Property giant CBRE beats forecasts February 6, 2013 CBRE, one of the world’s largest commercial property providers, last night unveiled a 22 per cent rise in fourth quarter profits, far surpassing Wall Street’s forecast, with strong sales in all regions, particularly the Americas. Profit jumped to $181.9m (£115m), up from $149.3m a year earlier. Revenue rose 14 per cent to $2.0bn.
Glaxo promises a sweeter 2013 as sales go flat February 6, 2013 PHARMA giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said yesterday that it expects revenue and profit to bounce back this year, despite a weak European market dragging sales down one per cent during 2012. Chief executive Andrew Witty also revealed that the firm is weighing up the future of its famous Lucozade and Ribena brands, refusing to rule out [...]
Toscafund and ACE come to the rescue of Healthcare Locums February 6, 2013 HEALTHCARE Locums revealed yesterday that its two biggest shareholders have issued an indicative joint proposal to buy up all of the shares that they do not already own. The troubled firm, which provides staff to the health and social care sectors, said that Toscafund Asset Management and Ares Capital Europe (ACE) offered at least 54p [...]
Google wins advert battle February 6, 2013 GOOGLE has won a landmark legal case in Australia, with a court ruling that the search engine is not responsible for the content of adverts it displays. The ruling said that internet advertising platforms such as Google and Facebook do not publish adverts, but merely carry information. Thus they are not accountable for potentially misleading [...]
Bauer buys up Planet Rock February 6, 2013 GERMAN media giant Bauer, whose empire includes UK radio stations Kiss and Magic, has bought lossmaking digital radio station Planet Rock for around £1m-£2m. “Our brands, along with the music industry, are seeing a real resurgence in guitar-based music which makes this acquisition an exciting and timely addition to our portfolio,” Bauer’s UK chief executive [...]
UK wind fund blows onto LSE in £205m float February 6, 2013 INFRASTRUCTURE fund Greencoat UK Wind is hoping to raise at least £205m through a government-backed float that will jettison it to the main London market. Managed by Greencoat Capital, the fund has bought interests in six wind farms from utility firms SSE and RWE. Closed-end investment company Greencoat, which will be fully invested from launch, [...]
Visa in $1.8bn stock buyback February 6, 2013 VISA’S first-quarter profit jumped 30 per cent, and the world’s largest credit- and debit-card network authorised a new $1.75bn (£1.1bn) share repurchase programme, it said yesterday. The new share buyback programme brings the total outstanding authorisation to about $2.9bn. The company’s profit rose to $1.3bn, or $1.93 per Class A share, from $1bn, or $1.49 [...]
Mobile craze boosts Wolfson February 6, 2013 EDINBURGH microchip maker Wolfson Microelectronics reported a 52 per cent jump in revenues yesterday following rising sales of smartphones such as Samsung’s Galaxy SIII. The company, which makes audio chips for processing voice input and audio output on phones and other electronic devices, said revenues rose to $56.1m (£35.8m) in the final quarter of last [...]
Homeserve on track as FSA probe continues February 6, 2013 HOMESERVE, the FTSE 250 home repair and insurance company, yesterday said full-year pre-tax profits are likely to be in line with expectations as it continues to scale down its UK business following allegations of mis-selling. The group said UK customer numbers would hit 2.25m for the full financial year ending 31 March – at the [...]
Sports Direct hires Espirito as broker February 6, 2013 SPORTS DIRECT has hired the Portuguese investment bank Espirito Santo as its corporate broker after ending its six-year relationship with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) earlier this month. The sportswear retailer, controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, said it had appointed Espirito with immediate effect, becoming joint broker alongside Oriel Securities. Ashley and [...]
