Close Brothers reports solid start to year November 18, 2010 CLOSE Brothers said overall performance during the first quarter was solid yesterday, driven by good loan book growth on continued demand for its specialist lending services. The merchant bank said its loan book stood at £3.1bn at the end of October compared to £2.9bn three months earlier, an increase of seven per cent. It said [...]
Watches ready for action November 18, 2010 BACK in the heady days of what we’re now calling “the bubble” (2006, basically) things in the world of watches had all got a little bit much, frankly. If the thing strapped to your wrist wasn’t big enough to eat your dinner off and full of enough moving parts to dazzle a rocket scientist, it [...]
National Grid dividend up as profits soar November 18, 2010 NATIONAL Grid saw six-month pre-tax profit surge 45 per cent to £938m, with operating profit growing in every part of the business. The good performance is in part weather-related, with a warm summer in the US leading to high use of air conditioners on the east coast where National Grid’s interests are. Six-month earnings per [...]
Roadworks action demanded November 18, 2010 BAA CHAIRMAN Sir Nigel Rudd has added his name to a list of nine signatories to a letter urging the government to stop dragging its feet on roadworks policy in London. The letter, sent out by the office of London Major Boris Johnson, was today delivered to transport secretary Philip Hammond and warns that there [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 18, 2010 Man Group The alternative asset manager has hired Jenny Morton as head of consultant relations, starting on 22 November. She joins from Putnam Investments, where she was head of global consultant relations, and has also held senior roles at Fidelity, Boston Partners and the Boston Company. Morton will report to Paul Dackombe, head of institutional [...]
THE APPS FOR WATCH GEEKS November 18, 2010 FOR an industry that prides itself on being at the cutting edge of technological endeavour, the watch business – or at least, the luxury end of it – can also be rather backward looking. Just take its attitude to online technology – the internet has mostly been treated with the same hostility as digital watches [...]
HERITAGE HITS MORE OIL IN IRAQ November 18, 2010 ONE of Heritage Oil’s wells in Iraq has hit a bigger-than-expected hydrocarbon deposit, the firm said in a trading statement yesterday. Shares closed down 2.3 per cent at 367p, however, after no update was given on the company’s ongoing tax dispute with the Ugandan government. The company has set aside around $400m (£249m) in relation [...]
WATCH NEWS IN BRIEF November 18, 2010 GRAND SEIKO COMES TO THE UK Japan’s Seiko is well known as more than a creator of quartz watches, but its highest-end pieces, the Grand Seiko range, have only ever been sold in Japan. After 50 years, they’re finally hitting the international market, and Mayfair’s Jura watches is selling them in the UK. For collectors, [...]
AMEC wins North Sea oil rig engineering contract November 18, 2010 ENGINEERING firm AMEC’s shares gained 2.5 per cent yesterday after the group won two contracts on oil and gas rigs in the North Sea. Oil refiner ConocoPhillips has hired AMEC for engineering and procurement work on its existing Judy platform around 240km from the Aberdeen coast, as well as for initial work on its new [...]
QinetiQ’s cost cutting helps boost results November 18, 2010 DEFENCE firm QinetiQ saw its shares soar yesterday after it posted a 14 per cent rise in first-half profit on stronger sales and better cash generation. Sales at the defence technology firm’s global products business, which accounts for around a third of group revenue, grew 65 per cent, driven by demand for its Q-NET vehicle [...]
