Public lost taste for food brands March 19, 2012 Premier Foods may have spent a lot of dough on Hovis but it has proved to be a major drag on the firm’s profits. Its 2007 purchase of arch-rival Rank Hovis McDougall, the then-owner of the iconic bread brand, for £1.2bn in a debt-laden transaction, now seems typical of the overly-optimistic deals that preceded the credit [...]
BBC’s Mark Thompson to leave after the Olympics March 19, 2012 THE BBC has stepped up its search to find the next director general after Mark Thompson confirmed yesterday he will leave the corporation in the autumn after the Olympics. Thompson, who has been in the job since 2004, told BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten of his departure in a meeting yesterday and said that the [...]
Amazon buys robot-maker March 19, 2012 Amazon said yesterday it has agreed to buy Kiva Systems for $775m (£488m) in cash, a deal that will bring more robotic technology to the e-commerce company’s giant network of warehouses. The acquisition, which has been approved by Kiva’s stockholders, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012, Amazon added in a statement. [...]
Revenue growth slows at Adobe March 19, 2012 Adobe, maker of Photoshop and Acrobat software, said yesterday that revenue growth has slowed as sales of its widely used Creative Suite software fell, missing its forecasts, ahead of widely anticipated product launches this quarter. Revenue rose 1.7 per cent to $1.045bn (£657m) in its quarter ended 2 March. Sales at the digital media unit [...]
London boost for Berkeley March 19, 2012 HOUSEBUILDER Berkeley says it has hit over £1bn in forward sales, up from £813m last May, driven by strong demand for residential property in London and the south east. The firm used a trading update to announce that it had acquired seven sites for a total of £80m since November, including a former Royal Mail [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: CAN BERKELEY’S BOOM CONTINUE DURING 2012? March 19, 2012 ROBIN HARDY | PEEL HUNT I’m quite surprised that the share price has been as weak as it has been. They’ve bought a lot of land while keeping their debt under control. People would have expected their debt to be north of £100m and it’s only at £84m. SIMON BROWN | NORTHLAND UK A doubling [...]
JUSTIN KING GOES THE EXTRA MILE FOR SPORT RELIEF March 19, 2012 SAINSBURY’S chief Justin King has been busy pounding the pavement in order to raise money for Sport Relief ahead of the Sport Relief Mile this Sunday. King, whose stores stock much of the Sport Relief charity merchandise, has run 32 miles across the UK in March in the hope of beating last year’s efforts for [...]
Ziggo IPO set to be biggest of year so far March 19, 2012 CABLE company Ziggo provided another boost to the slow recovery in Europe’s equity markets yesterday when it increased the value of its listing to as much as €925m (£768.6m). Holland’s largest cable firm said strong demand had prompted it to increase the number of shares available in its initial public offering in Amsterdam, which had [...]
Rexnord moves closer towards New York listing March 19, 2012 REXNORD Corporation, which manufactures power transmission and water management products, announced terms for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The Milwaukee-based company plans to raise $450m (£283m) by offering 23.7m shares at a price range of $18 to $20. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Rexnord would command a market value [...]
Julius Baer chair severs 120 year old family ties March 19, 2012 WHEN Julius Baer set up a private bank in Switzerland in the 1890s, modern skiing had just emerged and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would speed down the Alps in a tweed suit. Now, 120 years on, the Baer family has severed its link with the management of the bank. Raymond Baer has quit as chairman [...]
