Peppa Pig’s US jaunt boosts owner EntOne September 29, 2011 PEPPA Pig’s push into the US has helped ensure Entertainment One’s first-half earnings will be significantly ahead of last year, the firm said yesterday. The media production and distribution company, which listed on the London Stock Exchange last year, jumped 20 per cent earlier this month on speculation it has hired banks to field interest [...]
Moonpig founder to head Ark September 29, 2011 JUST a month after collecting a paper windfall of up to £40m from the sale Moonpig, Nick Jenkins has been named chief executive of charity Ark. The millionaire former Glencore commodities trader will be tasked with developing relationships with philanthropists to fund Ark’s programmes in Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, the UK and India. Jenkins has [...]
BOOMING INDIAN FILM MARKET BOOSTS EROS September 29, 2011 BOLLYWOOD movie distributor Eros International said it expected its full-year results to beat current market expectations, driven by strong performances from film titles like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (You Won’t Get Life Again) and Ready. Eros said it expected the strong first-half performance to continue in the second half, with a line-up that is expected [...]
Thomson Reuters to issue notes September 29, 2011 MEDIA conglomerate Thomson Reuters has announced it will offer $350m (£223m) of 10 year notes to refinance borrowings used to repay a recently expired bond issue. Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank Securities, JP Morgan Securities and RBS Securities are the joint book-running managers for the offering. The offering is expected to close on 5 October, the [...]
Things will only get worse for Labour until they discuss voters’ inflation concerns September 29, 2011 AS LABOUR gathered in Liverpool for its party conference this week, one of their top priorities was to fashion a message on the dominant issue in British politics today: the economy. They failed. FISCAL FAILURE On the fiscal side, the shadow chancellor Ed Balls, unveiled an economic recovery package that seemed like it had been [...]
I’m a priest who works in finance. Here is my take September 29, 2011 WHILE being interviewed during the Liberal Democrat Conference, the great pious voice of our collective conscious, also known as Vince Cable, solemnly stated that the reduction of the uncompetitive taxes on the “rich” would have to wait. His reasoning was that a reduction in tax on the lowest paid would result in greater overall spending. [...]
Lazy politicians should be universally admired September 29, 2011 IT’S conference season, and the airwaves are full and the newspaper pages thick with a barrage of policy ideas. Every would-be chancellor and tyro PM wants to make their mark on the nation with their energy, their zeal to do something that will make life better. They’re all wrong. Half the trouble of the world, [...]
RAPID RESPONSES September 29, 2011 EMBRACING EFTA Regarding Neil Bentley’s article in yesterday’s paper on the plans for a Tobin tax, I would like to add that Norway and Switzerland would also not be affected by such a tax because they are in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The European Economic Area’s (EEA) free movement of goods, services, capital [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 29, 2011 BlackRock Simon Beresford and Neil Purvis have been appointed to help develop the investment fund’s UK defined contribution business. Beresford (pictured) joins as chief operating officer of the firm’s Peterborough DC administration centre, moving from the Nationwide Building Society, where he was head of mortgage administration. Purvis, previously head of HR at the firm, takes [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 29, 2011 BABCOCK INTERNATIONAL JP Morgan Cazenove rates the defence and security services group “overweight”. Its analysts are impressed by the size of the opportunity for the group’s support services division, as well as the potential to improve margins by changing the contract mix. Babcock trades on an enterprise value to Ebitda multiple of eight times, more than [...]
