Kate Bleasdale leaves Healthcare Locums board after chair quits February 23, 2011 KATE BLEASDALE has quit her post as director of Healthcare Locums, the staffing firm she founded. She had been suspended as executive vice-chairman after “serious accounting irregularities” were discovered at the company last month. Her attempt to oust the board has also been dropped after the chairman who suspended her stood down late last week. [...]
Maersk says 2011 profit will be lower February 23, 2011 DENMARK’S AP Moller-Maersk said it will not repeat last year’s record earnings in 2011 due to expected lower oil output combined with uncertainty about freight rates and oil prices. The shipping and oil group beat 2010 forecasts on the back of a container shipping recovery and higher oil prices, swinging from its worst result in [...]
NZ loss could reach $12bn February 23, 2011 LOSSES from the earthquake that hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch may total $12bn (£7.2bn), JP Morgan analysts said yesterday. Repairs on shattered city centre buildings are likely to push insurance claims to double the level paid for the quake that hit the city last September. The estimate also tops the $8bn top estimate [...]
Memo to Osborne: don’t tax the City too much February 23, 2011 JEAN Baptiste Colbert, King Louis IVth’s legendary finance minister, didn’t mess about. To uphold standards in the cloth industry, he issued an edict that any merchant found peddling dodgy material three times would be tied up in public with the offending produce. Like George Osborne, Colbert inherited a fiscal catastrophe, and attempted Herculean feats to [...]
Resolution rejects more buyouts as focuses on efficiency savings February 23, 2011 CLIVE Cowdery’s insurance buyout firm Resolution will step back from further UK purchases while it integrates its three previous acquisitions. Resolution said in a strategy update yesterday that consolidating Friends Provident, AXA’s UK life business and Bupa Health Assurance should generate £112m cost synergies per year by 2013, up from £75m. The firm said it [...]
Rio divests talc business February 23, 2011 RIO Tinto has received a binding $340m (3210m) offer from industrial materials group Imerys for its talc business. Selling the business is part of Rio’s plan to focus on large-scale assets. The miner has made divestments of more than $11bn since 2008. Rio Tinto Minerals, which includes the talc and borates business, posted a net [...]
RSM Tenon falls despite profit leap February 23, 2011 SHARES in accountancy firm RSM Tenon plummeted yesterday despite a 50 per cent profit leap after the group warned that growth would slow. Underlying profits for the listed firm leapt by 53 per cent to £13.5m for the six months to 31 December 2010. Turnover increased 65 per cent to £121.1m. The interim figures combine [...]
Commerzbank will start state repayments February 23, 2011 COMMERZBANK has said it will post higher earnings in 2011 and start to repay its bailout money as a rebounding German economy lifted profits at its core businesses, including investment banking. In 2010, Germany’s second-biggest lender posted net profit of €1.43bn (£1.21bn), above expectations of €1.3bn. Commerzbank’s core Mittelstand business, which focuses on lending to [...]
Natixis returns to profit February 23, 2011 FRENCH bank Natixis returned to a net profit last year and plans to resume paying a dividend. Natixis, which focuses on investment banking, has boosted revenue in a volatile year thanks to strength in corporate finance, capital markets and asset management. The bank’s net profit for 2010 was €1.73bn, compared with an average analyst estimate [...]
Accor pledges debt reduction February 23, 2011 Europe’s largest hotel group Accor said it was confident a recovery in demand for rooms would continue this year and pledged to accelerate asset sales to reduce debt. Accor posted a 90 per cent rise in 2010 operating profit, in line with forecasts, as room rates gradually recovered. Earnings before interest and tax were €446m, [...]
