Sales rise at Smiths Group June 8, 2011 BRITISH technology firm Smiths Group has revealed strong sales and profit growth, despite a sluggish performance in its detection unit. The airport scanner maker said underlying sales were ahead of last year in the 10 months to 28 May, driven by growth in its John Crane business unit. But lower sales from its Smiths Detection [...]
Beware the politics that surround the 50p tax June 8, 2011 WHAT do Sir Richard Branson, the CBI, and pop sensation of the moment Adele have in common? They have all denounced the 50p income tax. Adele may have declared herself “Labour through and through”, but when Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise demanded she hand over half of the £16m she made from her last album, [...]
Oil and gas arm saves day June 8, 2011 SMITHS Group, the last real conglomerate in the FTSE 100, has its fingers in a lot of pies. Most observers expect the group to be split up at some point in the not too distant future, but yesterday investors will have welcomed the safety in numbers. A strong performance at the John Crane division, which [...]
Swiss Re sees rates rocket after Japan June 8, 2011 RECORD losses incurred by reinsurance firms from Japan’s earthquake in March are causing the cost of reinsuring such disasters in the country to soar, Swiss Re said yesterday. Rates on coverage of earthquake exposure in Japan – where quakes are felt on average once every five minutes – have risen up to 60 per cent [...]
Hershey eyes ex-Cadbury boss Stitzer for its board June 8, 2011 US CANDY maker Hershey has held discussions with former Cadbury head Todd Stitzer about taking a seat on its board, it is understood. Stitzer, who left the British confectioner in 2010 after it was taken over by Kraft Foods, is also being considered for the chief executive job at Hershey, though interim boss John Bilbrey [...]
Citi sells £1bn in private equity assets to Axa June 8, 2011 US BANK Citigroup has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity assets to Axa Private Equity for $1.7bn (£1bn), the latest move by the lender to unload non-core assets. For Paris-based Axa, the deal is part of a series of acquisitions of private equity investments originally owned by other investors, including the purchase of a $1.9bn [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 8, 2011 Aberdeen Life Aberdeen Asset Management Life and Pensions, the subsidiary of Aberdeen Asset Management, has appointed Helen Webster as chief operating officer of the firm, which manages £1.9bn of assets for pension scheme and insurance clients. Webster joins from Aegon Asset Management, where she was responsible for product development and distribution, as well as a [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 8, 2011 NESTLE Nomura rates the company “reduce” and has a target price of CHF49 (£35.83). The broker notes that the company is the best in class as it seeks to develop close relationships with farmers and superior options to many food manufacturers in terms of procurement. However, Nomura thinks Nestle needs to plan for the long-long [...]
Weak miners dip FTSE below key 200-day moving average June 8, 2011 MINING stocks, dented by heightened investor concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery, pushed Britain’s top shares below a key technical level yesterday, a bearish signal for the index. The FTSE 100 closed down 55.76 points, or one per cent, at 5,808.89, having breached its 200-day moving average of 5,815. US Federal Reserve [...]
Growth worries hit Wall St for sixth day June 8, 2011 US STOCKS extended losses for the sixth straight day yesterday as investors worried that a slowing economy could deepen the market’s retreat. The latest evidence of a slowdown came in the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which gives an anecdotal report on the economy. It reinforced Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s bearish assessment on growth delivered late [...]
