Consumers suffering from hangover February 11, 2010 DURING the great depression, the US government continued prohibition. Too many Americans were drowning their sorrows in booze. If consumers are drinking their way through this recession, they aren’t swigging the premium brands that Diageo makes. On a constant currency basis, first half net sales fell by two per cent, as did volumes. Operating profit [...]
Banks suffer as concerns over their Greek exposure weigh February 11, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed 0.6 per cent higher on Thursday, as gains in commodities outpaced falls in banks, which remained mired in uncertainty over Eurozone’s plans to deal with Greece’s debt problems. BT Group slumped 8.8 per cent, topping the losers’s list on the FTSE 100 and hitting a more than six-month low after [...]
Britain’s eurozone liabilities revealed February 11, 2010 THE exposure of Britain to the eurozone’s weakest members was laid bare last night as French and German officials scrambled to agree a rescue package for Greece. Based on Bank for International Settlement numbers, in total the UK’s financial sector has just under £250bn in exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (Piigs). The data [...]
Spanish economy continues to suffer as slump drags on February 11, 2010 INDEBTED Spain was lingering in recession in the fourth quarter, preliminary data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) showed yesterday. The INE figures showed that the Spanish economy contracted 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with -0.3 per cent in the previous three months. This indicates that output contracted [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK THE UK SHOULD ASSIST IN BAILING OUT GREECE? February 11, 2010 ANGUS ROSE | ALEXANDER DAVID “We stayed out of the euro for that very reason. We saw that a few of the weaker members could get us into problems. If we were part of a team it could be worth it. But if it’s just the rich countries, it’s a bit of an imposition.” SIMON [...]
Caterpillar’s profits give Dow a boost February 11, 2010 US stocks rose on Thursday after a pledge by European leaders to support debt-laden Greece eased fears of a broader Eurozone crisis and upbeat data from China spurred mining and material stocks. Data pointing to stabilisation in the US labor market gave the market a further boost, along with a broker upgrade of bellwether 3M, [...]
Rio Tinto sees profits slump February 11, 2010 Dividends are back on the menu for mining giant Rio Tinto after it posted better than expected full year profits. The FTSE 100 group, and the world’s third largest miner, said it would reinstated dividends yesterday after a year-long break – a move it hailed as a reflection of its “positive outlook”. The news came [...]
Why every firm needs a Facebook February 11, 2010 BACK when they started out in the corporate world Mike Powell and Ken Yeadon can remember a time when computers were rare. That was back in the mid 1980s when they both started work in HSBC’s trading department. A quarter of a century later and things have changed. Now, through their private equity company Thematic [...]
FirstEnergy plans to merge with Allegheny in £3bn deal February 11, 2010 OHIO-BASED power company FirstEnergy plans to buy Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Energy in an all share deal worth $4.7bn (£3.01bn) that would create one of the largest utility groups in the US. The combined business would have a generation capacity of 24,000 megawatts and serve more than 6.1m customers, the companies said yesterday. Shares in Allegheny rose [...]
Business pitches in 140 letters February 11, 2010 EVERY budding entrepreneur dreams of meeting a Richard Branson or Alan Sugar, but for most people it never moves beyond the realm of fantasy. Not any more. Simon Dolan, an entrepreneur who made his fortune establishing accountancy firms including SJD Accounting, is investing £5m of his own money in entrepreneurs. But, Dolan’s investing style has [...]
