Mulberry sees strong festive sales January 19, 2012 Luxury fashion company Mulberry Group expects 2012 financial year results to exceed its earlier forecast, led by strong Christmas and New Year sales, putting it firmly in the festive winners’ camp in the UK. The company, which designs, makes and sells leather goods and accessories, said retail sales for the 16 weeks to January 14 [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 18, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES TWO BANKS IN DANGER AS DEADLINE APPROACHES European regulators are convinced that two of the continent’s banks will fail to produce credible plans to plug capital deficits by Friday’s deadline, exposing both to the risk of full or partial nationalisation. Officials said that it looked “almost inevitable” that a fresh injection of state [...]
Wetherspoon margins hit by VAT costs January 18, 2012 JD WETHERSPOON reported better-than-expected sales in the Christmas period but its chairman Tim Martin called on the chancellor to rethink “punishing” tax increases levied on the pub sector. Martin said the company is still on course to open around 50 pubs in the current financial year but warned that it may scale back future expansion [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 18, 2012 ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND Goldman Sachs rates the bank “neutral” and has raised its target price from 25p to 30p. The broker thinks the plans to restructure RBS Global Banking and Markets could hit earnings per share by six per cent, but raise returns on equity by 1.2 per cent by 2014. But it notes [...]
Ruspetro IPO gets the nod January 17, 2012 THE Russian-based oil explorer Ruspetro became the first company in 2012 to get a London main market float off the ground yesterday as investors gave the thumbs-up to a $250m (£163m) fund-raising. Ruspetro priced the shares at 134p yesterday evening, towards the lower end of the range. But advisers said they were delighted with the [...]
Visa Europe saw revenues jump above €1bn last year January 17, 2012 VISA EUROPE, which runs the biggest card payments system in the region, reported a 13 per cent rise in the number of transactions over its platform last year, accounting for a seventh of all consumer spending in Europe. The number of cards rose by 6.5 per cent to 445m and it processed 11.8bn transactions. The [...]
Burberry sees sales surge as luxury booms January 17, 2012 BRITISH fashion house Burberry has posted a 21 per cent uplift in Christmas sales after high-spending tourists continued to flock to its flagship stores in search of its iconic trench-coats and leather goods. The 156 year-old firm said underlying sales rose to £574m in the three months to 31 December from £480m a year earlier, [...]
Dixons fights on despite decline in Christmas takings January 17, 2012 DIXONS RETAIL, Europe’s second largest electronics retailer, reported a decline in sales over the Christmas period, though it managed to improve its margins in spite of widespread discounting on the high street. The owner of Currys and PC World said sales at stores open more than a year fell by five per cent in the [...]
Matalan enjoys a boost in turnover but warns of a tougher year ahead January 17, 2012 MATALAN has warned of tough trading to come as consumers continue to feel the pinch, despite the firm posting a rise in like-for-like sales and delivering its best sales week since 2005. The out-of-town fashion and homeware retailer said like-for-like sales increased by 9.9 per cent in the five weeks to 31 December, up from [...]
UK inflation rate drops January 17, 2012 Inflation fell sharply in December, supporting Bank of England forecasts for a hefty decline in 2012, due to lower fuel prices and high-street clothes discounting, official data showed. The Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation fell to 4.2 per cent in December from 4.8 per cent in November, as the decline in inflation [...]