Analyst Views: What’s your breakdown of BP’s fourth-quarter results? February 4, 2014 LUCAS HERMANN | DEUTSCHE BANK In the upstream division, numbers were around $200m shy of our expectations at $3.9bn. The quarterly dividend of 9.5 cents per share, up from 9 cents, was expected. The company forecasts a production decline in 2014 but this was also expected due to the loss of a concession deal in [...]
Investec sells private banking arm to manager-led consortium February 4, 2014 SALAMANCA Group yesterday bought out Investec Trust, along with the Trust’s managers. The private banking unit has £4.5bn in assets under management, and its sale reflects the widespread trend for banks to sell of the management arms. The unit has been rebranded Salamanca Group Trust and Fiduciary, and will continue to be run by Xavier [...]
Analyst Views: Is there any room left for Lloyds’ share price to bounce back again? February 3, 2014 IAN GORDON | INVESTEC We welcome the new realism in the unscheduled pre-results update. Before this, we had anticipated only a further £1.2bn PPI charge. With a further margin boost we see potential for upgrades to the 2014 underlying profit before tax consensus of £6.3bn. GARETH HUNT | CANACCORD GENUITY While the market will extrapolate [...]
Amplats swings back into the black but fresh strikes weigh February 3, 2014 FTSE 100-listed mining giant Anglo American yesterday reported earnings of $287m (£176m) for its South African platinum subsidiary Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) in 2013, as labour tensions show no signs of abating in the country. This compares to a loss of $225m (£138m) the previous year. Amplats is one of the three largest platinum miners [...]
BP and BG: Looking into the cryst-oil ball February 3, 2014 Hot on the heels of Royal Dutch Shell’s predictably poor results last week, the market is not feeling too optimistic over tomorrow’s corporate updates from FTSE 100 oil peers BP and BG. BG ‘did a Shell’ last week, slashing forecasts right, left and centre ahead of its results announcement, so the market already knows that [...]
London Report: Survey figures forecast to show more UK growth February 2, 2014 MANUFACTURING data, due out today, is the first of the UK survey figures that will be the highlights of this week’s economic calendar. Construction figures will follow tomorrow and services data on Wednesday, with all sectors expected to show further growth. Industrial production data is due on Friday. Martin Beck of Capital Economics said: “On [...]
Analyst Views: How impressed were you with Shell’s results and strategy update? January 30, 2014 NEILL MORTON | INVESTEC The headline numbers are broadly in line with the profit warning earlier this month. The chief executive’s message is pretty much what we believe the market wanted to hear. After Shell’s growth drive of recent years, it is “changing emphasis” in 2014 “to improve our returns”. LUCAS HERRMANN | DEUTSCHE BANK [...]
Centamin sees 18pc rise in output January 30, 2014 FTSE 250 miner Centamin yesterday forecast production from the Sukari gold mine in 2014 of 420,000 ounces at a cost of $700 (£425) per ounce, an 18 per cent increase on 2013 output of 356,943 ounces. “Given its recent tendency to under-promise an over-deliver, it must be confident of producing a significant uplift in underground [...]
Analyst Views: What did you make of Antofagasta’s quarterly production update? January 29, 2014 MARC ELLIOTT | INVESTEC Antofagasta’s strong quarterly production report reflects record output of copper, which beat our expectations and previous guidance from management. Relatively stable production guidance for 2014 implies that performance will improve, offsetting declining grades. NICK HATCH | WESTHOUSE SECURITIES 2013 production exceeded guidance and costs were lower than guidance. This was also [...]
Best year for UK economy since 2007 now official January 28, 2014 STRONG ACTIVITY across the UK’s business and finance services drove the economy to growth of 0.7 per cent in the final quarter of last year, making 2013 both the strongest and first uninterrupted year of growth since 2007, before the financial crisis. Official figures released yesterday morning point to a broad recovery across the economy, with services [...]