H&M reports dismal results July 15, 2009 HENNES & Mauritz, the world’s third-biggest clothing retailer, yesterday reported a bigger-than-expected five per cent year-on-year fall in sales in June. The group’s total sales, which include sales in new stores, rose four per cent, underperforming analysts’ forecast of 8.4 per cent. H&M’s dismal trading update is fresh evidence that consumer-facing businesses are still facing [...]
BURBERRY WEATHERS THE STORM July 15, 2009 BURBERRY, the luxury fashion group known for its camel, red and black check pattern, yesterday met forecasts by posting a four per cent drop in first quarter revenue to £229m. The group said its performance in the UK was “exceptional,” but added trading remained weak in the US and Spain. The firm has responded to [...]
Thornton’s sales melt in summer July 15, 2009 Chocolate retailer Thorntons yesterday posted a fall in fourth quarter sales, blaming the hot weather, but said full-year profit will be a touch ahead of market forecasts. “The board expects that profit before tax and before the anticipated pension scheme credit for the full year ended June 2009 will be marginally ahead of the current [...]
FSA bans insurance broker July 15, 2009 The Financial Services Authority (FSA) yesterday prohibited Graham Darby, director of insurance broker Ambrose Darby, for failing to control the business of the firm adequately. The order bans Darby performing significant influence functions at any authorised financial firm. The FSA found that Darby, who was diagnosed in July 2008 with a severe medical condition, did [...]
Aviva reassures on capital July 15, 2009 Insurer Aviva’s regulatory capital cushion is getting stronger, and the group is not planning any further disposals, its chief executive, Andrew Moss, said yesterday. In an interview, Moss said Aviva, the UK’s second-biggest insurer, had called time on disposals after offloading Aviva Australia to National Australia Bank in June, adding £400m to its capital cushion. [...]
TEENAGE SCRIBBLER OWES HIS DOG A BONE July 14, 2009 THIS is the face of the “teenage scribbler”, the 15-year old Morgan Stanley intern who set the world on fire, sort of anyway, earlier this week with his musings on media consumption among his peers. Young Matthew Robson must be wondering what has hit him since Morgan Stanley published the paper he wrote in the [...]
CITY EYE July 14, 2009 The Barbican estate was looking resplendent yesterday, despite turning 40 years old earlier this month. When the first resident moved in, the concrete giant had just as many critics as it did admirers. But now the three towers, which dominate the heart of the City, are widely recognised as a fine example of post-war architecture.
Times are tough, but lawyers aren’t giving up their wine cellars quite yet July 14, 2009 JUST after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year, at a lavish Clifford Chance party held at Goldsmith’s Hall, a French lawyer told me glumly: “London used to be such a good place to make money.” The champagne and canapes might have been flowing at the time, but the words did capture the feeling that [...]
WALKER WILL PUT ONUS ON REGULATORS July 14, 2009 PETER SNOWDONPARTNER, NORTON ROSE LLP WE can expect the Walker Review, due tomorrow, to highlight shortcomings in banks’ corporate governance that allowed excessive risk-taking to go unchecked, leading to the financial crisis. The report is likely to recommend strengthening banks” risk assessment arrangements and possibly suggest separate risk committees, reflecting the sector’s perceived failure to [...]
Middle of the road July 14, 2009 ANOTHER version of the popular and much-copied TT is here. Do I sound bored? I’m not really, it’s just that this sector is chock-full of perfectly good cars, many of which have taken a bit of the TT’s design and slapped them onto their own product. So, we see lots of this car creeping into [...]
