Housebuilder shows profit turnaround August 3, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey swung back into profit over the first half of the year, helped by an improving outlook for the property sector and a determined cost cutting drive. Taylor Wimpey, the second largest homebuilder by volume in the UK, posted a pre-tax profit for the six months to 4 July of £19.6m. That compared [...]
M&S hires new finance boss to help Bolland’s revolution August 3, 2010 MARKS and Spencer has hired former WH Smith executive Alan Stewart to help new chief Marc Bolland ring the changes at the company. Stewart, 50, who has held a series of senior posts at public companies, will join the retailer in October. He will be the right hand man to Bolland, who joined in May [...]
Focus on margins helps push up profit but concerns over debt pile still remain August 3, 2010 BUILD it, and they will buy. Well, not quite. Taylor Wimpey managed to beat expectations in its first half by focusing on higher prices – not volume. In the UK, it completed 4,804 sales at an average price of £168,000, compared to 4,702 sales at £153,000 in the first six months of 2009. Along with [...]
Rock falls into the red but its bad arm heals August 3, 2010 NORTHERN ROCK’S boss insisted there was no timetable for returning the bailed-out bank to private ownership yesterday as it slumped to a £142.6m loss in the first half. Chief executive Gary Hoffman said there was no deadline for a sale of the “good” part of Northern Rock, which holds savings accounts and lends new mortgages, [...]
FSA fines RBS for deficient money laundering controls August 3, 2010 THE ROYAL Bank of Scotland has been slapped with a record £5.6m fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to adequately screen customers and payments to prevent its banks – RBS, NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts – from being used for money laundering or the financing of terrorist activities. In December 2007 to 2008, [...]
Construction growth slows down in July August 3, 2010 CONSTRUCTION activity in the UK dropped sharply to a four-month low last month, according to a leading survey published yesterday. The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index for the construction sector fell to 54.1 in July from 58.4 in June, highlighting concerns that activity in the sector may have peaked. However, this is the fifth consecutive month that the [...]
Discounts take non-food inflation to 10-month low August 3, 2010 AGGRESSIVE discounting by retailers caused non-food inflation to decelerate to just one per cent, its slowest rate of growth since November 2009, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Overall, shop price inflation remained at 1.5 per cent thanks to an acceleration in food inflation to 2.5 per cent. Stephen Robertson, director general of [...]
Treasury yields at record low as Fed mulls new QE August 3, 2010 YIELDS on short-term US Treasury debt fell to a record low yesterday after a raft of negative data heightened expectations that the Federal Reserve may seek to further stimulate the stagnating economy. Two-year note yields, which move inversely to prices, fell three basis points to 0.53 per cent, after touching a new record low of [...]
888 on radar as takeover fever spreads August 3, 2010 ONLINE gaming firm 888 said yesterday it had been contacted by rivals looking for takeover opportunities in the wake of last week’s tie-up between Austria’s bwin and PartyGaming. The merger between bwin and PartyGaming will create the world’s biggest internet gambling firm and puts pressure on other companies in the sector to strike deals or [...]
JC Flowers buys into Kent Reliance August 3, 2010 BUYOUT firm JC Flowers yesterday said it would take a £50m stake in Kent Reliance as part of a restructuring plan. Under the deal, Kent Reliance’s assets and liabilities would be transferred to a new bank, which would become a subsidiary of a new mutual organisation, the Kent Reliance Provident Society. JC Flowers would receive [...]
