 37 per cent rise in profit, as plane makers ramped [...]
Covent Garden portfolio sends Capco property values soaring July 30, 2013 CAPITAL & Counties (Capco) said a strong performance from its bustling Covent Garden estate helped push the total value of its property up by 13 per cent to £2.1bn in the first half of the year. The developer has been sprucing up its Covent Garden portfolio, attracting trendy restaurants and retailers including Dior and the [...]
Weir profit fall beats forecast July 30, 2013 FTSE 100-listed engineering firm Weir Group yesterday posted a smaller than expected fall in first-half profit and said the continued recovery of the US energy market should help it meet full-year forecasts. Pre-tax profits declined by 14 per cent to £193m and revenue fell 10 per cent to £1.19bn over the period. “We anticipate good [...]
Generic drugs hit Big Pharma July 30, 2013 DRUGS companies Pfizer and Merck yesterday reported a substantial drop in quarterly revenues after losing exclusive rights to key drugs. Pfizer’s cholesterol drug Lipitor now faces competition from a variety of generic sources in Western Europe and the US. Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugs manufacturer, also lost its monopoly on a variety of other treatments during [...]
Pace rides US media boom July 30, 2013 PACE, the Yorkshire-based provider of set-top TV boxes, yesterday said its first-half profits had tripled thanks to huge sales growth in the North American market. A massive increase in demand in the US for media servers – devices that transmit TV and internet feeds to the screens of laptops, tablet and smartphones – means the [...]
African Barrick eyes cost cuts July 30, 2013 MINER African Barrick Gold said yesterday that it is targeting $185m (£121m) in cost cuts, after posting half-year losses of $701m due to a $727m impairment charge. The FTSE 250-listed firm was forced to take the charge due to the plummeting price of gold and a review of its lower grade mines. African Barrick has [...]
EDF pulls out of US nuclear July 30, 2013 FRENCH utility EDF, the world’s biggest operator of nuclear plants, is pulling out of nuclear energy in the United States, bowing to the realities of a market that has been transformed by cheap shale gas. Several nuclear reactors in the US have been closed or are being shuttered as utilities baulk at the big investments [...]
Petra Diamonds output rises 21pc July 30, 2013 Petra Diamonds yesterday said full-year diamond production rose 21 per cent to 2.67m carats, beating company guidance of 2.65m carats and the majority of analysts’ estimates. The miner’s revenue rose to $403m, up 27 per cent from $317m in 2012. “This is another solid result for Petra, as the company continues to deliver further significant [...]
Sainsbury’s loses Tesco ad fight July 30, 2013 The Advertising Standards Authority is today expected to dismiss a challenge to Tesco’s price promise campaign, which was brought by rival Sainsbury’s. As the supermarkets jostle for market share among cost-conscious customers, Sainsbury’s led a group complaining that Tesco’s price-matching scheme had unfairly compared the former’s Fairtrade products with the latter’s Everyday Value range.
