Taylor Wimpey returns to profit March 3, 2011 Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey swung to an underlying annual profit, ahead of expectations, and said it was evaluating proposals for its North American business. The builder is in the process of selling its Taylor Morrison operations to pay down debt and focus on its domestic market, with a growing list of potential buyers, including Canada’s privately-held [...]
Glencore profit leaps as it lines up listing March 3, 2011 Privately held Glencore, the world’s largest commodity trader, posted a 42 per cent rise on half-year profit as it prepares for a possible giant stockmarket listing. The Swiss trader posted first-half net income of $1.56bn (£955.3m) as significantly higher metal prices boosted profit from its own mines and other assets. Company executives spent two days [...]
Serco profit rises but warns over UK headwinds March 2, 2011 British outsourcing group Serco posted a 21 per cent rise in full-year profit, helped by strong revenue growth in the Americas, while it admitted government cuts were hitting the UK market. Serco, which runs London’s cycle-hire scheme, several prisons in Britain and Dubai’s metro, said pre-tax profit rose to £214m. Shares in the FTSE 100 [...]
Construction activity hits eight-month high March 2, 2011 Construction activity grew at its fastest pace in eight months in February, boosted by new business, the monthly Markit/CIPS purchasing managers index showed. The headline activity index rose to 56.5 in February from 53.7 in January, confounding analysts’ forecasts for a fall to 52.9. The construction sector suffered a sharp downturn at the end of [...]
Standard Chartered profit up March 2, 2011 Asia-focussed Standard Chartered Bank earnings met expectations, reporting a 52 per cent rise in second-half net profit amid strong growth in emerging markets. The bank reported a net profit of $2.13bn (£1.31bn) for July-December, up from $1.4bn a year earlier. Standard Chartered is based in London but generates more than 80 per cent of its [...]
ITV to restore dividend as ad revenue rises March 2, 2011 Broadcaster ITV plans to restore its dividend in July after advertising revenues rose 12 per cent in the first quarter, following a recovery in 2010 which helped the firm to double its earnings. However the group warned that it remained cautious in terms of the economic outlook for the rest of the year and the [...]
Whitbread buys Coffee Nation for £59.5m March 2, 2011 Britain’s biggest hotel and coffee shop operator Whitbread it had agreed to acquire self serve coffee bar chain Coffee Nation for £59.5m. Whitbread, which owns Costa Coffee, said the acquisition would enable it to develop a new brand, Costa Express. It is targeting having 3,000 self serve coffee bars across Britain over the next five [...]
PPL in £3.5bn deal for E.ON’s UK network March 2, 2011 US power firm PPL Corp is buying German utility E.ON AG’s UK power networks for £3.5bn in cash to create one of the largest electricity distributors in Britain. PPL, which beat a rival bid from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing according to people familiar with the matter, would also assume £500m of debt. The deal, [...]
Mortgage approvals pick up in January March 1, 2011 Mortgage approvals picked up more than expected in January and mortgage lending rose to its highest in almost a year, Bank of England figures showed. However, consumer credit contracted at its fastest pace in over a year and money supply growth remained weak, suggesting overall credit conditions remained far from normal at a time of [...]
Manufacturing PMI holds record high in February March 1, 2011 Manufacturing growth held at a record level in February and factory costs stayed near January’s survey high, suggesting price pressures are continuing to build, a survey showed. The Markit/CIPS headline manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 61.5 in February, unchanged from a downwardly revised 61.5 in January. That was the highest since the survey [...]
