Primetime Peppa Pig and films put Entertainment One on track February 14, 2013 POPULAR children’s cartoon Peppa Pig going primetime in the US and a series of box office hits helped drive group revenues at Entertainment One 15 per cent higher in the 10 months to the end of January. The group, which distributes films and television series in the UK, US, Canada and several other countries, said [...]
Sunny outlook lifts Renault February 14, 2013 French carmaker Renault yesterday predicted an upturn in global sales will restore its manufacturing division to profit this year, as overseas growth outweighs Europe’s slump. The firm yesterday impressed investors with a rise in operating cash flow to €597m (£513.9m), which offset a fall in net income to €1.77bn on revenues 3.2 per cent lower [...]
Puma swings to a loss February 14, 2013 Sportswear group Puma yesterday said it is ending its sailing sponsorship deals as it swung to a quarterly loss of €42.6m. The German firm last month axed its sponsorship of the Irish rugby union team kit. Chief executive Franz Koch told journalists that it would take “some time” before Puma’s cost savings brought visible success, [...]
January boost for online retail February 14, 2013 Online retail sales were up 16 per cent overall year-on-year in January. The clothing sector was the best performer, with its 23 per cent year-on-year rise marking a three-year high for the sector. In total, £6.9bn was spent online in January – nearly £1bn more than January 2012 – according to the statistics from the [...]
Slower growth in new markets knocks Nestle February 14, 2013 NESTLE, the world’s biggest food company, sees no respite this year from a tough trading environment after sales growth undershot rival Unilever last year as emerging markets like Asia slowed. Nestle’s 2012 underlying sales grew 5.9 per cent last year to SFr92.2bn (£64.6bn), the firm said yesterday. The figure is in line with a consensus [...]
City Views | How much have you spent on Valentine’s day this year? February 14, 2013 ADAM LEWIS | UBS I have a girlfriend and haven’t spent a penny. I don’t see it as a big thing and only found out when somebody told me today… I found a poem, copied it into an email and sent it to her. I don’t think she’s particularly worried either. PHIL KNIGHT | SEB [...]
City Moves for 15 February 2013 | Who’s switching jobs February 14, 2013 CBRE The property firm has appointed Andrew Peacock as head of central London asset management. He joins after 24 years at Aviva Investors, where he held a number of senior roles, including manager of its central London office portfolio. Towers Watson The professional services company has appointed Liz Rennie as senior consultant in its human [...]
Best of the Brokers February 14, 2013 SPIRIT PUB COMPANY Broker Numis has reiterated its “buy” rating on the pub stock after it said the company’s growth prospects were “undervalued”. Analysts said there were concerns about the firm’s bond amortisation schedule in 2015 but that it should be resolved by refinancing. The firm’s net debt to earnings ratio should also fall in [...]
FTSE falters as Vodafone and Amec see falls February 14, 2013 BENCHMARK share index fell from five-year highs, hit by weakness at telecoms group Vodafone and engineer AMEC, although many traders stayed positive on equities for the longer term. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which touched a five-year intraday high on Wednesday, closed down 0.5 per cent, or 31.75 points lower, at 6,327.36 yesterday. Some traders [...]
Wall St treads water despite surge in M&A February 14, 2013 THE S&P 500 eked out a small gain for a third straight session yesterday, helped by a flurry of merger activity, though investors see no catalysts to lift the market further with major averages near multi-year highs. The market’s slowed advance took the S&P 500 to its highest intraday level since November 2007 on Wednesday. [...]
