London Stock Exchange sees drop in revenue January 21, 2010 LONDON Stock Exchange Group Plc has posted a 9 per cent fall in revenue for its third quarter and said it expected market conditions to be testing for the current quarter. LSE, like other European exchanges, has been losing market share to upstart multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) such as Chi-X and BATS since pan-European regulation [...]
Enterprise Inns sees sales lift January 21, 2010 PUB group Enterprise Inns reported improving sales after many of its struggling licensees saw a long-awaited upturn in business. The UK’s second largest pub company said average net income per pub declined by 4 per cent in the 16 weeks to 16 January – compared to 8 per cent in the last financial year. Shares [...]
Morrison beats rivals with festive sales boost January 21, 2010 SUPERMARKET chain Morrison posted the biggest rise in Christmas sales among Britain’s top four grocers – but urged caution about 2010. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 6.5 per cent, excluding petrol and VAT, in the six weeks to 3 January. Total revenue rose by 10.8 per cent for the period. Morrison, [...]
BSkyB loses appeal over ITV stake January 20, 2010 BSkyB has been ordered by a court to sell offload some of its 17.9 per cent stake in ITV. The broadcaster lost its appeal and was told to reduce its stake to below 7.5 per cent. BSkyB bought into the company for £940m in 2006 – effectively blocking cable group NTL from buying ITV. However, [...]
Surprise drop in unemployment figures January 20, 2010 THE number of people out of work in the UK has fallen for the first time in 18 months, official figures show today. There were 2.46m unemployed people in November, down from 2.49m the previous month. This puts the unemployment rate at 7.8 per cent, down from 7.9 per cent, according to the Office of [...]
Bank of America posts loss after repaying bailout January 20, 2010 BANK of America has posted a quarterly loss and its first full-year deficit in more than 20 years after repaying US bailout money and defaults on consumer loans. The fourth-quarter loss including the cost of exiting the Troubled Asset Relief Program widened to $5.2bn (£3.2bn) or 60 cents a share, from $2.4bn, or 48 cents, [...]
Comet in festive sales slump January 19, 2010 COMET dragged down sales at parent company Kesa as the electrical store failed beat off its rivals over Christmas. Like-for-like sales dropped by 3.9 per cent at Comet between 1 November and 8 January. Kesa’s overall sales fall was limited to 0.3 per cent after growth in its international businesses. Comet’s performance was overshadowed by [...]
Eurostar sees record ticket sales January 19, 2010 TICKET sales and passenger numbers at Eurostar edged up to a new record last year despite a series of breakdowns which left thousands of passengers stranded in the Channel Tunnel. Sales at Eurostar reached £675.5m – up 1.7 per cent on 2008. The company took £675.5m while passenger numbers rose 1.2 per cent to 9.2m. [...]
UK Mail posts rise in revenues January 19, 2010 ROYAL Mail rival UK Mail reported a rise in revenues for the last three months of 2009. Revenues rose 4 per cent compared to the same period last year. UK Mail’s chief executive Guy Buswell said a rise in marketing companies sending junk mail had driven sales in its business post operations. Strike action by [...]
Citigroup in £4.7bn loss January 19, 2010 CITIGROUP has reported a loss of $7.6bn (£4.7bn) for the final three months of 2009 after being hit by the repayment of government loans. The results were worse than had been forecast by analysts. Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit remained upbeat despite the huge loss. He said the bank had made “enormous progress in 2009”. [...]
