Japanese banks face uncertainty July 28, 2010 JAPAN’S third-biggest bank stuck to its full-year forecast yesterday despite reporting robust first-quarter earnings, due to uncertainty about the economic outlook. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SFMG) said net profit soared nearly three-fold to 211.8bn yen (£1.55bn) in the three months to the end of June. Citigroup analyst Hironari Nozaki had forecast the bank would earn [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD THE CITY TAKE A LESSON FROM THE CONTINENT AND CLOSE DURING AUGUST? July 28, 2010 BEREND VAN LUIK | DAIWA CAPITAL “It’s not possible in this country. Here, a lot of people work through their holidays anyway. In the Netherlands, each region has a different holiday period, which is optional but it helps to plan projects if you know roughly when everyone will be away.” MICK ROBERTS | MITEL NETWORKS [...]
King remains dovish about UK outlook July 28, 2010 BANK OF ENGLAND governor Mervyn King yesterday staunchly defended the continued need for ultra-loose monetary policy but warned that high inflation could continue to erode households’ earnings power over the next year or so. Speaking in front of the Treasury Select Committee, King denied that the strong second quarter GDP growth reading meant that the [...]
House prices inched higher in June, says Land Registry July 28, 2010 HOUSE prices in England and Wales rose 0.1 per cent on the month and 8.4 per cent on the year in June, figures from the Land Registry showed yesterday. The government agency said the average price of a home was now £166,072. House prices are now around the same levels that they were in the [...]
ECB gets tough on bank lending July 28, 2010 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) yesterday unveiled a tougher stance on lending, subjecting banks to more stringent penalties for borrowing from the ECB using more risky assets as collateral. Banks in Greece, Portugal, Spain and other heavily indebted parts of the Eurozone have been locked out of normal bank-to-bank lending markets during the most turbulent [...]
Durable goods orders drop July 28, 2010 NEW orders for US manufactured goods such as cars and planes fell unexpectedly for a second straight month in June, in a sign that the economic recovery cooled in the second quarter. However, the Commerce Department report on durable goods showed that cash-rich businesses continued to invest in equipment. This implied that underlying demand remained [...]
BAT increases its dividend in a flying start July 28, 2010 BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) yesterday hiked its dividend by nearly a fifth after a better-than-expected start to the year. The world’s second-largest tobacco group declared an interim payment of 33.2p a share, up 19 per cent on the 27.9p it paid at the same stage last year. Revenues in the first six months of the [...]
William Hill names new chair July 28, 2010 WILLIAM Hill has appointed Gareth Davis as its new chairman. Davis, who recently retired as chief executive of Imperial Tobacco Group after 14 years in the role, will take up his new job from 1 September. He joined Imperial Tobacco in 1972 as a management trainee and undertook various roles in the business, including managing [...]
Aldi’s co-founder Theo Albrecht dies July 28, 2010 THEO Albrecht – one of the founding brothers of the Aldi grocery chain – has died at the age of 88. Albrecht had a personal fortune of more than £10bn. He died in his home city of Essen, on Saturday. Together with his brother Karl, two years his senior, he built up Europe’s biggest budget [...]
Carphone Warehouse in boost from smartphones July 28, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse said demand for smartphones would help it cope in a muted consumer environment, as it beat quarterly revenue forecasts and hailed a strong debut for its new megastores with US partner Best Buy. The company, which also owns a 47.5 per cent stake in Virgin Mobile France, is benefiting from surging demand for [...]
