Bingo! Rank Group reports a full house of half-year profits January 29, 2015 MECCA bingo owner Rank Group yesterday reported a 29 per cent rise in half-year profit, helped by its Grosvenor casino business and online operations. Rank said adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £35.8m in the first half ended 31 December, from £27.7m a year earlier. Revenue from continuing operations rose three per cent to £361.7m. Spend [...]
P2P Global sees its shares jump 5.75pc on first day of trading January 29, 2015 PEER-to-peer lender P2P Global Investments yesterday saw its C-shares rise from 1,000p to 1,057.50p, an increase of 5.75 per cent on their first day of trading. The investment trust raised £250m in a heavily over-subscribed C-share issue, giving the rapidly expanding peer-to-peer lending sector a further boost. The successful fund raising more than doubles the [...]
Sizzling Christmas fails to stop Cranswick revenues going cold January 29, 2015 BRITISH pork and pies producer Cranswick saw its shares close down almost two per cent yesterday after it announced underlying revenues for the third quarter were down three per cent. Shares in the FTSE 250-listed company closed down 1.84 per cent yesterday. The company put the bad quarter down to input prices growing, which were [...]
M&B sees some Christmas cheer as sales increase January 29, 2015 PUB GROUP Mitchells & Butlers yesterday said it saw a good performance over the festive trading period. However, it warned its margins remained under pressure owing to the integration of the Orchid business, which it purchased for £266m last June, and pricing pressures. The FTSE 250-listed company said sales in the 17 weeks to 27 January [...]
Russian trading drags on ITE Group January 29, 2015 BRITISH trade show organiser ITE Group said like-for-like sales in Russia, its biggest market, have been running 20 per cent behind last year’s over the past two months. “Trading conditions in Russia have deteriorated over the past two months following the fall in oil prices and the consequent fall in the value of the rouble [...]
Lenta puts the brakes on expansion plans January 29, 2015 RUSSIAN hypermarket chain Lenta said yesterday it would open fewer stores in 2015 than last year due to the high cost of debt and a weak economy. It still plans to double selling space by the end of 2016, a commitment it made when listing shares in London last year. Lenta’s sales grew 30.6 per [...]
City Moves for 30 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 29, 2015 Standard Chartered Aaron Russell-Davison has been appointed head of debt capital markets at the bank. He joined Standard Chartered in 2009, and has worked as head of Asian bond syndicate, global head, bond syndicate, and most recently as head of capital markets, ASEAN. UBS Global Asset Management Rachel Hill has been appointed UK business development [...]
Best of the Brokers for 30 January 2015 January 29, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com AVON RUBBER WH Ireland reiterated its “buy” rating for the design and engineering company after it released a positive update for the first quarter of 2015. The broker also said that the outlook across both of the firm’s divisions remains positive. Target price [...]
Oil lows hurt Shell but give EasyJet an easy ride on FTSE – London Report January 29, 2015 OIL GIANT Royal Dutch Shell weighed heavily on the FTSE-100 yesterday after it missed profit expectations. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended down 0.2 per cent at 6,810.60 points as Shell dropped 4.9 per cent, among the worst-performing FTSE 100 stocks in percentage terms. The company also announced a $15bn (£9.9bn) cut in spending due [...]
US stocks rise on mixed data – New York Report January 29, 2015 AN AFTERNOON rally, helped by an upturn in oil prices, offset some disappointing earnings results on Wall Street yesterday. The S&P 500 had fallen as much as 0.6 per cent earlier, led by energy stocks, which then reversed direction along with crude prices. Harman International shares rose 23.8 per cent, making it the biggest S&P [...]
