Olympus forecasts £261m loss February 13, 2012 Olympus Corp, which is trying to recover from an accounting scandal that battered its balance sheet, forecast a 32bn yen (£261m) full-year net loss – dragged down by its ailing camera business. The loss estimate for the financial year ending 31 March, compared with a 3.87bn yen net profit in the previous year, highlights the [...]
Vodafone eyeing offer for C&W Worldwide February 13, 2012 Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile operator by revenue, said it was weighing an offer for Britain’s Cable & Wireless Worldwide, and its fixed-line network that could boost bandwidth for its Internet hungry customers. “Vodafone regularly reviews opportunities in the sector and confirms that it is in the very early stages of evaluating the merits of [...]
Treasury to scrap Project Merlin lending targets February 10, 2012 The UK government will not extend a deal with banks requiring them to meet fixed lending targets to businesses, scrapping the ‘Project Merlin’ scheme designed to assist the economic recovery. Since the financial crisis of 2007, many smaller firms not able to raise funds on capital markets have found it difficult to borrow to finance [...]
US trade deficit widens February 10, 2012 The US trade deficit widened by 3.7 per cent to $48.8bn in December, official figures showed. That was up from a $47.06bn figure for the month earlier. Imports rose 1.3 per cent to a record $227.56bn. Meanwhile US exports edged up by 0.7 per cent, buoyed by the weak dollar.
Greeks strike in face of austerity cuts February 10, 2012 Greek workers are once again striking against their state’s austerity measures – just hours after eurozone finance ministers said Athens needed to make more cuts to convince them to release a financial bailout. Before they release more aid, Greece’s financial backers have demanded parliamentary ratification of the new austerity package this weekend, the identification of [...]
Lloyds beats lending targets February 10, 2012 Part-nationalised British bank Lloyds said it had beaten targets laid down by the government for lending to small businesses, as authorities keep the country’s banks under pressure to lend out more to boost the faltering UK economy. Last year, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government struck a deal with the major British banks known as “Project [...]
Greek shambles saps investor confidence February 10, 2012 Markets saw confidence drain away again today as the shambles surrounding Greece’s attempts to trigger further bailout funds continued unabated. Greece’s economic future hangs in the balance after the country’s international creditors demanded more steps from Athens before they release a rescue package. Resource stocks pegged the FTSE 100 back with miner Anglo American down [...]
Factory gate inflation lower than expected in January February 10, 2012 British factory gate inflation dropped to its lowest in more than a year in January as input costs also rose at a much slower pace, data showed. Output price inflation fell to 4.1 per cent from 4.8 per cent in December, its lowest annual level since November 2010, but the drop was smaller than economists [...]
NYSE profits up after Boerse deal collapse February 10, 2012 NYSE Euronext narrowly beat analyst forecasts with a 13 profit rise to $212m (£134m) in the fourth quarter, after Deutsche Boerse’s plan to take over the trans-atlantic exchange were scuppered last week. The exchange group said revenue for the period was $628m, versus analyst forecasts of $626.6m, while net income adjusted for merger costs was [...]
De Beers profits rise February 10, 2012 De Beers posted a 21 per cent rise in 2011 earnings on the back of a record sales boom at the start of last year, but the diamond producer reported a dip in annual production and said it expected to continue to rein in output growth in 2012. The diamond giant, 45 percent owned by [...]
