Bumper Christmas boosts ASOS January 17, 2013 ONLINE fashion retailer ASOS yesterday said its retail sales rose 41 per cent to £78.1m in December, helped by a strong showing in its home market over Christmas. UK retail sales were up by a better-than-expected 34 per cent to £35.7m, driven by its decision to the trim prices of its own-branded products. International sales [...]
Aberdeen adds more assets to better margins January 17, 2013 SCOTTISH-based money manager Aberdeen Asset Management yesterday said it had attracted £1.1bn more assets from customers in the last quarter as cash flowed into higher margin products, boosting revenues. The FTSE 100 firm, said it had won £10.8bn of new business in the last three months of 2012, an increase of one fifth on the [...]
Fiasco over results tests M&S’s loyalty to Tulchan January 17, 2013 THERE is little more certain in life than this: one firm’s misfortune will be seized on by rivals desperate to take advantage of another’s woes. So it is that a host of financial public relation agencies have been bending the ears of Marks & Spencer executives to test the retailer’s loyalty to its incumbent agency [...]
Panmure gains from new hires January 17, 2013 BROKER Panmure Gordon yesterday said its expanding corporate transaction business had driven it to profit in the second half of last year. Despite a gloomy IPO market and depressed market volumes, the stockbroker was profitable for each month due to increased revenues on transactions, it said in a trading statement. The company hired a former [...]
Ex-Brevan star in solo venture January 17, 2013 CHRIS Rokos, co-founder of hedge fund firm Brevan Howard, is focusing on managing his own fortune, it emerged yesterday, the latest star trader to set up a so-called family office rather than work for others amid tighter regulations. The former Goldman Sachs trader, who left Brevan last summer after the amount of money he managed [...]
AmEx and Capital One disappoint Wall Street January 17, 2013 CREDIT card firms Capital One Financial and American Express both reported disappointing fourth quarter results last night. Capital One said net income for the fourth quarter rose to $843m (£527m), or $1.41 per share, from $407m, or 88 cents per share, a year earlier. The result was lower than average analyst expectations of $1.58 earnings [...]
OFT to investigate pensions industry January 17, 2013 THE OFFICE of Fair Trading (OFT) yesterday launched an investigation into workplace pensions amid fears that savers have little control over how their money is administered. The decision to probe defined contribution schemes comes ahead of an impending influx of savers who have had little direct contact with the pensions industry. At the moment just four million [...]
Aviva sells Malaysian business for £152m January 17, 2013 INSURANCE giant Aviva yesterday announced the disposal of its stake in a Malaysian business for £152m, the latest unit to be sold as part of a radical streamlining plan. CIMB-Aviva, a joint venture with one of Malaysia’s biggest banks, was only founded in 2007. But it fell victim to the British company’s decision to retreat [...]
Rothschild calls for full release of Bumi report January 17, 2013 BUMI co-founder Nat Rothschild yesterday hit out at the board of the miner, and called for full disclosure of the Macfarlanes report. Beleaguered coal miner Bumi commissioned City law firm Macfarlanes to carry out the legal review into its Indonesian operations in September, following alleged financial irregularities at Bumi Resources. The billionaire financier yesterday wrote [...]
Ex-RBS directors defend PPI as a useful product for customers January 17, 2013 PAYMENT protection insurance (PPI) was a good product for certain bank customers and was sold with the best intentions by the majority of bank staff, former bosses at RBS claimed yesterday. Ex-UK retail boss Paul Geddes told the parliamentary commission on banking standards that the product passed “the sniff test” when he joined the bank [...]
