Pennon buys Storm Recycling June 7, 2011 Waste and sewerage group Pennon has bought Storm Recycling for £1.7m, in a bid to expand its waste management services. Storm specialises in the recycling of cardboard and plastics, and runs a depot in Cheshire that handles around 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of recycling a year. The acquisition was made by Pennon’s subsidiary Viridor Waste [...]
Profits and sales drop at Findel June 7, 2011 Home shopping and education supplies group Findel reported a fall in profits yesterday. The dynamic multi channel retailer saw a 2.6 per cent drop in sales to £532.6m from £547m in the year to 1 April. Findel was hit by the discovery of accounting irregularities at the education supplies division followed by an emergency debt [...]
St-Gobain plans to list Verallia June 7, 2011 France’s Saint-Gobain plans to brave tough conditions in the European market for initial public offerings and list its glass packaging unit in order to focus on home and construction products. The glassmaker said it would sell 40 per cent of Verallia to investors, raising up to €958m (£855m). It could raise the amount to 46 [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 7, 2011 KPMG David O’Hara has been appointed as a principal investment consultant to lead KPMG’s newly established Scottish advisory team. O’Hara, who will be based in Glasgow, joins from Hymans Robertson, where he provided investment advice to a range of private and public UK pension schemes. DOLPHIN CAPITAL INVESTORS The emerging markets resorts investor has appointed [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 7, 2011 HSBC Goldman Sachs rates the bank “buy” with a target price of 920p. The broker has raised its earnings forecasts for 2011-13 by up to seven per cent, arguing the market underestimates HSBC’s shift to growth markets. WEIR GROUP JP Morgan rates the engineer “overweight” and has raised its target price to 2150p. The broker [...]
Resolution cash return gives boost to the FTSE June 7, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index closed marginally higher yesterday as UK insurer Resolution’s bumper cash return helped boost insurance-related firms, while integrated oils weighed on the downside. The market reacted positively to Resolution’s commitment to return £500m to investors. “One would encourage share buybacks in a modest way because if a company is cancelling its shares [...]
Bernanke’s bearish talk extends US losing streak June 7, 2011 US stocks extended a losing streak for a fifth day on yesterday on mounting concerns about the economy after bearish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The market, which started off on a positive note after the S&P 500 hit a two-month low in the previous session, reversed course to turn negative after Bernanke [...]
Profitable carry trading from a land down under June 7, 2011 THE currency market’s attention has been focused on the announcements made by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. But at the same time, there are a large number of traders taking advantage of the policies of other central banks, such as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and [...]
ONCE AGAIN, THE ECB MAY SURPRISE US June 7, 2011 IN THE movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wakes up each day only to find himself repeating the activities of the day before. There is a bit of a Groundhog Day feel to the currency market this week, as traders once again prepare for the monthly European Central Bank (ECB) press conference. Recall that last month [...]
Swissie will remain a peerless safe haven June 7, 2011 SINCE the financial crisis, excepting gold, the Swissie has been the global reserve currency of choice. After failed efforts last year, the authorities are now signalling that businesses will have to get used to exporting with a strong currency. So far, so successful. Both the euro and dollar have been hitting historic lows against the [...]
