Brit Insurance profit falls 91pc July 26, 2011 A £95.4m bill from catastrophes this year caused first-half profit at Brit Insurance to slump 91 per cent to just £6.8m, it said yesterday. Brit, which was reporting its first results since being bought by private equity funds Apollo and CVC, said it wrote £845.4m in gross premiums, 2.1 per cent more than in the [...]
ARM warns of a light Christmas July 26, 2011 ARM Holdings, the Cambridge-based maker of chips that power the Apple iPhone and other smartphones, has reported a 25 per cent profit rise this quarter, but warned it is not counting on a Christmas sales boom. The firm’s technology, used by firms such as Samsung, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, helped lift pre-tax profit to £54.2m, [...]
Informa beats market forecasts July 26, 2011 British business media group Informa said growth across all its divisions helped the company post first-half results above analyst expectations. The company, whose publications include shipping guide Lloyd’s List, increased its interim dividend to 5p from 4.5p. Chief executive Peter Rigby said in a statement: “Whilst many global growth indicators remain a concern for a [...]
Holidaybreak says suitor is Cox & Kings July 26, 2011 SHARES in Holidaybreak, the specialist travel company, climbed for a second day to close up 12 per cent to 411.5p yesterday after the group confirmed it was in advanced takeover talks with Cox & Kings, the Mumbai-based tour operator. Cox & Kings has made an indicative all-cash offer of 432.1p a share, representing a premium [...]
PZ Cussons hits its forecasts July 26, 2011 SOAP and shampoo maker PZ Cussons yesterday met forecasts with a seven per cent rise in annual profit as tough trading conditions and increased raw material costs were mitigated by higher selling prices. The maker of Imperial Leather soaps and Carex anti-bacterial hand washes said it made an underlying pre-tax profit of £108.9m in the [...]
GlaxoSmithKline turnover knocked but profit bounces back after legal charge July 26, 2011 SALES at GlaxoSmithKline fell four per cent in the second quarter, but the decline was slower than in previous quarters and profits were markedly higher than a year ago, when Britain’s biggest drugmaker took a huge legal charge. The company also said yesterday that an experimental drug for hepatitis C had produced positive results in [...]
Imperial Tobacco sees sales dented by price war in struggling Spanish market July 26, 2011 IMPERIAL Tobacco yesterday said it was continuing to see its profits dented by a price war in Spain. The world’s fourth biggest cigarette maker has already lowered its forecasts as a result of the competition. In a market update for the nine months to 30 June, Imperial yesterday said that tobacco net revenue had risen [...]
Cranswick in profit alert after pork price increase July 26, 2011 CRANSWICK, the sliced meat and sausage maker, has been forced to warn it will miss profit forecasts this year after a rise in pork prices. During the first half of the year pig prices have increased from £1.33 per kg to £1.53 per kg, an increase of 15 per cent. Analysts have knocked between £6m [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 26, 2011 Cushman & Wakefield The world’s largest privately-held commercial real estate services firm has appointed Sophie Hodges as consulting manager in its Europe, Middle East and Asia business consulting team. Hodges rejoins from Ernst & Young, having previously worked at Cushman & Wakefield as a client solutions consultant from 2007 to 2009. In her new role [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 26, 2011 PENNON JP Morgan Cazenove upgrades the water, sewerage and waste disposal group as “overweight” and lifts its target price by 24 per cent to 770p. The broker says the company’s waste division, Viridor, is set to increase earnings before tax by 67 per cent to March 2015, driven by six new energy-from-waste projects. At group [...]
