Philips swings to a loss as its sales tail off in Europe January 30, 2012 PROFITS at electronics group Philips took a sharp turn for the worse in the fourth quarter, leading to a loss of €160m (£133.9m) compared to gains of €465m a year earlier. This contributed to an annual loss of €1.29bn – down from a €1.45bn profit in 2010 – which the Dutch company put down to [...]
Thor ups Tungsten production January 30, 2012 Thor Mining yesterday raised its production at the Molyhil Tungsten and Molybdenum Project in Australia by a quarter to 4.7m tonnes. The firm said the tungsten at the site was high quality and situated near the surface, giving it confidence of an early return on capital. Chairman of the Aim-listed company, Mick Billing, said: “The [...]
New World to launch fundraising January 30, 2012 New World Oil and Gas said yesterday it is launching a fundraising of approximately $35m (£22m) next month. The company said the funding, subject to shareholder approval, is “based on interest from institutional investors and lenders”. The company added in a statement: “New World’s management intends to ensure the company is well funded to meet [...]
Wentworth snaps up Cove assets January 30, 2012 Wentworth Resources said yesterday it had agreed a deal to acquire a further 16.38 per cent stake in the Mnazi Bay gas project in Tanzania from Aim-listed Cove Energy. The move comes after Cove put itself up for sale earlier this month. Wentworth already owns a 25.4 per cent stake in Mnazi Bay and it [...]
Ryanair lifts profit target for the year January 30, 2012 RYANAIR yesterday raised its annual profit forecast, after a decision to ground 80 planes over winter paid off. The budget airline said its traffic fell two per cent to 16.7m in the last three months of 2011, but higher revenues per passenger lifted turnover 13 per cent to €844m (£706m). Ryanair’s quarterly after-tax profit of [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW WERE RYANAIR’S RESULTS? January 30, 2012 GERT ZONNEVELD | PANMURE GORDON Numbers came in ahead of expectations. Over the medium term the anticipated capacity growth deceleration should drive further profit growth and strong cash generation. We retain our Buy recommendation. JONATHAN JACKSON | KILLIK Passenger numbers were down two per cent to 16.7m, offset by a 17 per cent increase in [...]
Starbucks plans India roll-out January 30, 2012 Starbucks will open its first coffee shops in India in August or September, a year later than originally planned, and aims to have 50 outlets by year-end through a tie-up with the Tata group, the country’s biggest business house. Starbucks had initially planned to have its first cafes in India open by mid-2011 but was [...]
Russia in push for foreign cash January 30, 2012 Russia’s newest state fund made its first investment yesterday, buying a stake in Moscow’s MICEX-RTS bourse to boost its initial public offering hopes and compete with big international centres like London for Russian company listings. The $10bn Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is government funded but run by private equity specialist Kirill Dmitriev, is investing [...]
Newton-Jones to leave Shop Direct January 30, 2012 Mark Newton-Jones, the chief executive of the UK’s largest catalogue and online retailer Shop Direct, said yesterday he was planning to leave the company, but would stay on until a successor was found. Newton-Jones said he wanted to pursue “new challenges in the medium term” but said he had no firm plans for his future [...]
Quercus boosted by ebook sales January 30, 2012 Quercus, publisher of Stieg Larsson’s popular Millennium trilogy of books, said yesterday that its sales of ebooks almost quadrupled in the run up to Christmas compared to a year ago. Ebook sales rose from three per cent to 11 per cent of the company’s total revenues in 2011, with the film version of The Girl [...]
