Orders from Middle East and Asia drive a surge in full-year profits at Chemring January 18, 2011 BRITISH arms firm Chemring posted a 14 per cent rise in full-year profit yesterday, helped by growing sales in the Middle East and Asia, and said it is confident on its prospects for 2011. Chemring, whose products help fighter planes avoid missile attacks, reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £116.8m on revenues 18 per cent [...]
African Barrick misses gold production targets January 18, 2011 AFRICAN Barrick Gold posted mixed fourth-quarter figures yesterday, as it missed output targets for the year but saw its new Buzwagi mine overcome production difficulties by mid-November. It produced 179,730 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter, a nine per cent improvement on the third quarter but a 16 per cent drop from last year. [...]
STAGECOACH ARTS SEES PROFIT DIP January 18, 2011 UK THEATRE franchise Stagecoach Theatre Arts reported a fall in revenue against 2009 yesterday, with group revenue dropping to £2.9m from £3m last year. Its first-half profits were significantly down, falling to £72,000 pre-tax from £267,000 in the previous year. The group put the drop down to a planned investment in marketing material, as well [...]
Chinese boom fuels surge in Burberry sales January 18, 2011 BURBERRY yesterday said the Chinese retail boom had helped to fuel its latest sales surge. Like-for-like sales across Burberry’s stores around the world rose by 14 per cent in the last three months of 2010, it said yesterday. The luxury goods company’s star performing market was China where comparable sales leapt by more than 30 [...]
SABMiller boosted by Asia January 18, 2011 BREWING giant SABMiller beat forecasts with a three per cent rise in beer volumes in the last three months of 2010, boosted by growth in Africa and Asia. The London-based brewer of Miller Lite, Peroni and Grolsch said that beer price rises helped boost its quarterly revenue by six per cent. Strong volumes growth in [...]
Experian returns to growth as banks recover and call on credit services January 18, 2011 UK CREDIT information firm Experian said it had returned to growth in all its major markets, drawing a line under the financial crisis which sapped revenues from its banking sector clients. Experian, best known for carrying out consumer credit checks for banks and retailers, said yesterday it had returned to “positive growth across all regions [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: CAN BURBERRY SUSTAIN ITS SALES MOMENTUM? January 18, 2011 SAM HART| CHARLES STANLEY The Group will face the challenges of higher raw material prices and tough comparatives over the next year, but initiatives in retail, digital, product development and new markets underpins its confidence in the future. Excess cash will be put into the business, so no resumption of share buyback programme. KATE CALVERT| [...]
Money Dashboard launches in UK January 18, 2011 A new online personal finance service will be launched today to provide simple budgeting and financial planning tools for consumers struggling to keep track of their money. Visitors to the website www.moneydashboard.com will have access to tools that can aggregate information from bank accounts, store cards and credit cards in one place, helping people keep [...]
US risk rules could restrict credit January 18, 2011 Risk retention rules introduced in the US by the Dodd-Frank Act could harm the economy by restricting access to credit, according to a study by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. But the council also said that the new standards could reduce volatility in the asset-backed securities market, and help reduce pro-cyclicality in the lending markets [...]
S&P sees no chance of US default January 18, 2011 Debt ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said yesterday there was no significant chance of a US government debt default. The agency also said that if the debate now stirring in Congress to boost the US debt ceiling above its current $14.3 trillion (£8.96 trillion) level resulted in a long delay or a refusal to boost [...]