Break up Whitbread and let Costa star in its own show October 23, 2012 IN a day peppered with corporate disappointments, Whitbread and its shareholders will have been more than happy to have seen their first-half results described as “outstanding” on more than one occasion. The FTSE 100 leisure firm used the term itself in its results presentation, and analysts were also keen to heap praise on a close-to 30 [...]
Mulberry profit warning sends shares crashing October 23, 2012 SHARES in Mulberry lost almost a quarter of their value yesterday after the company became the latest luxury fashion brand to warn on profit. The handbag and leather goods maker said that while British retail sales were meeting expectations, a slowdown in international sales and it decision to shrink its wholesale network meant full-year profits [...]
Trinity Mirror stock tumbles as it is pulled into hacking scandal October 23, 2012 SHARES in Trinity Mirror slumped yesterday as the newspaper publisher became embroiled in the phone hacking scandal that has cost News International hundreds of millions of pounds. Trinity Mirror – which publishes the Daily and Sunday Mirror titles and the People newspaper – saw shares fall more than 10 per cent after it was alleged [...]
Experian buys Brazil bureau October 23, 2012 UK CREDIT checking firm Experian yesterday agreed to pay a consortium of banks $1.5bn (£940m) to take full control of São Paulo-based data provider Serasa. The blue chip company, which took a 70 per cent stake in Serasa in 2007, agreed to take a further 29.6 per cent plus a 0.4 per cent cash adjustment [...]
Advisers Goldman Sachs October 23, 2012 ANTHONY GUTMAN | GOLDMAN SACHS Experian, which yesterday snapped up Serasa on the back of a put and call option agreed between the firm and minority bank stakeholders in 2007, was advised on the complex deal by investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The deal makers worked out of both banks’ offices in London. [...]
Netflix slumps as subscriber levels dismay October 23, 2012 NETFLIX saw shares plunge 16 per cent after US markets closed last night as it revealed it had signed up far fewer customers than had been expected. The company, which offers movie streaming over the internet or DVD by post to subscribers, said it expects to have 27m users by the end of 2012, around [...]
BBC boss denies cover-up over Savile sexual abuse claims October 23, 2012 THE head of the BBC yesterday denied helping to cover up sexual abuse by one of its former stars but accepted the broadcaster had been damaged by a scandal that has shaken public trust in a national institution. George Entwistle, who was announced as the 90-year-old media organisation’s new boss in August, told MPs that [...]
BP ponders a share buyback as new partner Rosneft hails $3bn benefits of Russian tie-up October 23, 2012 KREMLIN-controlled Rosneft chief Igor Sechin yesterday said that its takeover of TNK-BP could yield up to $5bn (£3bn) in synergy savings, largely on projects in north and eastern Russia. Synergies from the optimisation of current upstream, refining and marketing projects of both gas and oil could benefit the state-controlled energy producer to the tune of [...]
Recessionary Spain is hit by investor fears October 23, 2012 SPAIN’S economic prospects endured a miserable day yesterday, as a wave of negative news coincided with doubts being poured on the public finances of several key regions. The Eurozone’s fourth largest economy contracted by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of the year, its central bank said, leaving the country potentially facing a whole [...]
Liikanen calls for cap on loan to value ratio to stop bubbles October 23, 2012 THE BIGGEST banks in Europe should face tougher capital requirements as well as controls on the size of loan they can give, Finnish central banker Erkki Liikanen said yesterday. The top finance official earlier this month published major new plans to shake up the regulation of the banking sector, including calling for ring-fences to separate [...]
