Spain and Italy hit by more bad news October 25, 2012 ITALY and Spain were clobbered with further sets of bad data yesterday, as the countries struggle to fight both recession and sovereign debt crises. Retail trade in Italy, the Eurozone’s third largest economy, slid one per cent between August 2011 and August this year, data from Istat revealed yesterday. This came as employees were hit [...]
Banking crisis reversing EU’s single market October 25, 2012 EUROPEAN banks are contracting foreign lending so far and so fast that it is reversing the single market in finance, according to a Deloitte report published yesterday. The warning came as new European Central Bank (ECB) data showed bank lending to the private sector slumped 0.8 per cent in the Eurozone in September, accelerating on [...]
Lazard lays out plans for $125m in cost cuts as earnings fall October 25, 2012 LAZARD plans to cut $125m (£77.5m) in annual costs, mainly through staff reductions, the investment bank said yesterday, as it works to meet an aggressive profit goal in a weak market for its financial advisory services. Lazard announced the cost-cutting target – which represents 7.8 per cent of its operating expenses last year – as [...]
Solid results for Anglo American despite strikes October 25, 2012 MINER Anglo American yesterday reported “solid” performance across five of its seven key commodities, as it said South African industrial action had hurt platinum output. The miner’s Kumba iron ore production jumped 14 per cent in the third quarter to a record 12.5m tonnes, driven by a faster-than-expected ramp-up of the Kolomela mine, which is [...]
Advisers Deutsche bank October 25, 2012 JAMES AGNEW DEUTSCHE BANK Deutsche Bank and UBS are acting as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners on the placing. The team from Deutsche Bank was led by James Agnew, chairman of UK corporate broking. Agnew has been with Deutsche Bank for 10 years, having previously been head of corporate broking at Merrill Lynch. He [...]
Drax raises £190m in placing for biomass fuel conversion October 25, 2012 POWER station operator Drax yesterday said it had raised £190m through a share placing to support the firm’s transformation into a biomass-fuelled electricity generator. The FTSE 250 energy firm, which runs a coal-fired power station in Yorkshire, placed just under 36.5m shares, representing almost 10 per cent of its existing share capital, at a price [...]
Kazakhmys on track for target October 25, 2012 COPPER miner Kazakhmys yesterday said it was on target to reach its full-year output target of between 285,000 tonnes and 295,000 tonnes of the base metal. Over the three months to September, it posted a 12 per cent increase in copper cathode output. Total copper sales over the nine months to September were 17,000 tonnes [...]
Segro rental income rises October 25, 2012 SEGRO yesterday said it had made progress against a challenging backdrop in the third quarter, reducing vacancy rates and bagging a trio of pre-let deals. The industrial property company said total rental income increased by £7.1m in the period. It has also signed three new pre-let development contracts, which will produce £1.8m of income in [...]
Who’s switching jobs October 25, 2012 McCarthy & Stone The construction firm has appointed Mark Elliott as its new chief executive. He previously worked for Arena Leisure, the hotel and race course operator, where he oversaw its merger with Northern Racing in March 2012. Elliott was also formerly chief executive of Wembley. Otkritie The Russian financial services firm has appointed Ruben [...]
Best of the Brokers October 25, 2012 HOME RETAIL GROUP UBS maintains its “buy” rating for the consumer goods retailer, raising its target price from 115p to 120p. The broker will not change full-year 2013 PBT and outer year estimates. APR ENERGY Seymour Pierce has downgraded the power provider from “hold” to “reduce,” lowering its target price to 650p from 685p. The [...]
