BG Group strikes oil in Brazil January 26, 2011 Shares in BG Group rose nearly four per cent yesterday after the explorer announced a discovery of light oil in Carioca area, offshore Brazil, with Evolution Securities upbeat on hopes of future production upgrades. “The key here is that this is yet another discovery along with recent major success offshore Tanzania (multi-TCF gas discoveries) that [...]
ConocoPhillips profits surge January 26, 2011 ConocoPhillips, the third-largest US oil company, reported a 54 per cent increase in quarterly profit yesterday as proceeds from asset sales and higher crude prices and refining margins boosted results. Profit in the fourth quarter was $2bn (£1.26bn), or $1.39 per share, compared with $1.3bn, or 86 cents per share, a year earlier.
More Morocco success for Circle January 26, 2011 Oil and gas explorer Circle Oil said it made another gas discovery in its key Sebou Permit, marking its second successive discovery in Morocco this month. The company said it found gas in the deeper Main Hoot and the secondary Guebbas regions of the reservoir. Circle Oil shares closed up 1.9 per cent.
Small firms help put Sage back on track January 26, 2011 Accountancy software firm Sage Group said yesterday a recovery in spending by small businesses had continued in its first quarter, helping it to hit its forecasts for the period. This marks the first return to growth in software revenue since the second half of 2007. Sage, which sells software to 6.3m small and medium-sized businesses, [...]
Brewin Dolphin in fury at £6m bill for bust firms’ victims January 26, 2011 Brewin Dolphin has been slapped with a £6m bill from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) as part of an industry-wide burden that will hit bonuses and could even put some smaller brokers out of business. The FSCS has sent invoices totalling £326m to wealth management firms to collect compensation for investors in two firms [...]
MAM Funds to issue £20m in new shares to pay off debt January 26, 2011 AIM listed fund management group MAM Funds is set to raise up to £20m by placing more than 60m new shares. MAM intends to place the new ordinary shares, worth 33p per share, in order to pay off outstanding bank debts as well as to appoint new management. Chairman and chief executive Colin Rutherfood will [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DOES TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT MEAN FOR SAGE? January 26, 2011 JULIAN YATES | INVESTEC Today’s announcement adds very little to the investment case, positive or negative, for Sage. It describes trading for each region being in line with expectations, and net debt, at £187m, is also unsurprising. Although we see the potential upside as significant in the long term, we continue to view operational investment [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 26, 2011 ARM RBS rates the microprocessor producer as a “buy” at a target price of 600p, after blogs published slides of what appears to be a roadmap for the planned Nvidia smartphone/tablet processor. The roadmap shows ARM shipping it’s quad-core processor by the end of the year, ahead of its peers in the broker’s view. HARGREAVES [...]
Toyota recalls 1.7m vehicles worldwide January 26, 2011 TOYOTA, the world’s top automaker and Japan’s second largest company by market capitalisation, said it would recall more than 1.7m vehicles worldwide, bringing its total for recalls to nearly 16m since late 2009 and dealing a blow to its efforts to restore its reputation for quality. Although the situation is different from last year, when [...]
ABB growth forecast boosted by fourth-quarter power contracts January 26, 2011 SWISS engineering group ABB expects to report double-digit net income growth after winning a large number of power infrastructure orders in Europe and the Middle East in the fourth quarter of 2010. High levels of industrial activity in most regions were supporting its short and mid-cycle businesses in the automation and power sectors, ABB said [...]
