Shares slump at L&S after GE pulls out December 8, 2011 SHARES in London & Stamford Property plunged by more than 13 per cent yesterday after its largest shareholder sold its stake in the struggling business. London & Stamford stock fell by 13.2 per cent during the day before closing down 7.55 per cent at 106.5p after GE Asset Management offloaded all of its 74m shares, [...]
Beltane Asset Management fills its maiden building at Cloak Lane December 8, 2011 BELTANE Asset Management has filled its 9 Cloak Lane office block, six months after starting its search for tenants. The firm has signed up ERIM Services to take the fifth floor, completing its lettings drive for the building near Cannon Street and taking its average rents to £51 a square foot. Beltane, which was set [...]
OFT to review private health care in the UK December 8, 2011 THE UK’s £5bn private healthcare market is set to come under scrutiny, after The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said yesterday it planned to examine whether larger players were preventing competition in the sector. The OFT said it had provisionally decided to refer the market for privately funded healthcare services to the Competition Commission to [...]
PZ Cussons says trading is tough after first-half miss December 8, 2011 BRITISH soap and shampoo maker PZ Cussons said its first half profit was below expectations and it expected trading conditions to remain tough given pressures on consumer spending. The maker of Imperial Leather soaps and Carex anti-bacterial hand washes said high raw material costs and adverse exchange rate movements impacted margins, while trading conditions remained [...]
French court denies iPhone ban December 8, 2011 A French court yesterday rejected Samsung’s request for an injunction to prevent Apple from selling its iPhone 4S in France, sought on the grounds it copied elements of Samsung’s Galaxy line of mobiles. Calling the request out of proportion, the court also ordered Samsung to pay €100,000 of Apple’s legal fees.
Alibaba seeks financing for Yahoo December 8, 2011 Alibaba Group is seeking up to $4bn in debt financing, sources said yesterday, in a deal expected to help the Chinese e-commerce giant buy back a 40 per cent stake in the company owned by Yahoo. As Alibaba Group is private, there is no public figure on what Yahoo’s stake is worth, though some analysts [...]
IBM buys DemandTec for $440m December 8, 2011 International Business Machines (IBM) plans to buy analytics software provider DemandTec for about $440m (£281.5m) in cash. IBM said DemandTec will extend what it calls its smarter commerce initiative, which helps retailers analyse and predict consumer behavior to adjust prices and products accordingly.
Samsung confident on 2011 target December 8, 2011 Samsung Electronics, the world’s top TV brand, said yesterday its television sales hit a record 5.7m units in November, helped by strong US sales during the long Thanksgiving weekend. November sales grew 14 per cent from the 5m units sold in October and Samsung is certain to keep its top global title for all of [...]
Ashtead lifts outlook as US market grows December 8, 2011 INDUSTRIAL equipment hire firm Ashtead has raised profit expectations for the second time this year after a strong first half, boosted by cash-strapped customers in its core US market choosing to rent rather than buy. The FTSE 250 firm, which in September raised full-year expectations after more than doubling first quarter profit, continued the trend [...]
TomTom looks to cut ten per cent of its workforce December 8, 2011 TOMTOM, the satellite navigation system company, yesterday announced plans to cut 10 per cent of its workforce in an attempt to cut costs. The reduction of 457 jobs, 255 of which will be redundancies, is part of a move to save €50m (£43m) in 2012. The Dutch company has struggled in the wake of free [...]
