St Modwen joins cash call trail May 14, 2009 Property developer St Modwen yesterday said it had raised £102m in a cash call to reduce debt, avert firesales and stockpile cash for new acquisitions. The firm, which specialises in regeneration projects in towns and cities across Britain said it would raise £25.9m through a placing and £81.5m through an open offer before advisers took [...]
ITV cuts extra 40m in costs May 14, 2009 ITV SAID yesterday it will impose an additional £40m in cost savings in 2010, as it forecast that advertising revenue would fall by 16 per cent in the first half of the year. The struggling broadcaster said that it was making good progress towards its original target of cutting costs by £155m this year, but [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 14, 2009 Covington & BurlingThe law firm has appointed Daniel Pavin to its London-based European life sciences practice as a partner. Pavin is one of the UK’s leading life sciences transactional lawyers, with experience advising on both non-contentious and contentious matters, including commercial, partnering and collaboration agreements, mergers, acquisitions and strategic investments, contract disputes and data protection [...]
UK drinkers lift SABMiller May 14, 2009 WORLD number two brewer SABMiller said falls in the price of barley and other raw materials should boost earnings later this year after reporting a forecast beating nine per cent dip in full-year profits. The group said weak consumer demand, higher commodities and a strong dollar led pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March to fall [...]
National Grid to capitalise on Obama’s investment bonanza May 14, 2009 NATIONAL Grid was in bullish mood yesterday, pledging to take advantage of plans by president Barack Obama to invest in the US electricity network, despite reporting a 36 per cent annual pre tax profit fall. The UK electricity and gas provider, which derives around half of its business from its wholly-owned US subsidiary, said the [...]
Tullett Prebon in revenue boost as weak pound works wonders May 14, 2009 INTERDEALER broker Tullett Prebon enjoyed a 10 per cent rise in revenues in the first four months of 2009, it said yesterday. The firm posted sales of £354m due for the most part to the weakness of the pound, as well as continued high volumes of trading in government bonds. But it added its structured [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 14, 2009 PADDY POWERInvestec said that there has undoubtedly been an improvement in trading at Paddy Power compared to the first two months of the year. The analysts retain their underlying estimates, but upgrade 2010 full year earnings per share estimates around six per cent citings its “sensible strategic acquisition” and rates the stock “buy”. THOMAS COOKAnalysts [...]
Q&A: BUYING May 14, 2009 Q. Dear Camilla, I’m looking to buy a property but have we reached the bottom of the market or do prices have further to fall? A. Prices have fallen between 15 and 20 percent since the peak of the market, which was March 2008 for London. At the beginning of this year most analysts were [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHEN DO YOU EXPECT THE UK TO START GROWING AGAIN? May 13, 2009 ANTONY BERKIN NEGATIVE EQUITY PROTECTION “I expect we’ll start to see some growth in the fourth quarter of this year. House prices will be a big indicator of how well we’re recovering, but I think it’ll be a while before they bottom out. That said, we won’t recover from government debt for years.” KENNETH STEVENSON METDIST “It [...]
L&G sales up but capital fears persist May 13, 2009 INSURER Legal & General (L&G) reported above-consensus first-quarter sales of £382m yesterday and said the worst of the crisis appears to be over, but fears over the firm’s capitalisation levels continued to dominate. L&G revealed a 3 per cent global sales rise, from £372m a year ago, which was massively bigger than analyst expectations of [...]
