Carphone Warehouse boosted by smartphones July 28, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse beat quarterly revenue forecasts, boosted by demand for smartphones, and said its megastore partnership with US group Best Buy had a successful launch. The British group it remained cautious about the economic environment but was confident of achieving the full-year guidance it outlined in April. Sales at stores open at least a year [...]
Apollo raises bid for Brit Insurance July 28, 2010 Brit Insurance has said Apollo Management had raised its takeover bid to £10.75p a share, valuing it at about £850m ($1.32bn), and that it has opened its books to the US buyout firm. The Lloyd’s of London insurer had rebuffed an improved takeover proposal of £10.50p per share earlier this month, up from Apollo’s original [...]
Lloyds shelves plans to ditch stake in St James’s Place July 28, 2010 UK wealth manager St James’s Place said its majority shareholder Lloyds Banking Group has shelved plans to dispose of its majority stake ending months of uncertainty that had depressed the shares. “The directors recognise that there has been growing uncertainty over the intentions of our majority shareholder… Lloyds has indicated that it has no intention [...]
easyJet revenue up despite ash cloud chaos July 28, 2010 Airline easyJet posted a 5.3 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue, despite disruption caused by volcanic ash, and said it would report an annual profit of at least £100m. The airline, the biggest carrier at Gatwick airport, said sales rose to £759.2m in the three months to the end of June but that the ash [...]
Centrica profit soars by 65pc July 28, 2010 ENERGY supplier Centrica has seen its operating profit soar by 65 per cent in the first half of the year. Centrica, which is the parent company pf British Gas, saw a profit of £1.56bn up until the end of June. British Gas profits doubled to £585m compared to £295m last year. The cold weather at [...]
Former Northern Rock finance chief fined July 27, 2010 THE former finance director of Northern Rock, the bank which nearly collapsed during the credit crisis and had to be nationalised, has been slapped with a fine for mis-reporting mortgage arrears figures. Financial Services Authority (FSA) officials confirmed that David Jones had been ordered to pay £320,000. It also banned him from “performing any function [...]
ARM profit up 167 per cent in smartphone boost July 27, 2010 CHIP designer ARM Holdings posted a 167 per cent higher second-quarter profit, beating analysts’ expectations, helped by increasing demand for smartphones, netbooks and tablet computers. The company, whose designs are in more than 95 per cent of the world’s mobile phones, posted pretax profit of £43.5m on 54 per cent higher revenue of £100m – [...]
Tomkins agrees to £2.9bn bid July 27, 2010 A Canadian consortium has succeeded in its bid to buy car parts maker Tomkins for about £2.9bn, despite one of the company’s main shareholders calling for the bid to be rejected. Pinafore Acquisitions, a vehicle formed by Onex and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for the purpose of acquiring Tomkins, has offered to buy [...]
Deutsche Bank profit holds up July 27, 2010 DEUTSCHE Bank posted second-quarter pretax profit in line with expectations, helped by lower loan loss provisions amid weaker industry trends in investment banking. Deutsche’s corporate banking and securities division, which posted 779 million euros (£653.4m) in pretax profit, and global transaction banking with 478 million euros, accounted for the lion’s share of 1.52bn in group [...]
BP in record £11bn loss July 27, 2010 BP has said it has put aside £20.8bn to cover the costs linked to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That means the company’s loss between April and June was £11bn – the largest in British corporate history. BP also confirmed that under-fire chief executive Tony Hayward would leave the company in October. [...]
