Punch struggles as Spirit rises December 16, 2011 Pub group Punch Taverns said like-for-like net income from its core estate for the first 16 weeks of the new financial year fell 1.5 per cent, while sales at its demerged unit Spirit Pub Co for the same period rose 6.2 per cent. Punch’s average net income per pub across the full estate, however, rose [...]
BP reaches deal with Cameron Intl over oil spill payouts December 16, 2011 Cameron International Corp said BP had agreed to indemnify the company for current and future compensatory claims associated with the Deepwater Horizon incident. As part of the deal, Cameron said it had agreed to pay $250m to BP. Cameron said the company’s insurers are expected to fund not less than $170 million of this agreement [...]
Spanish borrowing costs fall December 15, 2011 Spain saw solid demand for medium- and long-term bonds paying over two percentage points less to issue a 5-year bond than Italy this week, as Madrid’s cost cutting helped ease concerns it was the euro zone’s weakest link. But while the Treasury also paid much less to sell two 10-year bonds than a similar issue [...]
UK factory orders drop December 15, 2011 Factory orders suffered their biggest drop in more than a year in December after a further weakening of export prospects due to the euro zone debt crisis, the CBI’s industrial trends survey showed on Thursday. The Confederation of British Industry survey’s total order book balance fell this month to –23 from -19 in November, the [...]
Retail sales fall 0.4pc in November December 15, 2011 Retail sales fell by 0.4 per cent in November from October, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics The fall is slightly more than the 0.3 per cent monthly drop that economist had forecast and comes amid big discounting by High Street stores Excluding fuel, retail sales fell 0.7 per cent on the [...]
German manufacturing slows for third month December 15, 2011 German manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in December and looked unlikely to provide a lift to Europe’s largest economy soon as new orders continued to dry up, a survey showed. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector by Markit showed a slight improvement, edging up to 48.1 from 47.9 in November, but [...]
Sports Direct to hit profit forecast December 15, 2011 Sports Direct, Britain’s biggest sporting goods retailer, posted a two per cent rise in first-half profit and said it was on track to meet its target for the year. The firm, controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, said it was confident of reaching its full year target for underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation [...]
Old Mutual to sell Nordic unit for £2bn December 15, 2011 Insurer Old Mutual is planning to sell its Nordic business to Skandia Liv for 22.5bn Swedish crowns (£2.1bn), to cut debt and return surplus capital from the deal to shareholders. The businesses being sold comprise Old Mutual’s long-term savings and banking operations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden operating under the Skandia brand. “The sale of [...]
Morrisons to create 7,000 jobs December 14, 2011 Britain’s fourth largest grocer Wm Morrison Supermarkets said it will create over 7,000 new jobs in 2012, as it opens 25 new stores and develops its manufacturing and logistics operations. The firm, which created about 6,000 jobs this year, said on Wednesday that many of the new jobs created next year will be skilled positions [...]
Italy bond auction at record 6.47 per cent December 14, 2011 Italy paid a euro era record yield of 6.47 per cent to sell five-year paper at its first auction of longer-term debt after the EU moved towards greater fiscal integration at last week’s summit, but failed to convince markets it can solve the debt crisis. The average yield at THE sale compares with an auction [...]
