UK drinkers lift SABMiller May 14, 2009 WORLD number two brewer SABMiller said falls in the price of barley and other raw materials should boost earnings later this year after reporting a forecast beating nine per cent dip in full-year profits. The group said weak consumer demand, higher commodities and a strong dollar led pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March to fall [...]
National Grid to capitalise on Obama’s investment bonanza May 14, 2009 NATIONAL Grid was in bullish mood yesterday, pledging to take advantage of plans by president Barack Obama to invest in the US electricity network, despite reporting a 36 per cent annual pre tax profit fall. The UK electricity and gas provider, which derives around half of its business from its wholly-owned US subsidiary, said the [...]
Tullett Prebon in revenue boost as weak pound works wonders May 14, 2009 INTERDEALER broker Tullett Prebon enjoyed a 10 per cent rise in revenues in the first four months of 2009, it said yesterday. The firm posted sales of £354m due for the most part to the weakness of the pound, as well as continued high volumes of trading in government bonds. But it added its structured [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 14, 2009 PADDY POWERInvestec said that there has undoubtedly been an improvement in trading at Paddy Power compared to the first two months of the year. The analysts retain their underlying estimates, but upgrade 2010 full year earnings per share estimates around six per cent citings its “sensible strategic acquisition” and rates the stock “buy”. THOMAS COOKAnalysts [...]
Q&A: BUYING May 14, 2009 Q. Dear Camilla, I’m looking to buy a property but have we reached the bottom of the market or do prices have further to fall? A. Prices have fallen between 15 and 20 percent since the peak of the market, which was March 2008 for London. At the beginning of this year most analysts were [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHEN DO YOU EXPECT THE UK TO START GROWING AGAIN? May 13, 2009 ANTONY BERKIN NEGATIVE EQUITY PROTECTION “I expect we’ll start to see some growth in the fourth quarter of this year. House prices will be a big indicator of how well we’re recovering, but I think it’ll be a while before they bottom out. That said, we won’t recover from government debt for years.” KENNETH STEVENSON METDIST “It [...]
L&G sales up but capital fears persist May 13, 2009 INSURER Legal & General (L&G) reported above-consensus first-quarter sales of £382m yesterday and said the worst of the crisis appears to be over, but fears over the firm’s capitalisation levels continued to dominate. L&G revealed a 3 per cent global sales rise, from £372m a year ago, which was massively bigger than analyst expectations of [...]
Allianz profits plummet amid more Dresdner pain May 13, 2009 GERMAN financial services group Allianz announced a 97 per cent net profit decline, as aftershocks from its disastrous ownership of Dresdner Bank continued to erode gains. Chief financial officer at the firm Helmut Perlet said net income was just €29m (£26m) in the quarter, compared with €1.2bn (£1.07bn) in the same quarter a year ago, thanks [...]
Gloomy Bank cuts outlook May 13, 2009 THE BANK of England yesterday said growth will recover more slowly than previously predicted but raised its forecast for future inflation to about 1.5 per cent in a gloomy assessment of the outlook for the UK economy, suggesting monetary policy may need to remain loose for some time. In its quarterly inflation report the BoE [...]
Unicredit hit but still bullish on East Europe May 13, 2009 ITALY’S UniCredit, the biggest lender in central and eastern Europe, is more upbeat about the recession-hit region as asset deterioration there slows, the bank said yesterday. Its optimism came in spite of a dramatic drop in first quarter pre-tax profit which fell 58 per cent to €447m on lower fees. And sales were also down [...]
