RBC celebrates new mandate win as broker to Ophir Energy November 10, 2011 RBC CAPITAL Markets will today be named as a joint broker to Ophir Energy, the FTSE 250 company part backed by the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. Ophir has decided to bring in RBC, which has a large balance sheet and growing expertise in the energy and resources sector, at the expense of Credit Suisse, which [...]
3i in dividend sweetener for shareholders November 10, 2011 PRIVATE equity house 3i Group faces an anxious wait to see if a doubling of its dividend and a wave of job cuts will pacify its unhappy shareholders. Last night serial critic Laxey Partners dismissed the dividend rise as pointless while other key investors Blackrock, Schroders, Scottish Widows and Legal & General all declined to put [...]
Murdoch puts blame on his former execs November 10, 2011 FORMER News Corp executives rounded on each other yesterday as the battle to lay the blame for the phone hacking scandal became increasingly bitter. James Murdoch told a parliamentary committee the former legal head of News International, Tom Crone, and its former editor Colin Myler misled both him and parliament about how widespread phone hacking [...]
Mirror gets boost from the News of the World closure November 10, 2011 Trinity Mirror expects to profit from the turmoil at its rival News International, with its Sunday circulations rising following the closure of the News of the World. The publisher of the popular Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror tabloids said its revenue for the last four months is in line with the same period in 2010, [...]
Euromoney sees its sales rocket November 10, 2011 Euromoney, the financial information arm of Daily Mail & General Trust, increased sales by 10 per cent in the last year and said first-quarter trading was in line with its expectations. But the publisher of Euromoney magazine said its outlook remains uncertain, as the big banks that form an important part of its client base [...]
Mecom hit by low confidence November 10, 2011 European publishing group Mecom said plunging consumer confidence is holding back advertising in its newspapers, and will result in an unexpected drop in earnings. Shares in the group, which publishes newspapers in the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Norway, fell as much as 15 per cent to 114p in early trade, the lowest level since January [...]
Restaurant Group says on track for 2012 November 10, 2011 THE RESTAURANT group said it continued to make good progress, posting a 6.5 per cent rise in sales in the 44 weeks to November, despite pressure from inflationary costs and weak consumer spending. The owner of Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito restaurant chains said November trading had started well and remains on track to meet [...]
STARBUCKS FRESHENS UP EXPANSION PLANS November 10, 2011 STARBUCKS will launch a chain of juice bars starting next year in a move which marks its biggest-ever expansion beyond coffee. In a statement yesterday, chief executive Howard Schultz announced the group’s acquisition of juice company Evolution Fresh for $30m (£19m) in cash. The first juice bars are set to open in the US in [...]
Wm Morrison warns Xmas will be tough November 10, 2011 WM MORRISON chief executive Dalton Philips warned of “a very tough Christmas” ahead, with consumer sentiment at its lowest in a generation, as the group posted a rise in its underlying sales. Philips said “people were being very frugal” but he expected this to play to Morrison’s strengths, as it continues to outperform it rivals [...]
Halfords suffers fall in profits November 10, 2011 HALFORDS, the seller of car parts and leisure products, saw pre-tax profits fall by 20 per cent in the first half of the year as hard-up motorists cut back on the maintenance of their vehicles to save cash in tough times. Profit at the group, which owns 466 Halfords stores and 246 Autocentres in the [...]
