Topps Tiles turns around revenues January 8, 2013 Topps Tiles, the flooring company, laid down a solid set of interim results yesterday with a 1.6 per cent quarterly rise in revenues. This reversed a 4.2 per cent drop in revenues for the same period last year. Like-for-like growth improved in the quarter’s last six weeks.
Aldi hitting the mainstream as customers seek value January 8, 2013 THIS time last year poor results at Tesco shocked investors and the grocery sector, although followers of YouGov’s BrandIndex and this column would have been aware of their problems a month earlier. With the all-important Christmas season now behind us I’ve taken a look back at 2012 to see what the big customer perception stories [...]
Internet drives sales at Domino’s January 8, 2013 BRITONS ordering pizzas online from the comfort of their sofas helped drive a 20 per cent rise in sales at Domino’s to £174.5m. The group yesterday said online sales in the UK and Ireland jumped 56.6 per cent to £84m in the final 14 weeks of the year to 30 December. E-commerce now accounts for [...]
Kippers and oats: breakfast the Boris way January 8, 2013 LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson was at City Hall yesterday morning, wolfing down porridge with children from Haseltine Primary School, to mark the launch of the Mayor’s Fund supporting the Magic Breakfast healthy eating initiative. The Mayor, who is patron of the charity, told The Capitalist: “It is a real shame that so many kids in [...]
Man Group ups macro focus with new hires January 8, 2013 MAN Group, the FTSE listed money manager, yesterday announced a raft of senior appointments to its hedge fund arm GLG, indicating it could be gearing up to launch new funds this year. The troubled company, which started life as a commodity firm selling rum to the British Navy, has seen its share price tumble since [...]
It makes no sense for Voda to give up its US ambitions January 8, 2013 NO wonder investors cheered Verizon Communications’ boss Lowell McAdam’s claim yesterday that he’d be up for buying out Vodafone’s stake in America’s Verizon Wireless. Analysts are valuing the 45 per cent stake at around £50bn, and having waited years to take a dividend from the US tie-up shareholders will no doubt be hoping they can [...]
Advisory lull hits Houlihan January 8, 2013 INVESTMENT bank Houlihan Lokey has posted a fresh slump in annual profits for its European business, with corporate restructuring work thin on the ground. The restructuring specialist made profits after tax in Europe of £3.95m, down more than half from £8.1m a year ago and compared to more than £16m in 2010, due to “a [...]
BoAML loses prime broker January 8, 2013 CHARLOTTE Burkeman, the Europe, Middle East and Asia head of prime brokerage at Bank of America Merrill Lynch is leaving the firm, two sources said yesterday. London-based Burkeman, 34, was a former prime brokerage executive at UBS and a former associate at Goldman Sachs and is considered one of the industry’s young rising stars. One [...]
FirstBuy helps attract buyers to Persimmon January 8, 2013 HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon yesterday posted a 12 per cent rise in annual revenue and an uptick in interested first time buyers helped by government incentives. The news came as Persimmon revealed its chief executive would retire in April after seven years at the helm. Mike Farley, who has been with the company for more than three [...]
Madejski property firm widens losses but gets time from banks January 8, 2013 THE PROPERTY company controlled by former Reading Football Club owner Sir John Madejski widened its losses last year, but gained more breathing space from its lenders. Sackville Properties posted losses after tax on continuing operations of almost £10.9m for the year to 31 March 2012, up from £4.6m the previous year. Turnover rose slightly to [...]
