HOW SERIOUS IS THE FALL IN PROFITS AT WOLSELEY ? March 22, 2010 MICK GILIGAN | KILLIK & CO The financial position of the business improved at the last full year stage in July, with net debt down to £959m. This has improved further to £910m. ALAN CLARKE | BNP PARIBAS There are definitely signs that the housing market is cooling off. After an initial sugar rush of [...]
iSoft man lands eight-year ban March 22, 2010 IAN Storey, a former iSoft employee, was banned from practising as an accountant for eight years yesterday after providing false information to auditors. The financial controller of the UK-based healthcare software company admitted he had given “false and misleading information to iSoft’s former auditors over a two-year period in relation to a purported iSoft contract” [...]
King warns of slow recovery and says growth won’t return to pre-crisis levels March 22, 2010 BANK of England governor Mervyn King yesterday poured cold water on hopes of a sunny economic recovery, warning that the environment will feel “far from normal” for some time. In a speech about the difficulties of communicating economic forecasts, King reiterated that economic activity would remain well below pre-credit crunch levels, despite the strong bounce [...]
Feinberg to review pay at US bailed out companies March 22, 2010 OBAMA pay tsar Kenneth Feinberg is planning to review past compensation at 419 firms that received bailout funds, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, according to a source close to the US Treasury Department. Feinberg will “look back” at any pay for the top 25 earners that totaled more than $500,000 (£331,218) from October 2008, [...]
Kentz posts 9pc jump in earnings March 22, 2010 IRISH engineering group Kentz posted a nine per cent rise in full-year pre-tax profit, boosted by a higher backlog of orders and increased revenue from its construction segment, and said it was comfortable with market expectations for 2010. The company, which raised its total dividend by five per cent to six cents a share, said [...]
General Dynamics wins armoured vehicles deal March 22, 2010 THE UK government has awarded US firm General Dynamics the contract to build new armoured vehicles for Britain’s army, a significant blow to UK bidder BAE Systems which had hoped to win the deal. The contract is the first phase of the £4bn contract to build armoured reconnaissance vehicles to replace Britain’s ageing Scimitar scout [...]
Ocado sales jump 25pc in IPO warm-up March 22, 2010 OCADO, the online food retailer, has started a “beauty parade” of advisers for a stockmarket flotation after releasing a strong set of results which saw sales surge 25 per cent in a year. Investment banks queuing up to help guide Ocado through a summer initial public offering (IPO) include UBS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Nomura [...]
Citi’s Freiberg named E-Trade chief executive amid new takeover talk March 22, 2010 FORMER Citigroup executive Steven Freiberg has been named as E-Trade’s new chief executive. Freiberg, will takeover from interim chief executive Robert Druskin on 1 April, ending the search for a successor to Donald Layton. It is understood Freiberg will earn a base salary of $1m ( £662,000) and is eligible for a $3m cash performance [...]
Glaxo begins vaccine inquiry March 22, 2010 The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has asked British drugs manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline to look urgently into how the DNA of a foreign viral strain got into the company’s Rotarix vaccine. GSK’s Biologicals division reported the contamination to the medicines regulator after it found DNA from porcine circovirus type 1 in batches of the oral vaccine, used [...]
Head of equities at UBS leaves bank after 24 years March 22, 2010 UBS global head of equities Daniel Coleman will leave Switzerland’s biggest bank after almost 24 years. His duties will be taken up by the bank’s current head global securities Neal Shear. Coleman will step down immediately but will continue to work at the bank as a senior adviser for some months. According to an internal [...]
