Evolution’s turn in the bid spotlight August 3, 2011 Evolution chief executive Alex Snow, a former rugby player for Harlequins, is said to have been looking less than enthusiastic about things recently. Like others in the small cap market in the City he has been bemoaning a lack of corporate finance activity, including a dearth of share offerings (the IPO of Nat Rothschild’s Vallares, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 3, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES HEFNER SON-IN-LAW SETTLES CASE The son-in-law of Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, has been sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly trading shares based on secret information he learnt from his wife, the magazine publisher’s long-time chief executive. William Marovitz, who is married to Hefner’s daughter Christie, agreed to [...]
GKN beats profit foreacast August 3, 2011 Industrials group GKN beat first-half profit forecasts, driven by new products and strength in emerging markets in its automotive business, and tipped its aerspace division to improve in the coming years. GKN, which produces auto components as well as airframes for planemakers Airbus and Boeing reported a 14 per cent rise in pretax profit to [...]
BMW drives ahead on China’s craving for luxury as Toyota sales hit by quake August 2, 2011 BMW yesterday tore through market expectations for second-quarter profits as more wealthy Chinese drove away with its revamped 5 Series saloon car. The company reported an 83 per cent jump in quarterly operating profit at its luxury car business, underpinned by surging sales of the 5 series and a 4.8 percentage point widening in its [...]
Strewth – Aussie dollar strength set to continue August 2, 2011 ESCAPING EUROZONE CONTAGION Despite the turmoil in the European Club-Med economies, where five year CDS rates and 10-year bond yields are on an upward trajectory, Australian credit markets have remained largely unaffected, and local bond issuance is solid. As James Hughes, senior market analyst for Alpari, points out, Australia has a strong balance sheet, comparatively [...]
Relief over debt deal is short-lived August 1, 2011 It didn’t take long for the relief caused by Sunday evening’s US debt plan to dissipate. First, there’s the dawning realisation that the plan itself, passed by the House late last night, is unlikely to help the US avoid some sort of debt downgrade. Nor is it likely to repair the wounds caused by weeks [...]
30,000 jobs? It’s a start, says Gulliver August 1, 2011 WHEN HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver told investors in May that the bank had a “cost problem”, few expected him to wield the axe quite so dramatically. But he insists that casting out middle managers to the tune of 30,000 in gross job cuts is still not enough: “It will be a very long journey,” he [...]
THE TIPSTER July 31, 2011 TRADERS are long on silver as the precious metal looks like it might be setting up to test its highs from earlier in the year of around $50. The precious metal has seen its fair share of volatility in the last week – dipping back below the $40 mark – so could be a buy. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 26, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LAW FIRM STOPS WORK ON INQUIRY INTO PHONE HACKING BCL Burton Copeland, the law firm, is no longer advising News International about an investigation into phone hacking. The firm stopped working for NI, which publishes Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers, last week, insiders familiar with the situation said, after it was called in at [...]
Political fears drag down Wall Street July 26, 2011 The stalemate in US debt talks dragged down stocks for a second day yesterday, and light volume showed investors remained reluctant to make bets despite another round of healthy earnings. Declining issues solidly outpaced advancing ones, even though major averages showed mostly modest declines. A failure to raise the US debt limit by an 2 [...]