Morrisons in bid to expand March 11, 2010 SUPERMARKET chain WM Morrison yesterday pledged to open more smaller stores after new openings last year helped it to record a 30 per cent rise in full-year pre-tax profit. In 2009, pre-tax profits surged to £858m as turnover rose by six per cent to £15.4bn. The company, Britain’s fourth largest supermarket, raised its annual dividend [...]
Wetherspoon dividend back as profit rises March 11, 2010 PUB chain Wetherspoon announced the end of a year-long dividend freeze yesterday after successfully completing its debt refinancing. Shareholders will receive a 12p dividend on 1 April for the year to July 2009 with a further special dividend of 7p a share. Last year it scrapped its dividend payment as it negotiated its refinancing. It [...]
Home Retail ups forecast March 11, 2010 HOME retail Group – which owns Argos and Homebase – has tipped its pre-tax profit for the year to come in at £290m. The figure is slightly ahead of its earlier forecast of £285m for the year to 27 February. Argos sales fell 9.4 per cent while sales at its home improvement operation Homebase declined [...]
John Lewis gives staff 15pc bonus March 11, 2010 JOHN Lewis will hand its staff a 15 per cent bonus after reporting a surge in annual profits. The staff-owned retailer made a profit before the employee bonus and tax of £306.6m in the year to the end of January – up from £279.6m in the previous year. It owns 28 department stores, one John [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: IS THE HIGH STREET CRISIS OVER? March 11, 2010 TONY SHIRET | CREDIT SUISSE RETAIL “Home Retail Group’s results were pretty poor. They were worse than expected but we had been forewarned about that. Overall sales should improve but recovery in sales are more likely in 2011 and 2012.” SAM HART | CHARLES STANLEY RETAIL “The Morrisons results were bang in line with expectations. [...]
DIAMONDS ARE AN INVESTOR’S BEST FRIEND March 11, 2010 WE’VE all heard a lot of novel investment advice over the course of the last two bumpy years, but investing in your own diamond mine has got to be a new one. Investment firm Capital Alternatives has set up a new venture, Capital Mining, which plans to do just that, having recently snapped up the [...]
Pound boosted by uptick in inflation expectations March 11, 2010 STERLING yesterday managed to claw back some of Wednesday’s sharp losses after Bank of England data showed that consumers’ expectations for inflation over the next year inched higher. Figures from the quarterly Bank of England/GfK NOP Inflation Attitudes Survey showed that on average, Britons are expecting inflation to be around 2.5 per cent over the [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF March 11, 2010 America’s burgeoning economic recovery could be slowing after figures published yesterday showed the US trade deficit narrowed in January, in part due to a slump in demand for overseas oil. The deficit shrank to $37.3bn (£24.8bn) during the month, a 6.6 per cent fall on the previous month, and well below economists’ predictions of an [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF March 11, 2010 Consumer inflation in China has soared to a 16-month high, according to official data published yesterday. Annual consumer price inflation rose to 2.7 per cent in February compared to 1.5 per cent the previous month. The main driver of the acceleration was a 6.2 per cent jump in the price of food. Inflation remains well [...]
Citigroup to return to profit, says Pandit March 11, 2010 CITIGROUP chief executive Vikram Pandit told investors yesterday the bank is on track to return to sustained profitability and losses from some of its worst assets should be manageable if the economy does not deteriorate. The comments were uncharacteristically optimistic for Pandit. The bank’s improving performance is easing pressure on the chief executive, who has [...]
