Sunshine boosts restaurant sales July 17, 2013 Restaurants and pubs saw an increase in sales in June this year thanks to the warm weather, which encouraged people to spend their money. Total sales, including the impact of new openings, rose by 4.8 per cent, while like-for-like sales were up by 1.9 per cent, according to the Coffer Peach business tracker. The London [...]
Davenport Lyons to move offices July 17, 2013 Davenport Lyons has decided to move to new offices in the West End despite an exodus of law firms moving out of the district in search of cheaper rents and bigger office space. The company has taken 31,500 square feet of space over three floors at 6 Agar Street in Covent Garden and will move [...]
Pickles goes quiet on launch of Cabinet rag July 17, 2013 NOTHING like a bit of hypocrisy from Whitehall, just as Parliament wraps up for the summer. Scribes over in the Cabinet Office launched a new magazine on Tuesday – the glossy Civil Service Quarterly. But the timing of the launch, which employs a team of six on editorial and design, could not be worse. Secretary [...]
Railway carriages join the City relics facing the branding iron July 17, 2013 THE CITY’S historic Guildhall played host to one of the capital’s more eccentric traditions yesterday. Every year since 1655 a livery company – the Worshipful Company of Carmen – have gathered in the old Yard wielding red hot branding irons. Not for any sinister reasons, but to put their stamp on various horse-drawn carriages and [...]
Smiths shares nosedive after profit warning July 17, 2013 ENGINEERING firm Smiths Group yesterday warned that full-year operating profits would be up to £15m below expectations due to issues in its Smiths Detection unit. The FTSE 100-listed company said that it had identified that three Smiths Detection contracts entered into prior to 2010 will be “materially adverse to previous expectations”. In an interim management [...]
Analyst Views | How did you take Smiths Group’s results? July 17, 2013 GLEN LIDDY, JP MORGANThe performance of [the detection] division is falling below expectations on the back of problems with three contracts entered into prior to 2010 and costs relating to provisions relating to legal disputes. We have reduced our 2013 earnings per share [forecast] to reflect the additional costs. CHRIS DYETT, INVESTECContract cost overruns are [...]
City Moves for 18 July 2013 | Who’s switching jobs July 17, 2013 Westhouse Securities The broking group has announced the appointment of Paul Locke as investment funds analyst. He joins from Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, where he was a senior funds analyst. Prior to that, he was a senior funds analyst at Canaccord Genuity. Lloyds Bank John Richardson has joined Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking as head of building [...]
Best of the Brokers for 18 July 2013 July 17, 2013 CAPITA RBC downgrades the outsourcing firm to “underperform” from “sector perform” but increases its price target to 870p from 840p ahead of half-year results next week. The broker sees strong revenue growth for the year but thinks tough valuations support a downgrade. RSA INSURANCE Citigroup upgrades its rating on the insurer to “buy” from “neutral” [...]
FTSE lifted as miners report robust output July 17, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 rose yesterday, with miners cheered by a string of solid output numbers from the likes of BHP Billiton, and with the US Federal Reserve reassuring that stimulus will only be cut if the economy is strong. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke signalled plans to start scaling back bond purchases this year could be [...]
Stocks edge up on Bernanke’s QE assurances July 17, 2013 US stocks ended modestly higher yesterday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the timeline for winding down the organisation’s stimulus programme was not set in stone. Shares of Bank of America and Yahoo rose after both companies reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results. Both ranked among the names giving the biggest boost to the S&P 500. [...]
