New directors for AIG at subdued annual meeting June 30, 2009 AMERICAN International Group (AIG) got a new slate of government-backed directors at a subdued annual meeting yesterday, effectively revamping its board after the insurer’s $180bn taxpayer bailout. The meeting attracted far fewer investors than in years past and wrapped up in less than an hour, with the outcome of company proposals all but assured by [...]
Carpetright suffers a 72 per cent drop in profits with little sign of recovery June 30, 2009 CARPETRIGHT, Britain’s biggest carpet retailer, yesterday said normal trading conditions would not resume for at least 12 months as it posted a 72 per cent slump in full-year profit and slashed its dividend. The group reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £17.2m in the year to 2 May. This compares with analysts’ consensus forecast of [...]
Stewart quits as Cenkos CEO June 30, 2009 ANDY Stewart has stepped down as chief executive of Cenkos, the City brokerage he founded four years ago. Stewart has been appointed as executive deputy chairman and has handed over the reins to former group finance director Simon Melling, the firm said in a statement yesterday. But Stewart was keen to quash speculation he will [...]
HMV profits from demise of rival firms June 30, 2009 ENTERTAINMENT retailer HMV yesterday reported an 11 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits after stealing market share following the demise of its rivals. The group, which also owns bookstore Waterstones, said pre-tax profits rose to £63m in the 12 months to 25 April compared to £56.6m in the same period last year. Total sales [...]
Takeover Panel puts pressure on Xstrata bid June 30, 2009 XSTRATA was yesterday forced to put out a statement clarifying the cost savings that could be achieved through a merger with rival Anglo American, after the Takeover Panel waded into the stand-off between the two miners. The Takeover Panel asked Xstrata to clarify its estimates for cost savings following its failure to rebuff suggestions that [...]
Safestore sees profits up thanks to housing slump June 30, 2009 SAFESTORE, the self-storage group, yesterday said its profits for the six months to April were up 4.3 per cent, as customers who have outgrown their homes buy storage because they are unable to move. The group, which has traditionally won business from customers who need to store away their furniture while they move house, said [...]
House prices in Britain rise again in June June 30, 2009 HOUSE prices saw a monthly increase of 0.9 per cent in June, bringing the annual rate of decline to 9.3 per cent from 11.3 per cent in May, according to data published yesterday by Nationwide, which stoked optimism that the housing market has turned. The mortgage lender said that the three month rate of change, [...]
PARAMOUNT TRANSFORMS June 30, 2009 VIACOM’s Paramount Pictures, the film studio behind the Transformers film, is looking to merge its home entertainment division with one of its rivals, and is thought to be in talks with Sony Pictures and News Corp’s Fox Studio. The talks follow a drop of up to 20 per cent in global DVD sales, forcing studios [...]
Keydata plot thickens as PwC discovers a 103m black hole June 30, 2009 ADMINISTRATORS of failed structured product firm Keydata have unearthed a £103m black hole in its assets, as it emerged two mysterious groups it was trading with have vanished along with customers’ money. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has involved the Serious Fraud Office as it believes the funds may have been “misappropriated”. PwC is trying to ascertain why [...]
Contraction in GDP is fastest in fifty years June 30, 2009 THE UK economy contracted at the fastest pace since 1958 in the first quarter of 2009, raising expectations that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee could expand quantitative easing. The Office for National Statistics said yesterday that it had revised downwards its estimate for first quarter GDP to -2.4 per cent from -1.9 per [...]
