Tata Steel posts quarterly loss February 9, 2012 India’s Tata Steel, the world’s seventh biggest steelmaker, yesterday posted an unexpected quarterly loss, its first in more than two years, as higher raw material costs and weak demand in Europe hurt margins. Tata Steel reported a net loss of 6.87bn rupees for its fiscal third quarter ended December, compared with a net profit of [...]
Ceres delays IPO until next week February 9, 2012 Biofuels developer Ceres has delayed its expected initial public offering until next week, IFR reported yesterday, just a day after reducing its expected price range to between $16 and $17 per share from between $21 and $23 earlier. Last month, the company had said it expected to raise about $97.8m from its IPO of 5m [...]
Three bidders left in Peacocks sale February 9, 2012 Edinburgh Woollen Mills has pulled out of talks to buy Peacocks, a source said last night, leaving three potential bidders in the race to buy the collapsed retailer out of administration. KPMG, the administrators to Peacocks, is expected to make a final decision early next week.
Data demand lifts Vodafone but sales slide February 9, 2012 TOUGH trading in Spain and Italy dragged Vodafone’s third quarter group revenues down 2.3 per cent to £11.6bn, causing the mobile phone operator to fall short of forecasts. Spanish revenues fell 8.8 per cent – albeit an improvement on last quarter’s drop of 9.3 per cent – to £1.1bn, while Vodafone fared worse in Italy, [...]
It’s complicated: Facebook is in a relationship with Zynga February 9, 2012 FACEBOOK has added 26 new documents to its filing with the SEC – originally submitted last week in preparation for the firm’s IPO – which outline its relationship with Zynga. Facebook last week disclosed that 12 per cent of its 2011 revenues came from the gaming company, sending Zynga shares rocketing 17 per cent. However, [...]
Alibaba suspends share trading as major announcement looms February 9, 2012 SHARES in Alibaba.com were suspended from trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday as the website’s parent Alibaba Group prepared a statement. The Chinese e-commerce giant is reportedly planning to buy back the 40 per cent stake Yahoo holds in it, and has been moving towards raising a $3bn (£1.89bn) loan for this purpose. [...]
LinkedIn says its revenues have doubled February 9, 2012 LINKEDIN, the social network for professionals, last night beat Wall Street expectations to announce fourth quarter revenues of $167.7m (£105m) – up 105 per cent from a year earlier. The majority of the growth came from LinkedIn’s recruitment arm, which now provides half the firm’s revenue after benefiting from improved jobs numbers in the crucial [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU USE LINKEDIN?* February 9, 2012 JULIAN DIXON | WINTERFLOOD SECURITIES “Yes I do use it. It started off as a laugh around the office but I’ve found that you can actually meet the odd client and make some business connections from the social site.” GEORGE HAYWOOD | SMITH & WILLIAMSON “Yes, I use it at least once a week. It [...]
Reuters reports a loss on $3bn goodwill payout February 9, 2012 THOMSON Reuters made a loss in its fourth quarter after forking out $3bn (£1.9bn) due to a goodwill charge on its waning financial services division. The business news and data provider ended the period $2.6bn out of pocket, down from a $307m profit last year, despite rolling in a three per cent increase revenue of [...]
Rio Tinto pair forego bonus after losses February 9, 2012 THE TOP two executives at global miner Rio Tinto yesterday said they would not take bonuses after the company lurched into a loss triggered by its aluminium business. A surplus of aluminium and rising input costs have hammered margins in the industry, sending the value of Rio’s aluminium unit Alcan plummeting. Rio paid $38bn (£23.9bn) [...]
