Oil major won’t want to be a small fish for long April 24, 2012 SOMETIMES being a small fish in a big pond pays off. That is certainly the case for shareholders in Aim-listed Cove Energy, which Shell has agreed to buy for £1.12bn. The 220p-a-share offer represents a 96 per cent premium on Cove’s stock price before it put itself up for sale. Not bad for a bunch [...]
Waitrose and budget stores winning sales April 24, 2012 UK CONSUMER habits are becoming increasingly divided, accordingly to new retail data that shows higher-end and budget retailers growing market share while those occupying the middle ground lose out. Kantar Worldpanel figures for the 12 weeks to 15 April 2012 showed upmarket supermarket Waitrose increasing market share from 4.3 per cent to 4.5 per cent [...]
3M profit exceeds expectations April 24, 2012 ■ 3M reported an increase in quarterly profit and slightly lifted its full-year outlook yesterday, exceeding forecasts even as its display and graphics business continued to struggle and Asia sales declined. The maker of Post-It notes and Scotch reported net earnings of $1.12bn, compared with $1.08bn a year earlier.
Facebook float update: delayed April 24, 2012 ■ A recent acquisition surge by Facebook may add about a week to its journey to public markets, a source said. The social network agreed to buy photo-sharing start-up Instagram for about $1bn two weeks ago and on Monday it said it would pay $550m for hundreds of patents from Microsoft. Facebook has been aiming [...]
US court allows MF Global payout April 24, 2012 ■ A federal judge yesterday authorised the trustee liquidating MF Global Holdings’ brokerage unit to distribute as much as $685m (£424m) to customers whose accounts had been frozen when the futures brokerage went bankrupt. It includes as much as $600m to be paid to US exchange customers, up to $50m for traders on non-US exchanges, [...]
Carillion nets £700m contract April 24, 2012 ■ British support services and construction firm Carillion yesterday bagged won a property deal with Oxfordshire council worth up to £700m, helping it secure a big chunk of its pipeline for the next ten yeats.
Walkie Talkie takes a big step forward April 24, 2012 THE CONSTRUCTION of 20, Fenchurch Street, known as the Walkie Talkie, moved forward this week with the installation of the first of 4,5000 steel sections that will make up the building’s base. The Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group development is set to complete in 2014, providing 675,000 square feet of office space to the [...]
Hat-trick of deals in 48 hours for Rowley at UBS April 24, 2012 VERY few investment bankers could claim to have been fully occupied over the past few months, when deals have been sparse and caution has tended to gain the upper hand. But one man has had his work cut out in the past couple of days. He’s Jonathan Rowley of UBS who was yesterday part of [...]
Arm shares fall despite profits rising by a fifth April 24, 2012 ARM HOLDINGS shares dropped by six per cent yesterday despite the chip maker growing profits by more than a fifth. The Cambridge-based company, which designs and manufactures chips for mobile phones and internet-connected devices such as Smart TVs and tablets, saw pre-tax profits jump 22 per cent to £61.9m in the first quarter. Arm grew [...]
ARE ARM’S RESULTS AS YOU HAD EXPECTED? April 24, 2012 JONATHAN JACKSON KILLIK & CO Processor royalties were impacted by the industry-wide issues of slower HDD sales in the fourth quarter of last year following supply chain disruptions caused by flooding in Thailand. Management expect revenue for 2012 to be in line with consensus as shipments recover over the course of the year. PAUL MORLAND [...]
