Troubled HCL loses another board member March 1, 2011 CRISIS-HIT medical recruiter Healthcare Locums lost another director yesterday, after its chief operating officer Mo Dedat stepped down from the board with immediate effect. HCL, whose shares remain suspended from AIM pending an internal probe into accounting problems, now has four directors including suspended chief financial officer Diane Jervis. Chairman Peter Sullivan, who joined the [...]
JLT sees soft rates ending March 1, 2011 INSURANCE broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) pushed into emerging Asian and Latin American markets to deliver double-digit profit growth in 2010, it said yesterday. JLT beat market expectations with underlying pre-tax profit growth of 24 per cent, to £130.1m from £104.8m in 2009. Underlying earnings per share rose 20 per cent to 40.5p from 33.8p [...]
RBS losses weigh on brand image but Lloyds is flat March 1, 2011 THE beauty of continuous daily data is that it allows for an instant assessment of how the public is reacting to advertising or events. Over the last week we have seen three of the major banks – HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and RBS – announce their annual results and we can already look at BrandIndex [...]
Profits grow at Provident as collections rise March 1, 2011 SHARES in subprime lender Provident Financial closed more than five per cent lower yesterday despite its profits rising 11 per cent in 2010. Growing demand for loans and better debt collection pushed pre-tax profit to £144.5m from £130.1m in 2009, while earnings per share also gained ten per cent to 78.6p, from 71.4p in 2009. [...]
COST-CONSCIOUS BOOST MONEYSUPERMARKET March 1, 2011 COST-CONSCIOUS consumers helped boost underlying profits at price comparison website moneysupermarket.com 14 per cent to £41m in 2010, it said yesterday. The site, whose adverts feature comedian Omid Djalili (pictured, left) and Starsky And Hutch actor David Soul (right), grew revenues nine per cent to £148.9m as demand for its insurance, money and home services [...]
Factories still growing at record speed March 1, 2011 BRITAIN’S manufacturing boom continued into February, maintaining the record high level of growth seen at the start of the year, according to a business survey released yesterday. The sector recorded 61.52 in last month’s purchasing managers’ index, virtually unchanged from January’s level of 61.49 – the highest since records began in 1992. All scores above [...]
Eurozone on track, says Rehn March 1, 2011 GROWTH in the Eurozone will hit 1.6 per cent in 2011, higher than previous forecasts of 1.5 per cent, the EU’s economics chief said yesterday. However, commissioner Olli Rehn warned that oil prices will average $100 (£61) this year, on the day that consumer price inflation in the euro area was announced at 2.4 per [...]
BoE: Supply of money in Britain takes an upturn March 1, 2011 THE Bank of England’s overall measure of the money supply grew by 0.8 per cent in January, it announced yesterday. Over 12 months total “M4” fell by 1.7 per cent, but some analysts point to signs of a pick up in the figures. The Bank’s preferred “core” money measure – excluding intermediary non-bank financial companies [...]
Caution rules on high street as borrowers look to repay debts March 1, 2011 APPETITE for borrowing has dropped in 2011, data from the Bank of England revealed yesterday. Consumer credit showed a net repayment of £333m in January, appearing to reflect caution on the high street, and people’s desire to reduce personal debts. Net borrowing had averaged around £200m over the previous six months, while in December credit [...]
Bernanke dismisses oil price threat as US recovery rolls on March 1, 2011 SOARING oil prices pose only a “temporary” threat to inflation, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday. The dollar, tumbling to a three and a half month low against the euro, received little support from Bernanke’s testimony to the Senate’s banking committee, in which he showed no inclination of a move towards monetary tightening. “The [...]
