Ceramics firm Morgan Advanced Materials sees profits shattered February 12, 2015 Carbon and ceramic products maker Morgan Advanced Materials (MAM) yesterday reported a 50.7 per cent slump in profits for 2014. In 2013, the company’s profit was £64m, against £31.5m last year. The full year results were published only two weeks after the appointment of Morgan’s new chief executive Pete Raby, who will take up his [...]
City Moves for 13 February 2015 | Who’s switching jobs February 12, 2015 Institute of Directors Lady Barbara Judge CBE has been appointed as the new chair of the IoD. A trained commercial lawyer, she is currently chair of the Pension Protect Fund and the Energy Institute of UCL, as well as non-executive director of Portmeirion Group. Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking Lucy Barton has been appointed as a [...]
Best of the Brokers for 13 February 2015 February 12, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com UNICREDIT S&P Capital lowered its “buy” rating to “hold” for the banking and financial services firm. Net income of €170m in the fourth quarter of 2014 was below consensus of €229m. Revenue of €5.6bn (minus 3.4 per cent year-on-year) fell one per cent [...]
Ukraine ceasefire boost for Coca Cola bottler helps FTSE – London Report February 12, 2015 COCA-COLA bottler HBC led the UK’s top share index higher yesterday, after news of a general ceasefire from Sunday in Ukraine’s east. The world’s second-largest bottler of Coca-Cola drinks, which counts Russia as its biggest market, surged 6.23 per cent after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the ceasefire agreement following peace talks in Minsk with [...]
Tech rally lifts Wall St stocks – New York Report February 12, 2015 US STOCKS ended sharply higher yesterday, with a rally in technology stocks leading the Nasdaq to a 15-year high, while a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine also eased tensions. Cisco Systems climbed 9.4 per cent, after earnings and revenue beat expectations. TripAdvisor soared 22.5 per cent after revenue topped forecasts. Fellow online travel company [...]
FTSE Shades of Grey: Why markets should not fear election uncertainty February 12, 2015 Many may well be planning their Valentine’s weekend around the much-anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey film, released today. But the fact we’re now 82 days away from the long-awaited General Election is more likely to get investors slightly hotter under the collar. Of course, in most cases, elections don’t matter very much at all to [...]
Criminal cartel agreements: Businesses need to know what they’re getting into February 12, 2015 You would not be alone in not knowing that there is such a thing as a criminal cartel, let alone how it is defined in UK law. But a significant change to this definition last year will mean that something few were aware of will now be increasingly on the radar of British businesses, who [...]
The rise of the expert patient has the power to transform the NHS February 12, 2015 The productivity of the NHS isn’t just important for our health. At 7 per cent of GDP, it matters for the whole economy. And this is why the next Parliament must see an efficiency revolution in the NHS, greater than any seen elsewhere or in the UK before. One important idea at the heart of [...]
Would you get a chip in your hand for work? February 12, 2015 The days of security codes and swipe cards could be soon forgotten. Microchips are commonly found in our computers, mobile phones, cats and dogs. But office workers? Not unless we’re suddenly about to become part cyborg. Yet that is exactly what the staff at Epicenter, a high-tech office block in Sweden, are currently being [...]
Film review: Love is Strange is a backwards romance with heart February 12, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Traditional love stories end with a wedding. Love is Strange flips fairy-tale romance on its head, beginning with a marriage and following it up with a sweet, sad separation. Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been together for 39 years, and when a law change in New York [...]
