Warburg, maker of the modern City July 4, 2010 WITH a tan topped up over the weekend by a stay on a Greek island and his TV don’s hair – which looks like a tame version of Melvyn Bragg’s – a crisp white shirt, relaxed manner and a gentle Scottish accent, Niall Ferguson is without doubt a smoothy-chops. He’s also one of the best-known [...]
HMV looks forward to happy Christmas after profits pick up June 30, 2010 HMV met forecasts with an 18 per cent rise in yearly profit and said its plan to transform the business into an entertainment brand was working. The music, games and DVD group, which runs over 400 stores under its own name as well as 314 Waterstone’s bookstores, made an underlying pretax profit of £74.2m for [...]
THE TIPSTER June 22, 2010 IT WAS easy yesterday to focus only on what was happening to sterling but there was activity in plenty of other currency pairs too. The Australian dollar-New Zealand dollar has retraced ever since the Aussie dollar failed to maintain momentum above NZ$1.3000. The latest retracement to the NZ$1.2400 level equals the 38.2 per cent Fibonacci [...]
Chief hired to turn around Game Group June 17, 2010 EMBATTLED computer games specialist Game Group yesterday brought back a little cheer to investors by hiring a new chief executive, two months after a 28 per cent plunge in yearly profits sparked the abrupt departure of former boss Lisa Morgan. Ian Shepherd, a former Vodafone executive and “keen gamer for over 30 years”, is to [...]
Peacocks could be put back on the block with £600m tag June 14, 2010 FASHION CHAIN Peacocks could be put up for sale, after its owners commissioned a review of the retailer’s options. It is understood the retailer could secure a price-tag of £600m if put on the market, handing its US hedge fund owners a neat multi-million pound windfall. Peacocks’ management is currently reviewing the company’s operations, including [...]
Park profit dips but revenue rises June 10, 2010 Christmas hampers and financial services firm Park reported a fall in pre-tax profit yesterday, while revenues increased. Pre-tax profit fell to £5.3m from £6.2m a year earlier, for the year to 31 March. However, revenue increased to £263.2m from £250.5m and operating profit leapt by 38 per cent. A final dividend of 0.88p per share [...]
Gulf efforts faced with more delays June 2, 2010 BP’S RESPONSE team faced further delays yesterday as the latest attempt to plug a well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico were met with a snag. An underwater saw used to sever a pipe from the damaged blow out preventer currently sitting on the seabed became lodged in the pipe, creating further disruption to [...]
US jobs outlook starts to pick up June 2, 2010 The number of planned layoffs at US firms in May was almost unchanged from April, when they touched a four-year low, suggesting employers have more upbeat outlooks, according to yesterday’s report from recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Employers announced 38,810 job cuts in the month, slightly more than the 38,326 unveiled in April. The [...]
Topps Tiles predicts upturn despite seeing profit dive in tough trading June 2, 2010 TOPPS Tiles yesterday posted a ten per cent fall in first-half adjusted pre-tax profit as consumers curbed spending amid the downturn and said it expected trading in the retail sector to remain tough. The company, which sells wood and tile flooring from 309 stores in Britain, said total revenue for the first seven weeks of [...]
Prudential June 1, 2010 EVERYTHING about Prudential’s play for AIA happened back-to-front. Desperate to pounce on the Asian business before it floated, Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam raced in with the generous offer of $35.5bn (£25bn) – 25 times new business profits, a multiple unheard of for insurers even in China – and then had to work backwards to model [...]