Volcanic ash costs Restaurant Group £500,000 in lost revenue May 6, 2010 RESTAURANT Group – which owns the Garfunkel’s and Frankie & Benny’s chains – posted a six per cent rise in year-to-date total sales yesterday. The comany said it was confident of reporting profitable progress in the first half. For the 18 weeks to 2 May, the company posted a 0.5 per cent rise in like-for-like [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WILL DIAGEO’S REVIVAL LAST? May 6, 2010 JONATHAN JACKSON | KILLIK & CO “On first glance, the 12 per cent growth in organic net sales during the quarter appears impressive. However the comparatives against the same period last year were fairly easy. The timing of Easter also helped.” SAM HART | CHARLES STANLEY “These are an impressive set of figures. Things are [...]
Vedanta sees profits surge as prices rise May 6, 2010 REBOUNDING metals prices have helped Vedanta post a healthy 187 per cent surge in full-year profits. The Indian mining giant recorded earnings of $2.3bn (£1.5bn), a rise of 42 per cent from the previous year. Zinc, which gained 80 per cent in value during Vedanta’s fiscal year, was a big contributor to Vedanta’s profits. Chairman, [...]
Grainger makes £34.6m bid May 6, 2010 RESIDENTIAL landlord Grainger has made a conditional 202p per share offer to buy Sovereign Reversions to consolidate its position in the lucrative home equity release market. The offer values Sovereign at £34.6m. The boards of both companies announced earlier this week they had reached agreement in principle on the terms of the recommended cash offer [...]
Demand boost helps Tomkins May 6, 2010 BRITISH engineering firm, Tomkins, said yesterday that first quarter profits were up, following a strong sales performance in its industrial and automotive business. The higher volumes, coupled with the benefits from its restructuring initiatives, have resulted in double-digit margins in the first quarter, the firm said. The firm expects the first half to remain strong, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 6, 2010 DTZ The property firm has appointed Jason Winfield as UK national head of investment agency. Winfield has been a director at the firm for seven years and was previously head of its London and South East business space team. He has recently been tasked with developing a stapled debt product initially pioneered for the £600m [...]
ECB holds rate and dismisses bond buy talk May 6, 2010 THERE was no discussion of the European Central Bank (ECB) buying government bonds during the monthly meeting of its governing council, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said at the press conference in Lisbon following the decision yesterday to keep rates on hold at one per cent. Ahead of the meeting, some analysts had seen buying government [...]
Can hybrid platforms give brokers the edge? May 6, 2010 ELECTRONIC trading technology has come a long way in a short space of time. It is now crucial to the broking business and, according to research from Execution Noble, offers operating margins of 40 per cent compared with 20 per cent for traditional voice broking. Based on those figures – not to mention the fact [...]
Service sector hit by ash and election May 6, 2010 ACTIVITY in Britain’s services sector in April failed to match the storming performance seen by manufacturers, a leading survey showed yesterday. Although output continued to expand, the Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed a slowdown in the pace of growth. The PMI index fell to 55.3 from 56.5 against expectations for a further rise. [...]
Bovis says house prices are on the up but warns of an uncertain year to come May 6, 2010 BOVIS Homes said yesterday it had sold houses at prices slightly ahead of its expectations so far this year. However, it warned the general election had created uncertainty in the housing market and that a recovery was too early to call. Chief executive David Ritchie said: “We expect trading to continue to be stable, although [...]
