Xstrata resumes dividends despite profit drop February 8, 2010 MINING group Xstrata is re-introduce dividend payments despite reporting a fall in full-year profits. The company’s pre-tax profits fell to $1.87bn (£1.2bn) in 2009 – down from $6.05bn the previous year. One-off costs and lower commodity prices hit the company’s profits. But it said the medium-term outlook for commodity demand remained “very promising”. Xstrata scrapped [...]
Ethel Austin plunges into administration February 8, 2010 CLOTHING retailer Ethel Austin has gone into administration. The 300-strong chain will continue trading as normal whilst a search is made for a new buyer, administrators MCR said. Redundancies have not been ruled out and MCR admitted there were “no guarantees” that a buyer could be found in the hard-hit retail sector. Administrators blamed the [...]
BAE Systems fined £280m over corruption charges February 5, 2010 BAE Systems is to pay a fine of $400m (£250m) after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiring to make false statements to the US government. The UK’s largest defence group has also reached agreement with the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to plead guilty to breach of duty to keep accounting records. That case [...]
BA reports ‘better than expected’ £50m loss February 5, 2010 BRITISH Airways has reported a £50m pre-tax loss for the third quarter as passenger numbers fell. The result for the three months to December 31 was better than the £151m forecast by analysts. The airline’s deficit for the first nine months of its financial year was £342m. BA boss Willie Walsh said the better-than-expected results [...]
Waitrose sales jump by 15 per cent February 5, 2010 WAITROSE sales jumped by 15 per cent in the second half of last year. The figures mean Waitrose is fastest growing supermarket chain in Britain and come as Ocado – the online grocer that delivers Waitrose products – set a new record for the number of deliveries in a single day, of 17,500. New M&S [...]
Cadbury to delist from stock exchange February 5, 2010 KRAFT Foods has secured 75.41 per cent acceptances from Cadbury Plc shareholders in its takeover of the British confectioner and will now move to delist Cadbury form the London Stock Exchange. Kraft said in a statement that assuming it gets 90 per cent acceptances from Cadbury shareholders it intends to move toward the compulsorily purchase [...]
Bellway urges caution over housebuilding February 5, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Bellway today said it remains cautious over the prospects for the housing market despite a modest pick-up in sales in first-half trading. The Newcastle-based group sold 2,247 homes in the six months to the end of January, up 12 per cent on the previous year. Its order book stood at £390 million or 2,506 [...]
Four politicians to face charges over expenses February 4, 2010 FOUR politicians will face criminal charges over their expenses, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said. MPs Elliot Morley, Jim Devine, David Chaytor and peer Lord Hanningfield will face charges under the Theft Act. In a joint statement the MPs said they denied any wrongdoing and would “defend our position robustly”. Police have investigated a [...]
Panasonic bounces back after cost-cutting February 4, 2010 ELECTRONICS group Panasonic has reported its second straight quarterly profit – after an extensive cost-cutting campaign. Pre-tax profit between October and December came in at 32.3bn yen (£228m), compared with a net loss of 63.1bn for the same period a year earlier. The improvement was “due mainly to comprehensive streamlining of management”, the firm said. [...]
US unemployment in surprise drop February 4, 2010 UNEMPLOYMENT in the US has dropped to a five-month low of 9.7 per cent. The new figures suggest the labour market is improving – even though employers unexpectedly shed 20,000 jobs in January. One poll of analysts had forecast that the unemployment rate would edge up to 10.1 per cent for the month, from 10 [...]
