Campbell keeps targets May 21, 2012 Campbell Soup disappointed investors by leaving its full-year profit forecast unchanged despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday, as it continues trying to turn around its North American soup business. Campbell, whose shares were down two per cent, said it was on track with a plan this year to spend $100m on new advertising, new products, [...]
City backs Man’s £50m multi-manager vision May 21, 2012 SHARES in struggling hedge fund manager Man Group leapt 4.6 per cent yesterday on hopes its acquisition of FRM could lead to a dividend boost. The stock, which has halved since early March, closed up at 78.8p as analysts backed a low-risk deal for the global hedge fund research and investment firm with $8bn under [...]
HMV mulls potential break-up of its live entertainment arm May 21, 2012 MUSIC chain HMV is said to be considering a break up of its live entertainment business as it struggles to drum up interest from bidders for its festivals arm. Earlier this year, HMV hired bankers at Citigroup to find a buyer for its profitable HMV Live division, which runs 13 music venues and stages five [...]
HSBC seals the deal to sell 195 US branches May 21, 2012 HSBC has completed its sale of 195 branches in upstate New York to First Niagara Bank in a deal first announced in July last year. The move, which bagged the banking group $900m (£570m), is the latest completion in a string of transactions aiming to rid the bank of retail operations it sees as “subscale”. HSBC [...]
Tribunal upholds £1.25m FSA fine on former UBS trader for rogue trades with client cash May 21, 2012 THE FSA has had its decision to fine a UBS trader £1.25m upheld by the upper tribunal, an independent judiciary body. Sachin Karpe, head of a trading desk in the bank’s institutional wealth management business, was fined in 2009 for engaging in “unauthorised trading”, including an attempt to subvert Indian law by helping an Indian client make [...]
City’s finest in full bloom at Chelsea Flower Show preview May 21, 2012 Cairn’s Sir Bill Gammell arrives at last night’s Chelsea Flower Show Charity Gala Preview in aid of the RHS MITIE’s Ruby McGregor-Smith was fresh from the firm’s upbeat results Simon Borrows was named as the new chief exec of 3i last week Ex-Lloyds boss Eric Daniels proved he’s still on the City’s best guestlists RBC’s [...]
Mitie seeks out overseas deals as sales jump May 21, 2012 OUTSOURCER Mitie yesterday said it was eyeing international growth as it reported record revenues. The FTSE-250 company, which has dozens of UK government contracts, has a brimming order book with services including security and maintenance growing. Its pre-tax profits jumped 5.9 per cent to £94.5m for the year to the end of March. Mitie’s order [...]
Alibaba buys back $7bn stake in Yahoo May 21, 2012 CHINESE internet entrepreneur Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group is buying back up to half of Yahoo’s 40 per cent stake for $7.1bn (£4.5bn) in a deal that moves the Chinese e-commerce leader closer to a public listing. Under the agreement, Yahoo will sell one-half of its stake in Alibaba for at least $6.3bn in cash and [...]
Google Chrome becomes world’s top web browser May 21, 2012 GOOGLE CHROME has surpassed Internet Explorer as the most used web browser, according to data firm StatCounter. For the week of 14-20 May, Chrome was the world’s number one web browser, leaving usual top spot hogger Internet Explorer lagging behind. The Google site first pipped Window’s browser two months ago, when Chrome topped the league for one [...]
Carlyle bets on US’s Avail-TVN May 21, 2012 AVAIL-TVN, a US-based media services provider, announced yesterday it has raised $100m (£63m) in a round led by private equity giant Carlyle Group, to help fund its acquisition of rival company On Demand Group in the UK. Avail-TVN, which works with companies like NBC and Univision, said its $27m acquisition of On Demand Group – [...]
