Ulster want O’Driscoll return May 15, 2012 RUGBY UNION: Ulster boss Brian McLaughlin insists he wants Leinster star Brian O’Driscoll to recover from knee surgery for Saturday’s Heineken Cup final. “You wouldn’t want anyone to miss an occasion like this,” he said.
Cavendish points boost in Giro May 15, 2012 CYCLING: Britain’s Mark Cavendish edged closer to points jersey leader Matt Goss in the 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia. Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez won the stage and took the overall lead from Ryder Hesjedal.
G4S revenues rise with help from Olympics May 15, 2012 SECURITY firm G4S yesterday said that revenues were up 7.5 per cent year-on-year for the first quarter of 2012, assisted by a substantial contract from the forthcoming Olympic Games. Despite this the board reported that profits were at similar levels to the previous year due to lower operating margins. Shares in the firm – the [...]
CAN G4S CONTINUE TO EXPAND DURING 2012? May 15, 2012 JULIAN CATER CANACCORD GENUITY We expect a further acceleration of organic growth through 2012. Owing to the start-up costs associated with a number of contract mobilisations and the impact of US government budgetary cuts, we expect flat profits in the first half and strong growth in the second half of 2012. JONATHAN JACKSON KILLIK & [...]
Permira fund grew by a fifth last year May 15, 2012 PRIVATE equity house Permira saw the value of its €9.6bn (£7.65bn) fourth fund jump by more than a fifth last year despite global economic turmoil. The value of investments made so far in Fund IV rose 21 per cent in 2011, according to the annual review, published yesterday. The fund began in September 2006 although [...]
Allianz profits jump despite Eurozone fears May 15, 2012 GERMAN insurance giant Allianz yesterday reported a 40 per cent jump in operating profit to €2.3bn (£1.8bn) for the first quarter, but warned that its financial health depended on a successful outcome to the Eurozone crisis. “We expect further shocks before the situation finally calms down and therefore we remain very cautious,” explained finance chief [...]
Enterprise Inns cuts debt load in face of challenging trading May 15, 2012 DEBT-LADEN pub group Enterprise Inns yesterday announced it has reduced net borrowing by seven per cent to £2.9bn during the six months to 31 March, helped by the sales of loss-making properties. The company, which owns around 6,100 pubs across Britain, also said that income across its total estate dropped by 1.6 per cent for [...]
Supermarkets kick off petrol price drop wars May 15, 2012 TWO of the UK’s top four supermarkets have said they will cut fuel prices from today, passing on savings to customers as the cost of wholesale oil continues to fall. Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – the third and fourth biggest supermarkets by market share respectively – both confirmed yesterday they will cut petrol prices by up [...]
Half of British smartphones Android-based May 15, 2012 ANDROID now accounts for more than half of Great Britain’s smartphones as the dominion of Nokia and BlackBerry continue to wane. Android, the operating system behind Samsung and HTC smartphones, has climbed to a 50.1 per cent share of the market compared to 44.6 per cent a year ago, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. In [...]
Launch of the Lumia has failed to boost ailing Nokia … May 15, 2012 BACK in November I wrote of the difficulties that Nokia faced and the importance of the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800. At that point, Nokia had seen a rise in the buzz score on YouGov’s BrandIndex but that was already starting to fade, and the launch had had no impact on overall brand perception [...]
