Ashley offloads a £100m stake in Sports Direct February 26, 2013 SHARES in Sports Direct fell six per cent yesterday after founder Mike Ashley sold £100m of his majority stake in the sports retailer, taking the market by surprise. Ashley sold 25m shares at 400p, a seven per cent discount to Monday’s closing price, in an accelerated bookbuilding run by Goldman Sachs. The book was two [...]
Buyback for Home Depot February 26, 2013 HOME Depot said yesterday it plans to buy back $17bn (£11.2bn) of its shares after the US retailer benefited from an uptick in the housing market and Hurricane Sandy repairs in its fourth quarter. The world’s biggest home improvement chain posted a 32 per cent rise in quarterly net earnings to $1bn, due in part [...]
Morrisons buys six HMV shops February 26, 2013 SUPERMARKET firm Morrisons last night announced it had bought six former HMV shops in London and the south east which it will convert into convenience stores. Its purchase of the units comes in the same week it bought 49 Blockbuster stores for the same purpose. The Yorkshire-based grocery business, a late entrant into the corner shop market, [...]
EU mobile boss wants to slash Ofcom powers February 26, 2013 THE EU’s top telecoms official has outlined plans for a unified European mobile market, a move that would boost cross-border giants such as Vodafone and reduce the power of UK communications regulator Ofcom. Speaking at the industry’s annual forum, Mobile World Congress, EU data commissioner Neelie Kroes said Europe was “falling behind” the US as [...]
ARM chips overtake Intel in tablets and PCs February 26, 2013 THE BOOM in demand for tablets may see British microchip designer ARM Holdings overtake US behemoth Intel in combined sales of tablet and personal computer chips for the first time. Ian Drew, the Cambridge based company’s head of marketing and business development told City A.M. that this year more tablets and PCs will be sold [...]
BlackBerry to boost its work with business February 26, 2013 BLACKBERRY is aiming to bolster its business with financial services firms following its launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Speaking to City A.M., BlackBerry’s managing director for UK and Ireland Rob Orr said the firm was focused on “remaining the gold standard” for enterprise customers. Financial services has historically been a huge source of business [...]
Geely reveals plans to increase sales of its iconic London taxis February 26, 2013 GEELY, the Chinese company that rode to the rescue of black cab maker Manganese Bronze last month, has unveiled ambitious plans for the company, including £100m of investment and 100 new UK jobs. The Chinese firm snapped up Coventry-based Manganese, which collapsed into administration in October after a production defect hit cashflows, last month for [...]
New rules on annuity sales February 26, 2013 PEOPLE approaching retirement will receive better advice to help them purchase the best possible annuity, according to a new code of conduct published yesterday by the Association of British Insurers. The code requires insurers to spell out options for buying an annuity – which converts pension savings into retirement income – up to two years before [...]
DCC is latest to flee to London February 26, 2013 IRISH services group DCC became the latest firm to ditch the Irish stock market in favour of a sole London listing. The distribution group, which is currently dual-listed, will delist from the Irish Stock Exchange on 3 May. It will then join the main market of the London Stock Exchange, and will cease to be [...]
First-time buys up to five year high in London February 26, 2013 FIRST-TIMERS rushed back to the London housing market in 2012, with first-time sales up to their highest since 2007. London housing transactions involving first-time buyers rocketed up 15 per cent between 2011 and 2012, from 32,400 to 37,300, according to Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) figures out yesterday. And the figure continued to rise through to the [...]
