Nielsen prices IPO up on high demand January 25, 2011 TELEVISION ratings firm Nielsen priced its $1.6bn (£1bn) initial public offering above the expected range yesterday on the back of higher demand. Private-equity owned Nielsen sold 71.4m shares for $23 each, above the planned price of $20 to $22, as well as $250m worth of subordinated bonds. All the proceeds are expected to go towards [...]
J&J gloomy after sales fall January 25, 2011 US health giant Johnson and Johnson (J&J) reported a gloomy outlook for 2011 after its fourth-quarter profit was hit by a 5.5 per cent decline in sales. Fourth-quarter profit fell 12 per cent to $1.9bn (£1.2bn), from $2.2bn in the same period in 2009, while sales revenue fell to $15.6bn from $16.5bn a year earlier. [...]
EU’s bailout bond a success January 25, 2011 THE debut bond issue for the EU’s bailout fund yesterday was nine times oversubscribed in an unprecedented success for the bloc. All €5bn (£4.29bn) of the five-year bond on offer was snapped up, with Asian investors fuelling demand. The Japanese government alone bought more than 20 per cent of the issue, which is perceived as [...]
IRISH GOVERNMENT SCRAPS 90 PER CENT BANK BONUS TAX PLAN January 25, 2011 IRISH finance minister Brian Lenihan (pictured, left) yesterday admitted its plan to tax bank bonuses at 90 per cent may not be enforced. He said “immense legal difficulties” meant the plan may be left out of the finance bill now being fast-tracked through parliament. The bill must be passed by Friday to allow an election [...]
Weather blamed for 0.5 per cent GDP fall January 25, 2011 THE British economy shrank by half a per cent in the final three months of the year, official data showed yesterday, despite economists on average expecting an expansion of up to half a per cent. The decline was largely blamed on the crippling effects of December’s snowstorms, which knocked half a per cent off the [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: SHOULD WE TAKE THE GDP FIGURE AT FACE VALUE? January 25, 2011 ANDREW GOODWIN | ERNST & YOUNG ITEM CLUB We find it difficult to believe the economy is really as weak as these figures suggest. This view quite simply does not square with what survey indicators are telling us. The ONS has little hard data to base this first release on, so we see the prospect [...]
Why I was right to predict a GDP contraction January 25, 2011 TODAY’S GDP figures took almost everyone by surprise. The snowfall obviously added uncertainty to the December numbers, but this was expected to show in later revisions. Instead, underlying output was softer than thought, and the Office of National Statistics chose to make an early guess at a large negative effect of the bad weather. But [...]
Data corrections to deficit figures offer hope for Osborne January 25, 2011 DOWNWARD revisions to government deficit figures for November, and a fall in the deficit for December, will reassure chancellor George Osborne that he is on course to hit his targets for the financial year. Government borrowing dropped to £16.8bn in December, it was revealed yesterday, considerably below the forecasts of economists who expected a figure [...]
Ed Balls admits double dip recession is unlikely January 25, 2011 POLITICIANS on all sides downplayed the likelihood of a double dip recession following the shock fall in economic output announced yesterday. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said people had already “changed their behaviour in anticipation of what’s coming in the future” and said: “I don’t think [a double dip] is the most likely outcome.” However, Balls [...]
Hunt delays decision on News Corp bid January 25, 2011 CULTURE minister Jeremy Hunt has stalled his decision over the future of News Corp’s £7.8bn bid for Sky. Hunt says he will give News Corp more time to prove its bid will not have an adverse affect on media plurality before referring it to the Competition Commission. Media watchdog Ofcom has filed a report highlighting [...]
