Daimler rocked by massive loss, scraps dividend February 18, 2010 German carmaker Daimler swung to a net loss of €2.6bn (£2.26bn) for 2009 and yesterday scrapped its dividend for the first time in 14 years. Daimler, which owns Mercedes Benz and is the world’s largest truck manufacturer, put the loss down to a fall in vehicle sales across all its business units due to the [...]
Barrick plans to spin-off its African unit February 18, 2010 Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, is spinning off its African gold assets into a new publicly traded company that will be floated on the London Stock Exchange. The new company, called African Barrick Gold, will be the biggest UK-based gold miner. It will have 10 per cent of Barrick’s assets, giving it a [...]
London Stock Exchange installs new chief executive at Turquoise February 18, 2010 THE LONDON Stock Exchange yesterday put the finishing touches to its acquisition of trading platform rival Turquoise, as it announced a shake-up of the new venture’s management team. The merged business, which combines Turquoise and the LSE’s dark pool trading facility Baikal to form a pan-European trading platform, will be led by David Lester, the [...]
Microsoft allowed to team up with Yahoo to take on Google February 18, 2010 MICROSOFT stepped up its battle to knock Google from its pedestal yesterday when it was finally granted permission to team up with Yahoo. European and US regulators allowed the decision on the grounds that the combined company would still control just 10 per cent of the search engine market. Microsoft has so far failed to [...]
Halfords buys car company February 18, 2010 CAR and bike accessories retailer Halfords said yesterday it was expanding into the car servicing market after buying Nationwide Autocentres for £73.2m. The company said the “Halfords Autocentre” business would be a major source of growth for the firm. In addition to Nationwide’s existing 224 sites, it is expected that Halfords will open 200 new [...]
ANALYST VIEWS:?WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR LADBROKES? February 18, 2010 KARL BURNS | SHORE CAPITAL Current trading in UK retail net revenue is down 5.8 per cent, reflecting a stronger gross win margin and lower free bets. We believe this is an encouraging figure, with the impact from poor weather conditions likely to have been significant. Lower gross profit tax and costs, led to January’s [...]
Ladbrokes profits hit by downturn February 18, 2010 LADBROKES went on a losing streak in 2009 with the recession leading punters to place fewer and lower bets. Pre-tax profits slumped 28 per cent to £191.3m after a tough year in which it was forced to tap shareholders for £274.6m in October. The UK’s biggest bookmaker said its 2,000 UK betting shops suffered a [...]
Kingfisher says profits will survive the impact of the winter’s big freeze February 18, 2010 B&Q owner Kingfisher said it had defied the big freeze in posting better-than-expected results for January. The company said it had kept a lid on costs and profits would be “slightly ahead” of the £540m for the year to 30 January pencilled in by city analysts Like-for-like sales for the final quarter at B&Q had [...]
Walmart sees quarterly profits surge February 18, 2010 WALMART the world’s biggest retailer, yesterday reported a 22 per cent jump in profits for its fourth quarter, but left investors underwhelmed with its outlook for the current quarter. The world’s largest retailer made consolidated net income, or after-tax profits, of $4.6bn (£2.9bn) in the three months to 31 January on a 4.5 per cent [...]
Rusal’s float goes sour as shares plunge February 18, 2010 Shares in Rusal tumbled nearly seven per cent yesterday, meaning the world’s largest aluminium producer has shed more than a third of its initial public offering (IPO) price in a month. Ever-present uncertainties surrounding the group’s chief executive and major shareholder Oleg Deripaska which caused retail investors to be banned from the original float are [...]
