John Lewis sees another sales rise May 14, 2010 JOHN Lewis has posted another week of sales growth with fashion sales up by more than a fifth. The employee-owned firm – which is seen as a bellwether of the UK retail sector – said sales at its 28 department stores and one “at home” store increased 17.7 per cent to £55.1m in the week [...]
Ladbrokes suffers as punters stake less May 14, 2010 LADBROKES has seen revenue dip by six per cent in the first four months of 2010, as punters staked less in its betting shops. the group said that in UK stores the amount placed on bets plunged by ten per cent. Meanwhile profits from gaming machines fell after VAT was put back up to 17.5 [...]
Gartmore loses £1bn after manager’s suspension May 14, 2010 FUND manager Gartmore said clients withdrew more than £1bn in the wake of the suspension of one of its top fund managers. In a trading statement the company said that after a first quarter which had seen net inflows of £126m, it had since seen about £1.1bn of net outflows. Guillaume Rambourg returned to work [...]
EADS profit plunges over costly Airbus May 14, 2010 EUROPE’S largest Aerospace group EADS’s first-quarter profit plunged by almost two-thirds after persistent cost worries over its A380 superjumbo, it said. The parent company of Airbus posted a 64 per cent drop in operating profit to €83m (£71.3m), missing average market expectations. The figures included a slim profit of €7m profit for the Airbus commercial [...]
Wall Street hit as bank probe widens May 13, 2010 TOP banks and rating agencies have been subpoenaed by the New York authorities as part of a probe into how they dealt with subprime securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the subjects of a [...]
Pru deal held on knife edge May 13, 2010 ONE of Prudential’s most vocal supporters has urged the insurer to be honest about recent regulatory problems when it publishes the prospectus for its mammoth rights issue. Chief executive Tidjane Thiam and chairman Harvey McGrath have effectively staked their careers on pushing through the $21bn (£14bn) cash call and $35.5bn acquisition of AIA in Asia. [...]
Cameron right to cut ministers’ pay May 13, 2010 IT was good to see David Cameron announcing a 5 per cent pay cut for all government ministers. The savings will be relatively trivial when compared with the £163bn budget deficit but that wasn’t really the point: any organisation that wishes to usher in a new culture where belt-tightening is the norm must be ruthless [...]
BP: we weren’t prepared May 13, 2010 TONY Hayward, BP’s embattled chief executive, admitted yesterday that the oil giant could have been more prepared for a deepwater leak and that as a result his job could be on the line. After two days of grilling from US Senate representatives, Hayward said that with hindsight, BP could have done more in the past [...]
Govt to raise stake in Allied Irish Banks May 13, 2010 ALLIED Irish Banks confirmed yesterday that the government’s stake in the bank has reached 18.6 per cent and that its core Irish business continues to face challenges from weak consumer demand and higher costs of funding. As had been expected, the bank said it is making an annual coupon payment on €3.5bn (£3bn) in government [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 13, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TENSIONS LIE AHEAD FOR TREASURY Early this year, a top Treasury official sipped coffee in the departmental canteen and mused about the process of deficit reduction. It would be a long grind, he said, requiring hard work and persistence. Most important, he predicted, would be the task of “keeping a coalition in favour [...]
