Mitie looking for deals as profits grow November 21, 2011 FACILITIES manager Mitie said it had benefited from austerity Britain’s spending cuts as it reported a small rise in first-half profits. The firm, which screens baggage at Heathrow airport and helps keep the Royal Opera House up to scratch, won contracts across the shrinking public sector, pushing it to a 0.8 per cent rise in [...]
No sign of gangs, says Olympus November 21, 2011 OLYMPUS said yesterday that a third-party panel appointed to look into an accounting scandal has, so far, found no evidence that funds from its mergers and acquisitions went to organised crime syndicates or that “yakuza” gangsters were involved. Japanese police, prosecutors and securities agencies in Japan, the US and Britain are investigating Olympus after the [...]
Goldman’s asset managers missed a series of targets in crisis aftermath November 21, 2011 BARELY a third of the European funds run by Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) have hit their targets during the last three years of global turmoil. Only 37 per cent of the SICAV funds, run in Ireland and Luxembourg and open to investors based in Europe, beat their benchmark in the three years to 31 October. [...]
Profit boost for Royal Mail November 21, 2011 Royal Mail said first-half operating earnings have more than trebled as higher profit from branch and express parcel operations offset persistent losses on letter delivery. The state-owned group, which the government is hoping to privatise, increased operating profit to £67m from £22m the year before. Royal Mail, which delivers around 59m items each day, said [...]
Lion delays its fundraising November 21, 2011 Private equity house Lion Capital has held open its €2bn (£1.72bn) fundraising until after Christmas, it emerged yesterday. The buyout group, which has invested in cereal firm Weetabix, frozen food firm Findus and lingerie-maker La Senza, hopes to raise another €500m in the New Year. Lion is also thought to have spent more than £13m [...]
No new bid emerges for Clarity November 21, 2011 A mystery third-party bidder yesterday walked away from a bid for software firm Clarity after it was given a “put up or shut up” deadline by the Takeover Panel. Clarity has not named the suitor, with which it held advanced discussions, but the unknown firm has reserved the right to make an offer within six months. [...]
Drink, drugs and violence: activists stand accused of wrecking the City November 21, 2011 PROTESTERS at St Paul’s are living in human waste, desecrating the cathedral and exposing children to users of hard drugs, according to new legal documents. The City of London filing at the High Court describes a scene of degradation, where gutters are used as toilets, activists daub graffiti on the walls of the seventeenth century [...]
Kazakh miner eyes LSE float November 21, 2011 CITY fans of ex-Soviet Union mining companies will soon have another stock to pick after Kazakh energy producer Zhaikmunai said it was eyeing a move to the main market of the London Stock Exchange yesterday. Zhaikmunai currently trades via global depository receipts (GDRs) on the LSE but indicated it may swap these for a full [...]
UK growth depends on new airport, says Boris November 21, 2011 BRITAIN faces a period of economic stagnation unless a new international airport is built in the south east, London Mayor Boris Johnson said yesterday. The government has ruled out expansion of London’s existing airports, but Johnson has lobbied for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary, which has also been opposed on environmental grounds. [...]
Graff outlines plans for IPO in Hong Kong November 21, 2011 LONDON-based jeweller Graff hopes a planned Hong Kong IPO will bolster its position in a fast-changing diamond industry and give it financial clout to expand into Asian and other major cities, its 73-year-old founder and chairman said yesterday. The privately-held diamond and precious gems firm founded by Laurence Graff (pictured) in 1960 has found it [...]
