Land Secs bags third tenant for Walkie Talkie November 8, 2012 LAND Securities said yesterday it had clinched its third tenant at the Walkie Talkie skyscraper scheme in the City, as insurers help bolster the muted office lettings market. The property giant said its joint venture with Canary Wharf Group is now 23 per cent pre-let with a further 11 per cent in solicitors’ hands after [...]
Balfour Beatty to review its business after profit warning November 8, 2012 BALFOUR Beatty said it is studying whether to close parts of its operations after issuing a profit warning yesterday, prompting its share price to dive 18 per cent. “We are definitely in a world … where we are having to look at desisting from certain areas of the market,” chief executive Ian Tyler said. His [...]
Aviva looks to the future but faces a hard slog to get there November 8, 2012 AVIVA yesterday echoed President Barack Obama, promising the best is yet to come as it touted costly transformation plans. It doesn’t face a crisis as ominous as America’s fiscal cliff, but the headwinds are severe. As we wait for a decision on its new chief executive, Aviva can’t even promise an easy transition, admitting with [...]
Rightmove founder and chief to retire November 8, 2012 ED WILLIAMS announced yesterday he is to retire as chief executive of Rightmove, 12 years after co-founding the property website. Nick McKittrick, who co-founded Rightmove alongside Williams and currently serves as finance director and chief operating officer, will succeed him as chief executive. Rightmove was set up in 2000 with £10m and was valued at [...]
Recent ad sales improve Trinity Mirror forecasts November 8, 2012 TRINITY Mirror yesterday upgraded its profit forecast for the year after an unexpected pickup in the advertising market in recent weeks. The newspaper publisher had expected operating profits to be lower than last year’s £104.5m. However, a November uptick, including an marketing blitz from 4G provider EE, pushed Trinity Mirror to say it expects similar [...]
Magazine disposals pay off for trade publisher Reed Elsevier November 8, 2012 PUBLISHING giant Reed Elsevier showed yesterday that a plan to dispose of most of its print operations is paying off, as it said all aspects of its business had grown in 2012. The FTSE 100 firm got rid of Hollywood magazine Variety this year, and has sold other trade publications such as Publishers Weekly in [...]
Snake anti-venom adds bite to profit hike at pharma firm BTG November 8, 2012 STRONG demand for snake anti-venom and cancer drugs helped BTG lift revenue 30 per cent to £143.4m in the half-year to the end of September, the firm said yesterday. The speciality pharmaceutical company was also boosted by the successful US launch of a treatment to prevent toxicity caused by cancer chemotherapy and growing royalties from [...]
CWC leaps as it beats forecasts ahead of selling off divisions November 8, 2012 SHARES in Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), the telecoms operator with operations in a number of former colonies, rose by just under six per cent yesterday as the company reported strong growth in its Macau operation. CWC beat predictions that revenue would be flat in the six months to October, posting a one per cent [...]
Olympic Games give boost to JD Wetherspoon after wet summer November 8, 2012 PUB chain giant JD Wetherspoon yesterday said a boost from the Olympic and Paralympic Games had led sales to rise by 11.1 per cent in the 13 week period to 28 October. The results suggested an upturn in the wider pub trade in late summer and early autumn, after wet weather in the previous quarter [...]
Lenovo defies gloom to become world’s biggest PC manufacturer November 8, 2012 CHINESE computing behemoth Lenovo recorded a 10 per cent increase in PC shipments in the three months to the end of September yesterday, a boost that is expected to mean it has overtaken Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the world’s biggest PC manufacturer. The company, which has been rapidly gaining market share as US and Japanese rivals [...]
