Sirius raises £55m for UK potash drilling plan January 26, 2012 SIRIUS Minerals yesterday raised up to £55m through a share placing to accelerate the drilling programme at its York Potash project. The company said the proceeds of the placing – which was oversubscribed – will help fund the drilling of up to eight extra bore holes. Last year the company said test drilling at two [...]
Irn Bru helps AG Barr predict a jump in sales January 26, 2012 SOFT drinks maker AG Barr expects a six per cent rise in like-for-like sales for the full year on a strong fourth quarter, boosted by demand for its core brands like Irn-Bru and Rubicon. With a double-digit growth rate at its core brands, the FTSE 250 company expects like-for-like total sales in the final quarter [...]
Kazakhmys output is in line with forecasts January 26, 2012 KAZAKHMYS yesterday posted annual copper production in line with its target and said it expected 2012 output to come in at a similar level. The world’s 11th largest copper producer posted 2011 output of 299,000 tonnes of copper cathode from its own concentrate, broadly in line with its target of 300,000 tonnes. FTSE 100-listed Kazakhmys [...]
EasyJet sees strong first quarter sales January 26, 2012 EASYJET bucked the gloom surrounding the airline sector by posting strong growth in first quarter revenue, helped by an uplift in the number of business travellers and the milder weather. Europe’s second largest low-cost carrier said revenues grew by 16.7 per cent to £763m in the three months to December, as passenger numbers rose 8.1 [...]
How McCall has proven her critics wrong January 26, 2012 WE need more investors like Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder and majority shareholder of easyJet. If institutions were as combative as the pugnacious Cypriot, there would be no need for the current debate over executive pay. In recent years, Sir Stelios has taken easyJet’s directors and executives to task over everything from the size of the [...]
Nokia reports a loss January 26, 2012 DESPITE selling over one million Lumia handsets since mid-November, Nokia has struggled to scratch the surface of the Apple dominated smartphone market. Fourth quarter operating earnings at the Finnish telecoms group swung to a loss of €954m as Nokia’s $250m partnership with Microsoft failed to make waves. The Christmas quarter brought in €10bn from net [...]
2011: THE YEAR OF THE TABLET January 26, 2012 GLOBAL tablet shipments in 2011 soared to 66.9m units – over triple the previous year’s number – with Android increasingly encroaching on Apple’s market domination. Last year Android, used in Amazon and Samsung tablets among others, upped its share of the market by a third to 39 per cent, while Apple’s supremacy declined over ten percentage [...]
No consoling Nintendo on poor results January 26, 2012 A SET of bleak third quarter results from Nintendo, flanked by a drastic increase in expected losses for the year, could drive the final nail into the coffin of its game consoles. The Japanese company reported a nine-month net loss of 48.4bn yen (£400m) – compared to the 49.6bn yen profit collected by this point [...]
Broadband helps Time Warner soar January 26, 2012 TIME Warner Cable surprised the market as it reported a 44 per cent jump in fourth quarter net profit and unveiled a $4bn (£2.5bn) share buyback programme yesterday. The cable giant raised its quarterly dividend by 17 per cent as it easily exceeded estimates. Revenue at the company, the second-biggest US cable provider, increased by [...]
AT&T survives the loss of T-Mobile bid with growth to contest Verizon January 26, 2012 COSTS from AT&T’s failed multi-billion dollar bid for T-Mobile dragged down fourth quarter profit at the American telecoms giant, which reported a loss of $6.68bn (£4.25bn) despite an overall annual growth. Fourth quarter operating loss was $9bn, down from a $2.1bn gain a year earlier. However, revenues in the final months of the year rose [...]
