Insurers can weather disasters December 18, 2012 THE losses to insurers from Hurricane Sandy are substantial, although not in the league of last year’s natural catastrophes with their appalling toll of human misery in New Zealand and Japan, floods in Thailand and Hurricane Irene in the US, all of which made 2011 the year with highest catastrophe-related economic losses in history, according [...]
Britons are feeling less than festive about Europe December 18, 2012 EVERY month YouGov runs its EuroTrack survey, a multi-country study tracking public opinion in the UK, Germany, France and the Nordic countries. Looking at the latest data, the results of two questions (one a serious political issue, the other more light-hearted) grabbed my attention. First, the serious political issue: how would people in the countries [...]
Petrofac set to hit 15pc profit growth in 2012 December 18, 2012 OIL services company Petrofac is on track to deliver net profit growth of 15 per cent this year, it said yesterday, boosted by a strong pipeline for next year. The FTSE 100 firm, which designs and builds oil and gas infrastructure, said that operations continued to perform in line with expectations, with particularly good performance [...]
Whitbread in £51m sale and leaseback of Premier Inns December 18, 2012 HOTEL and restaurant group Whitbread has agreed a £51m sale and leaseback deal on seven Premier Inn sites, as it frees up cash to spend on its expansion. The FTSE 100 firm, which also owns Costa, yesterday said it is to sell the buildings to NFU Mutual and Standard Life Assurance, which will lease them [...]
Japanese boost for Rolls-Royce December 18, 2012 Rolls-Royce yesterday signed a $1bn (£620m) contract with Japanese Skymark Airlines to deliver Trent 900 jet engines for six craft. The company has also signed a letter of intent to supply Trent 700 jet engines for up to 10 A330s, which will enter service in 2014. Skymark – a new customer for the firm still [...]
Polymetal buys platinum project December 18, 2012 Precious metals miner Polymetal has agreed to buy its first platinum exploration project in Russia, with VTB Capital. The miner acquired a 24.99 per cent stake in the Svetlobor project from Ubergot Investments in exchange for 130,053 Polymetal shares, while VTB bought the remaining stake in the project, in exchange for 390,369 shares. The total [...]
CORRECTION December 18, 2012 In our edition dated 18 December, we said that DS Smith had investigated allegations of accounting irregularities at its new acquisition SCA Packaging. We should have said that the two parties have a disagreement over the appropriate value of SCA’s assets and liabilities before acquisition but there is no suggestion of accounting irregularities at SCA [...]
House prices edge up, driven by London and the south east December 18, 2012 HOUSE prices increased 1.5 per cent in the year to October with more than half of the growth driven by London and the south east, official figures revealed yesterday. The latest monthly survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that prices rose by 0.2 per cent in October compared with the previous month [...]
Standard and Poor’s upgrades Greece after euro bailout action December 18, 2012 EUROPEAN efforts to keep Greece afloat have prompted credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s to lift its rating on the country, it revealed last night. Greece’s sovereign rating had previous been “selective default” but is now raised to the less severe “B minus”, with a stable outlook. “The rating action reflects the completion on 17 [...]
Inflation stays high ahead of festive season December 18, 2012 INFLATION defied expectations to remain high in November, with consumer price inflation (CPI) staying unchanged at 2.7 per cent year-on-year, according to official figures released yesterday. A large part of the year-on-year increase is a result of price rises in food and non-alcoholic beverages as poor harvests around the globe push up the cost of [...]
