Alliance Boots sales rise but the high street still struggles November 3, 2011 ALLIANCE Boots saw sales rise by more than a third in the first half of the year as strong demand from international markets continued to compensate for weak consumer spending on the UK high street. The global healthcare and beauty company said revenues rose 31 per cent to £11.74bn in the six months to 30 [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: CAN ASOS CONTINUE TO GROW SALES DESPITE A SLOW UK? November 3, 2011 MATTHEW MCEACHRAN | SINGER CAPITAL MARKETS Asos is a top five most visited fashion website in the world. Coupled with further development of the offer, higher margin guidance, and strengthening demand in certain international markets, it is no wonder that confidence is high about delivery of full year market expecations. Buy. WAYNE BROWN | COLLINS [...]
Wetherspoon boss hits out at pub taxes November 3, 2011 TIM Martin, the outspoken executive chairman of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain he founded in 1979, has called for the Treasury to rein in an “unsustainable” level of tax levied on pubs. Wetherspoon’s tax bill tallied to £453.1m in the 13 weeks to 21 October, compared with a profit after tax of just £46.8m. This [...]
Aer Lingus profits look rosy but no word on sale November 3, 2011 Irish airline Aer Lingus expects to post full-year operating profit of around €40m (£34.5m) and hopes to make progress in talks over a huge pension deficit early next year, its chief executive said yesterday. But it warned that higher fuel and airport charges would mean it would post a large operating loss in last three [...]
BP agrees to pay Texas £31m for pollution November 3, 2011 Oil giant BP’s US subsidiary has agreed to pay $50m (£31m) in civil penalties to the state of Texas for pollution from its Texas City refinery, including the deadly March 2005 explosion, state attorney general Greg Abbott said. The fine is equal to the amount BP Products North America paid in 2009 for pollution from [...]
Think-tanks: UK’s reply to Tobin is weak November 3, 2011 A EUROPE-WIDE financial transactions tax (FTT) could cost the UK’s economy tens of billions of pounds, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) warned yesterday – and yet the government is failing to act to stop such a tax being introduced, said the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). The ASI calculated that the UK will be hit [...]
London 2012 IMAGE OF THE WEEK November 3, 2011 This week Kevin McCloud (far right) and other London 2012 Sustainability Ambassadors, including entrepreneur Deborah Meaden (far left), visited the grand designs of the Olympic Park. Meaden said: “I am genuinely excited about what we have achieved and can’t wait to share it with the world in 2012.” Between now and the 2012 Games, City [...]
Firms are unclear on FPC’s role November 3, 2011 TOO LITTLE is known about the new Financial Policy Committee’s (FPC) role and instruments and how it will impact on lenders, Paul Smee, director-general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said yesterday. Smee warned the post-Financial Services Authority (FSA) landscape for mortgages is going to become more complex under the Prudential Regulation Authority and [...]
US economy shows modest growth as services and jobs stay slightly positive November 3, 2011 THE US economy has so far managed to avoid the recessionary downturn the Eurozone risks entering, with positive service sector, employment and productivity figures out yesterday. Non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) came in at 52.9, barely down on September’s 53, demonstrating growth consistent with a modest economic [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 3, 2011 Jupiter Unit Trust Managers Simon Somerville (left), deputy manager of the Jupiter global managed fund, will take over as manager of the £256m fund from John Chatfeild-Roberts on 14 November. Chatfeild-Roberts will become deputy manager of the fund. Somerville, who joined Jupiter in 2005 from the position of head of global equities at Cazenove, will [...]
