Bradford & Bingley back in the black July 30, 2010 Bradford & Bingley, the mortgage lender which was nationalised after running into problems during the credit crisis, said on Friday it had swung to a first-half profit after making a loss a year earlier. The bank reported a pretax profit of £896m for the six months ending June 30, having made a loss of £160m [...]
China overtakes Japan as world’s second largest economy July 30, 2010 CHINA has overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No 1 spot sometime around [...]
Honda posts record profit for quarter July 30, 2010 HONDA has posted a record $3.15bn profit (£2bn) fuelled by strong sales in Asia. The Tokyo-based company revised up its annual net profit forecast by 33.8 per cent for the year ending March 2011. “The company posted a healthy operating profit and net profit, which both turned out to be the record high for a [...]
Virgin Atlantic sees £132m loss July 30, 2010 VIRGIN Atlantic has reported a pre-tax operating loss for the period March 2009 to February 2010 of £132m. That compared with a profit of £60m in the same period the year before. Revenues for 2009/10 dropped 8.6 per cent to £2.35bn but operating costs reduced by eight per cent. Virgin said it carried 15 per [...]
EDF to sell UK power network in £5.8bn deal July 30, 2010 BILLIONAIRE Li Ka-shing has offered to buy UK power grids from France’s EDF for £5.8bn, giving his companies a foothold in more lucrative overseas markets. Cheung Kong Infrastructure and Hongkong Electric said they won an auction for three power distribution grids and private power networks owned in Britain by EDF, the world’s second-largest utility. EDF’s [...]
Samsung in record quarterly profit July 30, 2010 SAMSUNG Electronics has reported record quarterly profits thanks to increased sales of smartphones and memory chips. The South Korean firm’s net profit in the three months to the end of June was 4.28 trillion won (£2.3bn). That reprsented an 83 per rise on the same period a year earlier. Revenue surged by 17 per cent, [...]
BA reports £164m loss as strikes and ash cloud take their toll July 30, 2010 BA has reported a £164m pre-tax loss for the three months to June. The figure was higher than the £148m loss it made in the same period last year. BA said that taking into account the impact of all disruptions – including the volcanic ash cloud and the strikes by cabin crew at the company [...]
FSA pay rules to hurt thousands July 29, 2010 LONDON and Europe will lose out to other financial centres if tough rules on pay are rushed in, City figures warned as the UK watchdog revealed plans to curb bonuses yesterday. Fears were stoked after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said it would update its remuneration code to match harsh measures put forward by the [...]
Coalition in big welfare shake-up July 29, 2010 IAIN Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, will today unveil plans to scrap all out-of-work benefits and replace them with a single payment, in what will be billed as the biggest welfare shake-up in decades. A so-called “universal credit” will replace the myriad of different benefits that are currently available, including housing benefit, jobseekers’ [...]
EU in push for market clarity July 29, 2010 EUROPEAN Union regulators proposed radical changes in the way the region’s securities markets operate yesterday so that investors have a complete snapshot of prices currently fragmented by fierce competition. Heavy lobbying by bourses for their new rivals to face the same tough rules as themselves appears to have paid off. In-house trading by big banks [...]
