Paragon profit rises on return of buy-to-let May 23, 2012 INCREASED popularity of buy-to-let mortgages powered lender Paragon to a 13.4 per cent rise in profit to £44.8m for the six months to March. Chief executive Nigel Terrington told City A.M. he is “delighted” that the profit growth was driven by improved revenues rather than cost-cutting. “For the first time since the credit crunch [the buy-to-let] balance sheet [...]
Spitzer reforms fail to prevent IPO squabbles May 23, 2012 WHEN former New York prosecutor Eliot Spitzer led his assault on Wall Street investment banks in the wake of the dot com crash, his brief was to separate analysts from the bankers selling a deal like Facebook. Whereas pre crash, analysts used to join a company’s management during a share sale roadshow and get subsumed [...]
CITY VIEWS | HAS FACEBOOK’S FLOAT FLOP SURPRISED YOU? May 23, 2012 JONATHON DRYER DEUTSCHE BANK I was a little surprised and I’d like to know the reasoning behind it, but I don’t think it deserved it. If it had started off low and let the shares appreciate then it could have prevented embarrassing headlines. KETAN PATEL HSBC Not really. And in the current economic climate they’re [...]
World Bank cuts its China growth figures May 23, 2012 THE WORLD Bank yesterday cut its growth forecasts for China this year as it called on the country to rely on easier fiscal policy to boost consumption rather than state investment. The bank now expects the country’s economy to expand 8.2 per cent in 2012, down from an earlier forecast of 8.4 per cent and [...]
Write-off costs drag Pinewood down despite revenue growth May 23, 2012 PINEWOOD Shepperton made a loss last year as the film studio took a hit from the failure of its movie set development project. Project Pinewood – a plan to build replicas of landmarks including famous cities, a castle and a college campus – was blocked in January, costing the company £7.6m in write-off costs. Expenses relating [...]
JPMorgan sued over employee retirement plan losses in the US May 23, 2012 JP MORGAN Chase & Co has been hit with a lawsuit brought on behalf of employees whose retirement holdings fell in value after the largest US bank revealed a surprise $2bn (£1.3bn) trading loss earlier this month. The complaint, filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, also names individual defendants, including chief executive Jamie Dimon [...]
Male shoppers help Burberry beat recession May 23, 2012 BURBERRY yesterday said it had seen an outperformance in men’s clothing and tailoring as the luxury brand reported a 26 per cent jump in full-year profits. The 156-year old British heritage brand reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £376m in the year to 31 March, on revenues up 24 per cent to almost £1.9bn. Chief [...]
House of Fraser earnings drop as it invests in new warehouse May 23, 2012 HOUSE of Fraser saw adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation drop 16 per cent to £58.6m in the year to 28 January as it invested in a second distribution centre. The department store, which runs 63 sites across the UK and Ireland, said it built a new warehouse in Northamptonshire, last summer, to [...]
ANALYST VIEWS | HOW ARE BURBERRY’S PROSPECTS FOLLOWING THESE RESULTS? May 23, 2012 RICHARD HUNTER HARGREAVES LANSDOWNE A 24 per cent rise in pre-tax profits defies some of the economic gloom, whilst the company’s exposure to some strong local markets continues to propel prospects…Whether this momentum can be maintained is of some concern to investors, while the situation in Europe is undoubtedly a drag on growth. FREDDIE GEORGE [...]
Tetley tea owner sees income fall May 23, 2012 Tata Global Beverages suffered a 36 per cent drop in net income in the latest quarter, as the owner of Tetley tea was hit by one-off costs, it announced yesterday. Sales rose 11 per cent to 17.24bn rupees (£198m) but restructuring expenses knocked net income for the three months to March down to 542.1m rupees. [...]
