United Carpets sees profit soar but slowdown looming August 9, 2010 UNITED Carpets’ pre-tax profits surged by 84.5 per cent to £1.1m in the year to 31 March. However, trading has weakened with like-for-like sales in carpets falling 2.6 per cent in the past 17 weeks. The retailer said it was affected by “the World Cup, the general election and subsequent Budget which together have made [...]
M&B to sell bowling firm in £39m deal August 9, 2010 PUBS and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers is offloading its Hollywood Bowl ten-pin bowling business to rival AMF Bowling for £39m. AMF will add Hollywood Bowl’s 24 sites to its existing 33 UK bowling centres. M&B is selling non-core businesses to focus on its pub operations, which include Harvester, Toby Carvery, Vintage Inns and O’Neill’s. [...]
Portmeirion boosted as Koreans snap up its patterned ceramics August 9, 2010 POTTERY group Portmeirion saw its profit surge by 88 per cent as its sales in Korea and the US took off. The Spode and Royal Worcester brands the company bought helped to fuel the rise with revenues up 24 per cent to £21m. Chairman Dick Steele said half the sales rise came from the acquired [...]
Watchdog will look at NAB’s $12bn Axa buy August 9, 2010 AUSTRALIA’S competition regulator agreed to consult the market on National Australia Bank’s proposals to salvage its $12bn (£7.5bn) takeover of Axa Asia Pacific, giving it a glimmer of hope the deal would succeed. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said yesterday it hoped to rule on the undertakings or some proposed asset sales by [...]
ECB concerned over new bank capital rules August 9, 2010 The European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday said planned changes to capital requirement rules could make it too easy for banks to offload risky assets on the ECB . The new plans, which should come into force next year, are designed to strengthen banks’ capital in order to help avert a repeat of the financial crisis. [...]
Quarterly loss for Chrysler as sales flag August 9, 2010 Chrysler Group posted a quarterly net loss on yesterday, underscoring the pressure on the smallest US automaker from a slack economy and an aging product line-up. The carmaker, which plans an IPO next year, saw US sales growth of 12 per cent in the first half of the year, lagging the industry’s nearly 17 per [...]
NewsCorp drops China stake August 9, 2010 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said yesterday that it will sell control of its three Chinese TV channels to a fund backed by China’s second-largest media company, in a pullback from the market after years of difficulty. The deal would see China Media Capital acquire a controlling stake in News Corp’s Xing Kong, Xing Kong International [...]
Generics assault on key drug hits profits for King August 9, 2010 King Pharmaceuticals’ quarterly profit was cut in half as sales of its muscle-relaxant drug Skelaxin plunged 95 per cent due to generic competition, but overall results slightly topped expectations yesterday. The company reported net income of $18m (£11.3m), or seven cents per share. That compared to $37.9m, or 15 cents per share in the year-earlier [...]
BMW brand sales leap 12pc on China August 9, 2010 BMW, the world’s biggest premium car maker, increased sales volumes of its flagship BMW brand by 12 per cent in July thanks largely to soaring demand in China. “Sales increased for the eleventh straight month since September 2009. We also expect our sales performance to remain strong over the coming months,” said Ian Robertson, head [...]
City Moves | who’s switching jobs August 9, 2010 Rosenblatt Solicitors The City law firm has hired James Klein as a corporate partner, effective from 1 September. Klein joins from Berwin Leighton Paisner, where he was a corporate finance partner focusing in particular on the technology. He has a wide range of experience on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital issues and [...]
