Barratt sees sales slow in tough market November 17, 2010 Barratt Developments has reported an autumn slowdown in house reservations as economic uncertainty continues to weigh on buyers. Net private reservations per active site stood at 0.45 compared with 0.55 in the period a year ago, as buyers took longer to commit. The company said last month’s spending review had drained some confidence from the [...]
Experian hikes dividend as profit jumps November 17, 2010 Credit information group Experian hiked its interim dividend and said it continued to look at ways of returning cash to shareholders after a stronger than expected first half. “We will continue to evaluate options for returning surplus cash to shareholders,” the company said in a statement after raising its first interim dividend by 29 per [...]
Northern Foods and Greencore plan merger November 17, 2010 Food manufacturer Northern Foods has agreed to merge with Ireland’s Greencore Group to create a combined group with annual sales of around £1.7bn. The deal will see the creation of a combined business to be named Essenta Foods which will be headquartered in Dublin, the companies said in a joint statement. Northern Foods shareholders will [...]
Icap revenue up despite subdued trading November 17, 2010 Icap it has shrugged off “generally quieter markets” in the six months to the end of September to report revenue up nine per cent at £867m. Profits before tax rose two per cent at the inter-dealer broker to £183m from £179m in the same period last year, and it increased its dividend by three per [...]
Icap revenue up despite subdued markets November 17, 2010 Icap it has shrugged off “generally quieter markets” in the six months to the end of September to report revenue up nine per cent at £867m. Profits before tax rose two per cent to £183m from £179m in the same period last year, and it increased its dividend by three per cent to 5.27p a [...]
Glazers to pay off £220m of Man Utd loans November 16, 2010 Manchester United’s American owners plan to reduce the the club’s debt by paying off high-interest loans, worth around £220m. The Payment in Kind (PIK) loans were taken out with three US hedge funds to help the Glazer family bankroll a £790m takeover of the club in 2005. Joel Glazer, the club’s joint chairman, has written [...]
Easyjet profit triples November 16, 2010 Easyjet has seen profits almost triple as passenger numbers rose and fuel became cheaper. The carrier made profits of £154m in the 12 months to September, up from £55m a year earlier. Passenger volumes increased by eight per cent in the year to £49m, helping to push its share of the European market up to [...]
CPI in unexpected rise to 3.2pc November 16, 2010 The UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rate rose to a four-month high of 3.2 per cent in October, according to official figures. Analysts had expected the CPI figure to remain the same at 3.1 per cent. Meanwhile, Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation fell slightly to 4.5 per cent, down from 4.6 per cent a [...]
Rothschild’s Vallar spends $3bn on acquisitions November 16, 2010 Vallar unveiled its first acquisitions in its quest to build up a mid-tier mining house, paying $3bn (£1.8bn) in cash and new shares to buy stakes in two major Indonesian coal producers. Vallar, which raised $1.1bn in a London listing in July, said o it was to buy stakes of 75 per cent in PT [...]
Enterprise Inns signals dividend return November 16, 2010 Britain’s biggest pubs group Enterprise Inns said it was confident of resuming dividend payments in the medium term after reporting full-year results in line with expectations Enterprise, which has 6,820 pubs across Britain, made a pre-tax profit before exceptional items of £175M in the year to 30 September, down from £208m the year before. “We [...]
