THREE WISE MEN: THE ELDER STATESMEN OF BUSINESS June 14, 2011 Rupert Murdoch, 80, takes a very active role at the top of the media empire he has built. The octogenarian is still regarded as one of the most influential men in politics. At 74-years old, Winterflood Securities founder – now its life president – Brian Winterflood is still an ever-present figure in the City. Simon [...]
Tesco blames fuel price for UK sales dip June 14, 2011 TESCO stoked fears over the financial pressures on British consumers yesterday by posting sales growth in all international regions except the UK. The UK’s biggest supermarket blamed high petrol prices for eating into household incomes and causing an 0.1 per cent fall in UK sales excluding petrol and VAT in the past three months. It [...]
Investors ignore growth abroad to focus on UK woes June 14, 2011 MAYBE Tesco should move its primary listing to Hong Kong. Then investors might pay more attention to Asia, where sales grew by 11.4 per cent at constant exchange rates in the first quarter. The region accounted for around 17 per cent of sales and trading profit last year, a figure that will only grow. Or [...]
Brewer sales up on good weather June 14, 2011 BREWER Shepherd Neame said yesterday that its sales have been boosted by the recent good weather, as it issued an upbeat trading statement and said its pub estate had risen in value. For the 48 weeks to 28 May, Shepherd Neame’s own beer volume grew by 3.6 per cent, while like-for-like sales in managed houses [...]
Nissan eco car privacy fears June 14, 2011 ECO-FRIENDLY cars manufactured by Nissan could be leaking detailed information about a driver’s location, speed and destination on the internet. The Nissan Leaf could be transmitting the private data through its inbuilt RSS reader, a US security blogger has found. The leak is said to come from the vehicle’s on-board “Carwings” data sharing service was [...]
Delays for JV at Carphone Warehouse June 14, 2011 CARPHONE Warehouse (CPW) yesterday dodged making a decision on its Best Buy Europe joint venture despite the unit acting as a millstone on its books. Losses at its “big box” stores, in which CPW is involved in a 50/50 partnership with US firm Best Buy, overshot forecasts to hit £62.2m. Investors had hoped a strategy [...]
Profits collapse at Royal Mail as post volume falls June 14, 2011 Royal Mail has reported an 80 per cent slide in profits to £39m driven by the decline of its mail business. Total revenues for the group fell to £9.2bn mainly due to a four per cent dive in its letters and parcels operation, falling £120m last year or £2m a week — its largest loss [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF CARPHONE’S RESULTS? June 14, 2011 NICK BUBB | ARDEN PARTNERS This was meant to be “D-Day” for the heavily loss-making Best Buy UK but, slightly pathetically, CPW has said that it has not made up its mind what to do with it yet. Maybe that just means they are waiting for Kesa to reveal their hand on Comet first. Fortunately [...]
TED BAKER PROVIDES RETAIL THERAPY AS SALES SURGE June 14, 2011 DESIGNER gear maker Ted Baker defied the retail sector gloom yesterday to post a 15.2 per cent revenue rise in the past five months. Sales were up 9.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2010 while wholesale sales jumped 42.1 per cent as demand in the US rose. New stores in the Middle [...]
Shares in Avis spike on news of takeover June 14, 2011 SHARES in car hire firm Avis Europe leaped 58 per cent yesterday as investors rushed to benefit from its takeover by US counterpart Avis Budget. Avis Budget said it would pay £636m in cash for Avis Europe to reunite the two firms after 25 years and create a group with revenues of $7bn (£4.3bn). The [...]
