Carphone on track for a March split October 8, 2009 CARPHONE Warehouse said yesterday that it signed up more broadband customers than expected in its second quarter, and that it is on-track to demerge the business in March 2010. The long-awaited demerger of its telecoms and retail businesses has been delayed due to the problems of valuation during the economic downturn. “The worst seems to [...]
Begbies enters joint venture October 8, 2009 BEGBIES Traynor yesterday announced a joint venture with a unit of US-based firm Mesirow Financial, to become one of the world’s largest insolvency houses. Begbies Traynor Group (BTG) said that the new practice, BTG Mesirow Financial Consulting, would give it access to new markets and allow it to work on complex cross-border cases. “We have [...]
Greenhill hires debt restructuring star Gareth Davies from Close Brothers October 8, 2009 GARETH Davies, one of the star debt restructuring specialists at Close Brothers Corporate Finance, has quit the firm just months after its takeover by Daiwa Securities. Davies, who advised Jarvis on its restructuring as well as Foxtons and the now defunct television group Setanta, quit Close at the beginning of the week. He has been [...]
RBC seeks acquisitions in UK wealth management October 8, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Canada is looking to acquire wealth management businesses in the UK as part of a global expansion of its private banking arm, the head of advisory at its UK wealth unit said yesterday. A new deal would mark a continuation of an aggressive buying spree by the Canadian group’s RBC Wealth Management [...]
Autonomy set to beat expectations once again October 8, 2009 SOFTWARE firm Autonomy said yesterday that it expects to report third-quarter results ahead of market expectations after seeing significant demand for its products. The company – which makes software to help companies search data across phone calls, email, videos and instant messages – said it anticipated reporting revenues of between $191m (£119m) and $193m, ahead [...]
IS CARPHONE WAREHOUSE WEATHERING THE DOWNTURN? October 8, 2009 MIKE JEREMY DANIEL STEWART & COI think it was a very satisfying update, with surprisingly good broadband numbers. For TalkTalk to get 77,000 net adds is very strong in a maturing market, especially with the churn figure decreasing. It bodes well for the market share. IPTV?looks like a great opportunity for them, but they are [...]
Cameron lays out vision of Tory Britain October 8, 2009 DAVID Cameron upped the ante ahead of what is set to be a hard-fought election campaign yesterday, telling the Conservative party conference that he was ready to be Prime Minister. In a speech that sounded a more upbeat note than that of his shadow chancellor George Osborne on Tuesday, the Tory leader promised that he [...]
Hays set to appeal 30m OFT penalty October 8, 2009 RECRUITER Hays yesterday said it is has been hit by a £25m exceptional charge after being fined £30.4m by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The UK’s largest recruiter said that it planned to appeal the fine, which the OFT levied last month for its involvement in a price fixing activities over four years ago. [...]
Ted Baker smashes forecasts October 8, 2009 Designer brand Ted Baker said trading was exceeding its hopes and reaction to its autumn and winter ranges had been “encouraging”, as it posted a better than feared fall in first-half profit, sending its shares higher. Analysts upgraded pre-tax profit forecasts for the year to the end of January 2010 and finance director Lindsay Page [...]
Ladbrokes launches 275m cash call in a bid to relieve debt as revenues fall October 8, 2009 LADBROKES, the book maker, yesterday announced a fully underwritten £275m cash call to pay down its debt, as it revealed its revenue had fallen by 15 per cent in the third quarter due to “exceptionally low” margins on football and horsing bets. The betting firm, which has already had to withheld its interim payments to [...]
