Matalan shrugs off the retail gloom as sales rocket on new product lines June 15, 2009 BUDGET fashion chain Matalan yesterday said it was defying the retail gloom as it reported a 8.2 per cent boost in like-for-like sales for the 14 weeks to 6 June. The group, which has 203 outlets across the UK, said it had seen a jump in footfall due to the introduction of new product lines [...]
Majestic profits hit as City champagne spending loses fizz June 15, 2009 WINE warehouse chain Majestic Wine saw its profits tumble last year as the recession took its toll, with champagne sales to the business world performing performing particularly badly. Majestic said yesterday its core pre-tax profit fell 22.3 per cent to £12.7m over the year to end of March, while sales grew 2.4 per cent to [...]
Morgan Stanley in Keydata interest June 15, 2009 MORGAN Stanley, the US investment banking giant, has joined a growing list of parties expressing interest in buying collapsed structured product provider Keydata. The bank already offers its own structured products to UK investors through the Morgan Stanley IQ brand, but it is thought to be keen to snap up the £2.8bn of assets Keydata [...]
CITY FOLK FANCY THEIR CHANCES AT ASCOT June 15, 2009 HALF the City is due to decamp to Berkshire this week for Royal Ascot, which runs from today until Saturday. As usual, the raft of financiers meandering about the racecourse will be a mix of those enjoying a corporate jolly and those who’ve invested their wealth in horses – two of whom are tipped as [...]
Fortis replaces chief exec June 15, 2009 BELGIAN Insurance group Fortis, yesterday announced the departure of its chief executive Karel de Boeck, after just seven months at the helm. The group named insurance veteran Bart De Smet, as his successor. He will become the fifth new chief executive at Fortis in under a year. It is understood that De Boeck was ousted [...]
Labour split on cuts row June 15, 2009 DIVISIONS at the top of the Labour Party emerged yesterday over whether it would protect health and education from spending cuts after the next general election. The government is under pressure from shadow chancellor George Osborne who called for all politicians to have the “honesty” to admit there would be public spending cuts as a [...]
Wall Street hit by poor factory data June 15, 2009 US STOCKS tumbled yesterday, marking their worst slide in a month after regional manufacturing data dented optimism about the economy’s health and resource shares fell alongside commodity prices. After a series of signs the economy may be stabilising, investors are looking for more definitive signals of its improving health. Analysts also said a pullback was [...]
CPI set to fall to BoE target June 15, 2009 Consumer price inflation looks set to fall to the Bank of England’s two per cent target in May for the first time since late 2007, tugged lower by a recession-hit economy. CPI has been above the central bank’s target since October 2007, peaking at 5.2 per cent last September
Glaxo in emerging market deal June 15, 2009 GlaxoSmithKline took another significant step in building its business in emerging markets yesterday by signing an alliance with Indian generic drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. The move builds on a deal last week with China’s Shenzhen Neptunus for flu vaccines.
US credit card defaults rocket June 15, 2009 US credit card defaults rose to record highs in May, with a steep deterioration of Bank of America’s lending portfolio, in another sign that consumers remain under severe stress. Delinquency rates – an indicator of future credit losses – fell across the industry, but analysts said the decline was due to a seasonal trend, as [...]
