Bovis wary of false dawn in housing sector February 25, 2013 BOVIS Homes chief executive David Ritchie said the housebuilder has enjoyed a positive start to the spring selling season but cautioned against talk of a recovery in the mortgage market. Ritchie said while government measures to boost mortgage lending are beginning to work, he was cautious about “calling a false dawn” and said that mortgage [...]
Hiscox returns year-end profits to shareholders in £200m deal February 25, 2013 INSURER Hiscox yesterday announced plans to return £200m to investors after enjoying a bumper year of premium rises and few disaster-related payouts. This is almost its entire £217m year-end profit and the news pushed the company’s shares to a record high on the day that Robert Hiscox – the man who built the business from a small [...]
Primark sales boost Associated British Foods’ first half earnings February 25, 2013 ASSOCIATED British Foods (ABF) said an “outstanding” performance from the conglomerate’s budget fashion chain Primark will help lift first-half profits ahead of the £412m reported last year. The FTSE 100 group expects Primark sales to be up 23 per cent in the six months to 2 March, with like-for-like sales anticipated to be seven per [...]
Analyst Views | Did Persimmon’s full year results meet your expectations? February 25, 2013 ROBIN HARDY PEEL HUNT Good margin growth in the second half is likely to edge up forecasts, only modestly, but still showing that growth and high income are possible in this sector. We still prefer to see the UK house builders making high distributions, and Persimmon ticks this box very strongly. KEITH BOWMAN HARGREAVES LANSDOWN [...]
Domino’s sales snowed in after record profits February 25, 2013 INVESTORS lost their appetite for Domino’s Pizza shares last night despite the company posting record full-year profits, after heavy snow hit UK sales at the start of 2013. The group said 498 stores – almost two-thirds of its UK portfolio – were forced to close at some point in January because of the heavy snow [...]
Thorntons is hoping for a bumper Easter February 25, 2013 THORNTONS is banking on Mother’s Day and Easter to boost sales as it plans to close 40 stores this year, after posting a 71 per cent rise in half-year profits yesterday. The high street chocolatier said profit before tax and one-off items jumped to £5.3m from £2.2m, while total revenues rose by 2.9 per cent [...]
Hedge funds turn on Ugg boots February 25, 2013 THE POPULARITY of Ugg boots could have finally plateaued. Deckers Outdoor, the US owner of the iconic brand, was yesterday revealed as the most shorted stock by hedge funds ahead of earnings. Short sellers have increased their positions by 14 per cent in the last month and 43.1 per cent of stock is now out [...]
HiWave Tech shares suspended February 25, 2013 HiWave Technologies, which makes gadgets to turn any flat surface into a music speaker, was suspended from the London Stock Exchange yesterday after it approached administration. The Cambridge-based outfit, which its owners are currently trying to sell, have opted to sell the firm through administrators.
Dreamliner woes pile up February 25, 2013 Japanese airline All Nippon has cancelled all flights using the beleaguered 787 Dreamliner plane, in a fresh blow for the aircraft maker Boeing. While transport authorities last week made progress in tracking down the cause of a battery fault that grounded the entire fleet in January, All Nippon has axed a further 1,700 flights.
Japan Tobacco stake on sale to fund quake fix February 25, 2013 JAPAN’S government is selling a third of its stake in Japan Tobacco to fundraise $10.4bn (£6.9bn) for rebuilding areas devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The country’s Ministry of Finance owns just over half of the $62bn former state monopoly, which is the world’s third biggest tobacco company. It is selling 33m shares, with [...]
