Retail sales slide May 23, 2012 Retail sales fell at their fastest monthly pace in more than two years in April, after a record drop in fuel sales and a weather-related drop in clothing sales, official data showed. The weak start into the second quarter highlights the ongoing weakness of the economy and may raise speculation about another cash boost from [...]
PTT trumps Shell’s bid for Cove May 23, 2012 Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production has trumped Royal Dutch Shell’s bid for Mozambique-focused explorer Cove Energy by offering £1.22bn ($1.9bn). The move shows the growing international interest in East African gas finds. Cove management said just hours ahead of a deadline for investors to accept Shell’s bid, it now backed PTT’s 240 pence per share [...]
Nationwide mortgage lending jumps by 44pc May 23, 2012 Nationwide, Britain’s biggest customer-owned financial services group, reported a 44 per cent increase in loans to home buyers in its last fiscal year, including a sharp rise in the number of mortgages provided to first-time home buyers. Gross residential mortgage lending rose to £18.4bn in the year to 4 April, up from £12.8bn the year [...]
Burberry profit jumps by a quarter May 23, 2012 British luxury brand Burberry posted a 26 per cent jump in profit as expected and said it would invest up to £200m in new outlets and expanding existing stores in London, Chicago and Hong Kong. The 156-year-old seller of raincoats and leather goods, known for its camel, red and black check pattern, said on Wednesday [...]
Eurozone consumer confidence nudges up May 22, 2012 Eurozone consumer confidence nudged higher in May, though inflation and unemployment continued to temper improvements in sentiment. The European Commission said a flash estimate showed euro zone consumer morale rose to -19.3 in May. That compared to a revised -19.9 in April, for which the Commission had previously reported a figure of -19.8. In the [...]
Tesco chief turns down £372,000 bonus May 22, 2012 Tesco boss Philip Clarke has opted not to take an annual bonus of about £372,000 following a poor performance by the world’s third-biggest retailer in its main British market. Shares in Tesco, which issued a shock profit warning in January, have lost almost a quarter of their value this year and the company is now [...]
FTSE rises fuelled by miners May 22, 2012 The FTSE 100 picked up again this morning as some of last week’s losses were recouped. Hopes that Eurozone leaders were making progress as they tackled the debt mountain engulfing the bloc helped sentiment. One of the ideas to save struggling economies is to issue eurobonds. But an OECD report warned that the fragile global [...]
Inflation falls to two-year low May 22, 2012 UK inflation dropped in April taking the Consumer Prices Index measure to three per cent. The rate fell from 3.5 per cent in March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The figure was attributed to a fall in transport prices. This is the first time this Parliament that Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn [...]
Yell reports £1.4bn loss May 22, 2012 Debt-laden Yell Group posted a £1.42bn full year loss mostly due to a writedown of the value of operations and said it had appointed advisors to help put a new capital structure in place. Yell, best known for its printed Yellow Pages directories and struggling under the burden of debts mostly maturing in April 2014, [...]
Vodafone cuts sales targets as European markets struggle May 22, 2012 Vodafone cut a medium-term sales growth target as customers in southern Europe slashed spending and regulators upped the pressure on the world’s largest mobile operator. The company took impairment charges of £4bn relating to its businesses in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Vodafone posted full-year results in line with forecasts and said it expected growth [...]
