Laura Ashley sales tumble March 31, 2011 LAURA Ashley Holdings said yesterday its sales have fallen in recent weeks and it sees a tough outlook ahead. The retailer’s full-year pre-tax profit almost doubled on online growth, improved sales from retail stores and the franchise business, but it said its performance had been declining since February. Laura Ashley’s like-for-like UK retail sales for [...]
H&M misses profit forecasts on costs March 31, 2011 HENNES & MAURITZ, the world’s No.2 fashion retailer, missed first-quarter profit and sales forecasts, raising doubts over its strategy of holding prices despite rising cotton costs and currency headwinds. The Swedish budget clothing chain posted a 30 per cent dive in pre-tax profit to 3.54bn crowns (£348m) for the three months ended February. This was [...]
British dairies plan cost cuts March 31, 2011 Dairy Crest Group and Robert Wiseman Dairies are cutting costs to tackle rising input prices amid a slow economic recovery, the British dairy firms said yesterday. Both the companies anticipate their profits for the year to be in line with their own expectations. Dairy Crest plans another £20m of cost cuts for the next financial [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT IS BEHIND MOTHERCARE’S WOES? March 31, 2011 DAVID STODDART| FINNCAP The international operations continue to grow but the UK business continues to struggle in the face of depressed consumer demand. The latter appears to retain the capacity to dominate the results. JOHN STEVENSON| PEEL HUNT Today’s interim management statement does represent further evidence of UK consumer weakness, but it is more a [...]
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW FOR CAPITA CASANOVA March 31, 2011 THEY say when you wed you should have something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. But no-one could have imagined quite how literally Capita Financial Group’s Mark Millard would take the “old” commandment when he proposed to Morgan Stanley’s Kelly Janes in a dining room full of antiques worth more than £3m. Millard, [...]
Voda pays $5bn for Essar’s India stake March 31, 2011 VODAFONE yesterday said it would pay $5bn (£3.1bn) to buy Essar out of its Indian mobile phone venture, paving the way for a potential IPO of the business. Essar said it was selling its 33 per cent stake for $5bn in cash after exercising its put and call options. The deal, which tidies up Vodafone-Essar’s [...]
Inmarsat snaps up Norwegian satellite specialist for £100m March 31, 2011 INMARSAT, the global satellite communications specialist, yesterday said it was buying Norway’s Ship Equip for $159.5m (£100m). The FTSE 100 firm said Ship Equip, which generated revenues of $56m in 2010, would allow it to expand its high-speed communications business, which provides services to the shipping, offshore oil & gas and fishing industries. Inmarsat said [...]
Ofcom says BT must cut its wholesale cost March 31, 2011 BRITISH consumers should see a fall in the price they pay for broadband and landline services after the telecoms regulator said BT would have to cut the price it charges other providers to use its network. Ofcom said it had proposed lower prices for BT’s Openreach division, which provides wholesale access for other communications providers. [...]
Sarin’s big gamble has yet to pay off March 31, 2011 WHEN Vodafone bought a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar for $10.9bn in 2007, it was seen as the deal that would come to define the rein of chief executive Arun Sarin. Sarin, who was born in India, made an expensive bet on that country’s telecoms market; the deal implied an $18.8bn enterprise value for the [...]
Sale of Taylor Wimpey USA makes £600m March 31, 2011 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey has sold its North American business to a group of private equity firms for $955m (£595m), in a long-awaited deal that will help it cut debt and focus on its UK business. “The sale is a significant step towards our goal of becoming a UK-focused homebuilder,” chief executive Pete Redfern said yesterday. [...]
