Dixons leads list of top shorted stocks May 5, 2011 EMBATTLED electronics retailer Dixons has the most shorted stock amongst its FTSE All-Share counterparts, according to research by DataExplorers. The firm has 18.69 per cent of its shares out on loan, which represents almost 70 per cent of the supply of shares available to be borrowed. Dixons has issued two profit warnings so far this [...]
Visa sees its profits jump May 5, 2011 Visa’s quarterly profit rose more than expected as increasingly confident consumers spent more, but doubts remain about the payment network’s ability to grow under looming regulation. Revenues rose 15 per cent to $2.25bn (£1.37bn), slightly above expectations. Its net income of $881m for its fiscal second-quarter compared to $713m a year ago. Shares fell in [...]
Impairments send Lloyds into the red May 5, 2011 NEW Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osório was yesterday accused of “kitchen-sinking” his first results at the helm of the bank, bringing forward some charges and potentially overestimating others to give himself a low base from which to improve. The bank plunged back into the red, reporting pre-tax losses of £3.47bn for the first-quarter of 2011 [...]
Horta-Osório does a spot of kitchen sinking May 5, 2011 WAS Antonio Horta-Osório being entirely honest yesterday when he denied kitchen sinking at his first set of results? Not quite: what he did was gut the Lloyds kitchen entirely, clogged dishwasher and all. Then, not content with clearing out his own house, he broke into the homes of RBS, HSBC and Barclays, and stole their [...]
Lion Capital buys retailer All Saints May 5, 2011 HIGH street fashion retailer All Saints has been rescued by a private equity led consortium, following months of talks to secure a new backer. British investment firm Lion Capital, which also owns the La Senza lingerie brand, has teamed up with US private equity house Goode Partners to buy the retailer. The deal, which values [...]
FlyBe becomes latest victim of curse of the London floats May 5, 2011 REGIONAL airline group FlyBe yesterday saw its shares fall more than 20 per cent after scaling back guidance for its 2012 profits. The airline, which raised £60m at the end of last year for European expansion as part of its London flotation, said it had been hit by “an extremely challenging macro-economic backdrop” in its [...]
Investors scrambling to snap up Glencore shares May 5, 2011 INVESTORS have snapped up the chance to buy a piece of Glencore, with the commodities giant reportedly seeing the book for its $60bn (£36.6bn) float fully covered on the first day yesterday. All $11bn worth of the trader’s shares on sale are said to be accounted for already, just a day after its 1,600-page prospectus [...]
SocGen disappoints as misses forecasts May 5, 2011 FRENCH bank Société Générale has reported its best quarter in two years, with profits up 9.2 per cent in its investment banking arm. But shares in the group fell as the numbers missed analyst forecasts, with its retail arm’s exposure to North African countries and banking taxes in the UK and France weighing heavily on [...]
GM triples its profits May 5, 2011 General Motors (GM) added further weight to the automotive industry bounce-back after more than tripling its quarterly profits. However, the stronger-than-expected results, driven by a recovery in the US market and strong sales in Asia, were not enough to please bearish investors, who picked up on its vehicle prices being weaker than rival Ford, with [...]
ING triumphs as races past predictions May 5, 2011 DUTCH bancassurer ING yesterday beat first-quarter profit forecasts, improving the prospects for listing its US and European-Asian insurance units and for other asset sales to repay state aid. ING, which received €10bn (£8.9bn) state aid at the height of the 2008 credit crisis, is selling assets so it can repay the Dutch government and splitting [...]
