Inflation flies further away from 2pc target November 13, 2012 CONSUMER price inflation rocketed higher in October, due to tuition fee hikes and booming food prices, data revealed yesterday. The jump defied Bank of England expectations that inflation would fall towards its two per cent target. This jump might have been a factor in the Bank’s decision to hold fire on more quantitative easing (QE) [...]
Aveva looks to new software to drive growth as sales improve November 12, 2012 SOFTWARE firm Aveva said yesterday it expects healthy growth in the coming years, driven by its recently-launched design software Everything3D (E3D). “Feedback from existing and prospective customers on this ground-breaking technology has been universally positive,” Aveva said, as it posted a 15 per cent rise in revenue in the six months to October. The firm, [...]
City blasts Euro boss over growth claims November 8, 2012 Draghi’s delusions ■ Eurozone is poised for solid recovery ■ Debt to GDP is down even in the countries with the worst ratios EUROPEAN Central Bank boss Mario Draghi was under fire yesterday for claiming the Eurozone economies are back on track for growth – just a day after the European Commission slashed its own [...]
RSA relies on emerging markets as European sales continue to struggle November 8, 2012 THE PARENT company of insurer More Than yesterday announced flat sales of £2.7bn in the UK and western Europe, where it has been forced to do less business in the hope of remaining profitable. But RSA said its performance in emerging markets – including Latin America, Asia and the Middle East – is a cause [...]
Balfour Beatty to review its business after profit warning November 8, 2012 BALFOUR Beatty said it is studying whether to close parts of its operations after issuing a profit warning yesterday, prompting its share price to dive 18 per cent. “We are definitely in a world … where we are having to look at desisting from certain areas of the market,” chief executive Ian Tyler said. His [...]
Brit chip giants Imagination and ARM buy American rival November 6, 2012 BRITAIN’S two biggest chip designers, ARM Holdings and Imagination Technologies, yesterday spent $410m (£256.5m) carving up US challenger MIPS. ARM is leading a consortium spending the lion’s share of the money – $350m – on buying a warchest of 580 patents from the Silicon Valley company. The remaining $60m has been spent by Imagination on [...]
Telecity’s Finnish purchase met with hostile reception from City November 5, 2012 TELECITY, the British data centre operator, yesterday announced it had bought Finnish company Academica for €28m (£22.4m) in a bid to expand its operations in the Nordic market. Data centres in Finland are a valuable commodity, since much of the growing internet traffic from Russia uses it. However, the acquisition disappointed the City, with analysts [...]
Lower oil prices hamper Shell as output stalls November 1, 2012 OIL major Shell shouldered a 15 per cent fall in current cost of supply (CCS) profit in the third quarter, as it warned of global economic weakness across the board. Net profit on a CSS basis over the three months to September was $6.1bn (£3.8bn), down from $7.2bn in the third quarter of last year, [...]
Next increases profit forecast after sales rise October 31, 2012 NEXT yesterday said it enjoyed a pick-up in sales in the third quarter of the year after seeing a slowdown around the time of the Olympics. The fashion and homeware retailer, led by chief executive Lord Wolfson, said stronger sales in late September and early October made up for the “unusually quiet” start to August. [...]
Phoenix Group hits targets October 31, 2012 Insurance consolidation vehicle Phoenix Group yesterday said it was “on track” to meet all of its financial targets for this year. Cash generation at the company, which operates closed-books of insurance, was £299m in the third quarter but its hefty debts remain a concern. Kevin Ryan at Investec retained his “hold” rating but said “the [...]