BEST OF THE BROKERS September 17, 2009 ORACLEBarclays Wealth expressed concern over Oracle’s second-quarter results, after first quarter software sales came in below expectations on Wednesday. It said that sales of databases were weak in Europe and Asia as businesses continue to cut investment in projects. It added that management maintained its guidance. OLD MUTUALWhile many insurance sector constituents have seen their [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 17, 2009 Virgin MediaThe media group has appointed Eamonn O’Hare, previously UK finance director of supermarket giant Tesco, as its new chief financial officer. O’Hare, who will assume his new role in November, has been at Tesco for the past four years. Prior to that, he played a key role in the turnaround of Energis, where he [...]
Allocate Software clarification September 17, 2009 City A.M. yesterday reported that Brent Nabbs at Numis Securities had recently advised on a fundraising at Allocate Software. He in fact advised on a name change at Allocate Software, and a fundraising at Alliance Pharma. Allocate Software has not had a recent fundraising.
Setback for Dutch banks bailout September 17, 2009 A state rescue of the Netherlands’ banking system came under grave threat yesterday after the collapse of a vital asset sale deal between ABN AMRO and Deutsche Bank. This comes two days after the European Commission said the Dutch government had given Dutch financial group ING an unfairly enhanced deal to guarantee a portfolio of [...]
WTO warns on tyre tarrifs September 17, 2009 Trade measures of the type imposed by the US on Chinese tyres run the risk of spilling over and slowing down economic recovery, a senior World Trade Organisation (WTO) official said yesterday. The tyre trade dispute blew up between the US and China after Washington imposed additional duties on Chinese-made tyres. Valentine Rugwabiza, the WTO’s [...]
Cenkos sees fortunes turn September 17, 2009 STOCKBROKER Cenkos Securities has recovered from its battering last year to report a spike in first-half profits, though it warned the markets are still in a delicate state. Cenkos yesterday posted a 13 per cent rise in pre-tax profit for the six months to June, to £6.2m, after it fell from £11.6m to £5.5m in [...]
UK profits strong at Investec in spite of weakness in South Africa September 17, 2009 INVESTMENT bank Investec said yesterday that profits in the UK and Europe are holding up, despite a weaker performance in its South African and Australian divisions forcing it to lower forecasts for the first half of the year. Investec said in a pre-close briefing that first-half net operating income and operating profits would be below [...]
ROYAL MAIL FAILS TO DELIVER September 17, 2009 POSTAL STRIKES that have crippled the UK looked set to get even worse yesterday, as the CWU union called for a national walkout. The strikes over pay and job cuts, which started in July, have caused a backlog of an estimated 20m letters. Most of the delays are in London, Royal Mail said yesterday. The [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS THE SKY THE LIMIT FOR THE FTSE 100? September 17, 2009 CHRIS BRANDON XSIGO SYSTEMS“It’s too soon to assume the FTSEwill keep on going up – I expect it will level off quite quickly. I think the issue at the moment is profits and as we come to the end of the financial year it could turn out that they are not as spectacular as people [...]
RECORD SALES FOR IKEA September 17, 2009 SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea yesterday posted record sales of €21.5bn (£19.1bn) despite its slowest growth in more than a decade. Ikea’s new chief executive Mikael Ohlsson (pictured) said sales for the year to 31 August rose by 1.4 per cent, down from seven per cent growth in the previous year. Ohlsson’s predecessor Anders Dahlvig had [...]
