Inflation puts strain on UK households February 22, 2010 THE rapid pace of inflation means that British households are still feeling the strain almost two months after the country officially emerged from recession, a survey revealed yesterday. Markit/YouGov data showed that UK consumer finances worsened again in February, partly because income levels were unable to keep pace with increases in prices for goods and [...]
Bacon: we’re not short Greece February 22, 2010 SECRETIVE hedge fund Moore Capital has become the second asset manager to publicly declare it is not betting on a sovereign default from Greece. Louis Bacon’s group, which looks after £9.5bn in assets, told investors in its flagship macro fund it was counting on concerted action from other Eurozone countries to rescue the ailing nation. [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 22, 2010 KPMG The accountancy giant has appointed Michelle Quest as its new head of people in the UK, having spent the past 13 years of her career at the firm. Quest joined KPMG from Robson Rhodes in 1997 and became an M&A tax partner in the tax and people services practice in 2003. She takes over [...]
Gold helping to fill the coffers at pawnbrokers February 22, 2010 CASH-STRAPPED consumers offloading their gold jewellery helped to boost the coffers at pawnbrokers Albemarle & Bond in the latter half of 2009. The FTSE Small-Cap group posted a 75 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £10.8m with revenue soaring 49 per cent to £394m. Its “cash-for-gold” division proved particularly popular with recession-hit consumers looking [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 22, 2010 INVESTEC Numis is bullish on the South African bank, claiming its well capitalised, highly liquid balance sheet will allow it strong growth opportunities in specialist high margin assets while its larger peers rebuild and focus on their standardised lending core. The broker considers the bank to be low-risk and raised its rating to “Buy”. THORNTONS [...]
CRISIS IN THE SKY FOR VETERAN BROKER February 22, 2010 SIGHS of relief all round yesterday as a veteran of the City broking community emerged unscathed from a terrifying near-death experience. Brewin Dolphin divisional director Stephen Williams – a former head of small company research at Williams de Broë – was one of 231 passengers aboard a Thomas Cook Boeing 757 jet which had to [...]
Profits sparkle at Petra February 22, 2010 MINER Petra Diamonds yesterday revealed it swung robustly back into the black over the first half of the year, turning a $34m (£22m) profit on the back of stronger diamond prices and a step up in production volumes. Petra’s pre-tax profit for the six months to December compared to a stark $94.8m loss over the [...]
Business models now matter more than sales February 22, 2010 When I was in my late twenties, I had a baptism of fire while trying to establish the Power PC chip as a new industry standard. In early 1992, IBM, Apple and Motorola announced that they would be developing a new microprocessor – to be called the PowerPC – to power the Apple Macintosh and [...]
Gains on express delivery fail to stem losses for mail deliverer TNT February 22, 2010 Dutch logistics group TNT saw its fourth-quarter operating profit drop by a fifth, dragged down by its mail unit, but managed to beat forecasts on a strong performance in its express division. Like larger rival Deutsche Post, TNT has been struggling to cope with falling consumer demand while adapting to the liberalisation of the mail [...]
GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco under pressure as FTSE falls February 22, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed slightly lower yesterday, snapping a five-day winning streak, as weakness from defensive stocks countered gains from banks ahead of more results from the financial sector later in the week. The FTSE 100 closed down 6.10 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,352.07, having closed up 0.6 per cent on Friday [...]
