BEST OF THE BROKERS November 19, 2009 HUNTSWORTHKBC Peel upgraded Huntsworth to “buy,” after the firm said the economy in which it is trading is significantly better than at the turn of the year. The broker maintained its numbers, with a target price of 75p. While Huntsworth’s rebranding process well underway, the broker notes increased confidence in existing forecasts. DIMENSION DATAAltium Securities [...]
Tesco pushes into broadband as drive beyond groceries continues November 19, 2009 TESCO has set its sights on capturing a bigger slice of the broadband and home phones market as part of a drive to increase revenues from more profitable non-grocery markets. The supermarket group said it had agreed a five-year deal with Cable & Wireless for the telecoms firm to supply it wholesale broadband services. This [...]
TNK-BP’s new boss unveiled November 19, 2009 OIL giant BP said the candidate proposed by its oligarch partners to lead their Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, had won out over BP’s candidate and that oligarch Mikhail Fridman would stay at the helm until 2011. BP and AAR, a consortium representing the billionaire co-owners, said Maxim Barsky, currently TNK-BP’s executive vice president for strategy [...]
Slump harms FTSE’s women November 19, 2009 THE number of women in the UK’s top boardrooms has been hit by the recession, according to a new report released yesterday. The Female FTSE Index and Report, published by Cranfield University School of Management, said there had been a “discouraging decline” in the number of FTSE 100 companies with female executive directors over the [...]
Grant Thornton lags the Big Four November 19, 2009 GRANT THORNTON saw turnover fall four per cent over the past financial year as profit per partner dived nearly 20 per cent on costs related to its troublesome merger with rival Robson Rhodes. The fifth-biggest accountancy partnership said revenue fell 4.1 per cent to £378.2m in the year to 30 June. Chief executive Scott Barnes [...]
Spun-off AOL will axe a third of is workforce November 19, 2009 AOL is preparing to cut around 2,500 staff, one third of its workforce, when it is spun off from media giant Time Warner next month. The struggling firm said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday that the cuts are part of its plan to save $300m (£180.5m). “Today we have announced [...]
Revenue declines ease for Centaur as ads return November 19, 2009 Business publisher Centaur Media said yesterday that its year-on-year revenue decline eased in the four months to 31 October, helped by improved advertising revenue. The company said revenue fell 28 per cent during the period, in line with its forecasts and representing a slower rate of decline than the 32 per cent drop seen in [...]
Cost cuts help Aegis through tough period November 19, 2009 FTSE 100 media agency Aegis said yesterday that cost cutting allowed it to maintain full-year guidance, but that revenues continued to fall in the first nine months. Aegis reported organic revenue down 10.8 per cent, with falls of 10.4 per cent at its Aegis Media marketing operations and 11.5 per cent at the market research [...]
CBI boss Richard Lambert can see early signs of economic recovery November 19, 2009 THE worst is over for the British economy. At least, that was the message from Richard Lambert, the Confederation of Business Industry’s (CBI) thoughtful director-general, when we meet. “We have finally hit the deck,” he tells me, leaning forward. “Things are a lot better now than in the first quarter of this year. Where we [...]
SABMiller sees profit fall on back of currency movements November 19, 2009 SABMILLER yesterday said unfavourable currency movements caused its pre-tax profits to slide to $1.5bn (£893m) for the six months to 30 September, down 26 per cent on the same period a year ago. The London-listed brewer of Miller Lite, Grolsch and Peroni Nastro Azzurro beers also reported a 21 per cent fall in revenue to [...]
