J&J to make 8,000 job cuts November 3, 2009 THE world’s largest health-products group Johnson & Johnson yesterday said it would axe 8,190 staff. The move will cull between six to seven per cent of the company’s 117,000 workforce, with the axe falling across the globe. Johnson&Johnson said the job cuts were part of a major restructuring plan designed to save up to $1.7bn [...]
Och Ziff tops Wall Street forecasts but assets dip November 3, 2009 HEDGE fund firm Och-Ziff Capital Management yesterday said distributable earnings for the third quarter fell 35 per cent on lower assets under management – but still topped Wall Street forecasts. Och-Ziff, one of only a small number of publicly-traded hedge fund firms, said it earned $34.2m (£21m), or eight cents per distributable share, down from [...]
GSK and Pfizer launch new firm November 3, 2009 GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer yesterday announced the launch of a new HIV company, ViiV Healthcare, dedicated to delivering advances in HIV treatment. Chief executive Dominique Limet yesterday promised a “relentless pursuit” of new treatments. The new company has a mandate to pool the two firms’ existing HIV treatments and drug pipelines. GSK is contributing 90 per [...]
MasterCard beats expectations November 3, 2009 MasterCard reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday as the world's second-largest credit card network raised fees to banks and cut expenses, while consumers used their debit cards more. "I believe the worst is behind us and there are certainly some encouraging signs in the recent economic data," chief executive Robert Selander said. MasterCard's third-quarter net income [...]
Air New Zealand buys 14 Airbuses November 3, 2009 Air New Zealand will buy 14 new Airbus planes at a cost of around $1bn (£569m) to replace its domestic fleet of Boeings, the national carrier said yesterday. The move follows what European planemaker Airbus called an “intensive and robust” face-off between the world’s only makers of large passenger aircraft as airlines remain mired in [...]
ABF cheers as Primark sales surge November 3, 2009 BUDGET fashion store Primark yesterday reported a surge in sales, boosting profits at parent firm Associated British Foods and offsetting weaknesses in other divisions. Primark has recently embarked on a massive expansion, opening 12 stores in the year, to take advantage of consumers trading down to lower priced clothes. The firm, which now has 191 [...]
Stagecoach warns on its growth plan November 3, 2009 STAGECOACH, the bus and rail group which was jilted by rival National Express in its takeover bid last week, said yesterday its revenue growth remained constrained due to tough trading conditions. But profitability since May was in line with expectations, while like-for-like revenues at its rail arm in the UK grew 1.7 per cent in [...]
Ryanair’s passenger figures soar as travellers ditchBA for budget rivals November 3, 2009 BUDGET airline Ryanair carried 6.16m passengers in October, 15 per cent more than a year ago, while the average flight was just as full, it said yesterday. Its load factor – an indication of how full its planes are – was unchanged from a year ago at 85 per cent. Carriers around the world have [...]
Antofagasta output beats expectations on copper November 3, 2009 CHILEAN miner Antofagasta said output for the year was slightly ahead of forecasts despite third-quarter copper production falling 11 per cent on lower quality ore at its flagship mine. In August, the London-listed group raised its full-year copper production forecast to about 447,000 tonnes but this is still 6.4 per cent lower than its output [...]
Jump in cost of public sector November 3, 2009 COSTS in the public sector have soared at a much faster rate than those in the private sector since 1997, according to official statistics released yesterday. The report confirms fears that much of the sharp rise in public spending over the past decade has been gobbled up by higher wages and other costs, rather than [...]
