ACQUISITION BOOSTS BALFOUR November 11, 2009 Balfour Beatty, which is building the 2,800-tonne roof for the Olympic aquatic centre, (pictured), yesterday said it is confident in its outlook for 2009. The UK’s biggest infrastructure builder said its order book is flat from its half-year results at £12.5bn, but that it lifts to £13.7bn when you include the order book of a [...]
Pearl moves towards its UK flotation November 11, 2009 PEARL, the recently refinanced insurance group, yesterday said it was headed for a stock market flotation in 2010 as it reported cash generation ahead of targets. Pearl was so financially stretched earlier this year following its acquisition of Resolution life funds that the Financial Services Authority encouraged it to seek new equity funding. Yesterday, the [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU GOING TO BE A BIG SPENDER THIS CHRISTMAS November 11, 2009 ANDREW DICKSON BARCLAYS GLOBAL INVESTORS“I tend not to spend much at Christmas anyway, so I’ll spend about the same amount as usual on presents. But I think retail sales could fare well this year, particularly because cheap prices will open up more opportunities for shoppers.” MATT GROVER TINDALL RILEY“I’m going to spend about the same [...]
BEST BUY EXEC IN SHOCK EXIT November 11, 2009 BEST BUY’S head of international markets Robert Willett has quit the US electricals retailer, raising a question mark over its long-awaited move into the UK market. Willett, 63, who has overseen Best Buy’s expansion in Europe, China and Mexico, will leave the company by the end of the year and will not be replaced, the [...]
GREEN GEARS UP FOR XMAS November 11, 2009 BILLIONAIRE Sir Philip Green yesterday helped to launch a shopping initiative in London’s West End, ahead of the key Christmas trading period. The Top Shop-to-Bhs entrepreneur was promoting a traffic free day on 5 December to help lure shoppers to Oxford Street and Regent Street. Last year the event generated £150m of sales for West [...]
AIG boss says he will stay despite threatening to go November 11, 2009 AIG chief executive Robert Benmosche yesterday said he remained “totally committed” to staying at the company, countering an earlier suggestion that he was considering stepping down. In a letter to employees, Benmosche said he and the company’s board were “frustrated” about restrictions on pay and were in discussions with the US government about them, but [...]
Cosmen clan snubs cash call at National Express November 11, 2009 NATIONAL EXPRESS, the struggling transport company, announced plans to raise £360m via a rights issue yesterday – but its main shareholder objected to the plans. The cash fetched from the fundraising will be used to shore up the group’s balance sheet and pay off its debt pile, after the rail and bus company snubbed takeover [...]
Profits turn flaky for Weetabix but sales float higher on Bitesize launch November 11, 2009 CEREAL maker Weetabix saw its post-tax profits slide last year as it took a hit from restructuring costs and redundancy payments. The company, which also owns the Alpen muesli and Ready Brek porridge brands, reported total profits of £75.7m for 2008, down £2.3m year-on-year. The cost of overhauling its operations in Kettering and Corby dragged [...]
SSE seeks a partner to bid for EDF’s UK assets November 11, 2009 SCOTTISH & SOUTHERN ENERGY is in talks with potential partners, including Canada’s Borealis, over a bid for French rival EDF’s electricity distribution grids in the UK, valued at £4bn. “Given the size of the assets, we are almost certainly going to do that transaction in partnership with someone we already have a business relationship with,” [...]
Power firms say demand is set to rise November 11, 2009 Shares in utility giants E.On and International Power rose yesterday, after both cautiously anticipated a surge in demand for power as the world emerges from the downturn. But rival Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), which reiterated its forecast of an increase in adjusted pre-tax profit for the year, dampened the mood, saying it did not [...]
