RBS in the red as mega-fines for PPI mis-selling and forex-rigging wipe out profit April 30, 2015 RBS could be on-track to pay a dividend if its turnaround continues, its chief executive said yesterday, as the bank’s underlying profitability improved in the first quarter of 2015. But it made another loss, this time of £446m, as it struggles through its restructuring, and set aside another £856m to cover legal costs and [...]
Royal Mail share price sent higher by end to rival Whistl’s LDC deal April 30, 2015 Royal Mail shares shot up 5.3 per cent yesterday on news Lloyds private equity arm LDC had pulled out of investment talks with the owner of rival postal service Whistl. LDC said its decision to end discussions with Dutch postal operator PostNL was due to “ongoing changes in postal market dynamics and the complexity [...]
Home is where the money is for Dreamworks April 30, 2015 Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation yesterday reported a 13 per cent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by Home, its only release this year. However net loss widened to $54.8m (£35.7m) in the quarter ending 31 March from $42.9m a year ago. Revenue was $166.5m.
Shell mirrors BP as worldwide earnings slide April 30, 2015 ANALYSTS likened Shell’s first quarter performance to that of rival BP after it beat expectations – despite posting a 32 per cent reduction in pre-tax profits. Income fell from $8.55bn (£5.58bn) in the first three months of 2014 to $5.84bn in the same period of this year, while revenue dropped from $109.7bn to $65.7bn. Earlier [...]
Clapham Junction train chaos: Incompetence leads to more travel delays for commuters, says Chuka Umunna April 30, 2015 Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said last night that “everyday incompetence, more than extraordinary circumstance,” is causing repeated travel delays for London commuters. Umunna’s comments came after a day of disastrous travel for south Londoners. An electrical problem at Clapham Junction prompted the cancellation of all trains in and out of Victoria station, leaving [...]
LinkedIn shares plunge by 25pc as outlook cut April 30, 2015 LINKEDIN shares plummeted by 25 per cent in after hours trading after the networking company cut its revenue and earnings guidance for the year. The business networking site lost around $7bn (£4.6bn) from its market capitalisation after it warned sales this quarter would be $670-$675m – well under analyst forecasts of $717.5m. The share damage [...]
When raiders strike: Are US activist investors in City boardrooms a force for good or a costly nuisance? April 30, 2015 When US investor Nelson Peltz walks into a boardroom carrying a piece of paper you know there’s going to be trouble. Peltz, best known in the UK for bouncing Cadbury’s into a series of spin-outs and mergers, has a tried and tested tactic for effecting change: meet a chief executive, present him with a [...]
Uber eyes move into luxury deliveries April 30, 2015 UBER is eyeing its first foray into retail with plans to launch a new luxury shopping delivery service as it seeks new ways of tapping into its huge inventory of drivers around the world. The controversial taxi app has already been trialling a new courier service, called UberRush, in New York, letting customers request a [...]
UK economy doing better than GDP figures suggest April 30, 2015 New data suggest that the UK’s economic growth has been understated by official figures, and is also likely to strengthen in the coming months. A survey of small and medium-sized manufacturers revealed that many saw increases in total domestic orders, output and employment in the three months to April. Firms are also expecting [...]
Eurozone inflation and jobs improve but recovery remains fragile, experts warn April 30, 2015 Inflation and unemployment in the Eurozone are gradually improving, but economists warn the currency bloc’s recovery is fragile. Prices failed to fall – or rise – registering zero change in April compared with the same month last year, figures released yesterday by Eurostat reveal. Inflation is now closer to the European Central Bank’s [...]
