Thorntons share price rise tastes sweet as chocolatier says it will meet earning targets July 3, 2014 Thorntons said yesterday its commercial arm selling chocolates to supermarkets returned to “double-digit” growth in the fourth quarter, making it confident of meeting full-year profit targets. The London-listed chocolatier expects pre-tax profits to leap 51 per cent to £7.1m for the year to 28 June compared with £4.7m a year earlier. Shares rose 8.4 per [...]
Housing market boom helps to boosts demand at Topps Tiles July 2, 2014 TOPPS Tiles yesterday posted a jump in third quarter sales, helped by a buoyant housing market pushing more Britons into upgrading their homes. The tiling specialist, which runs 330 UK stores, said like-for-like revenues rose by 6.3 per cent in the 13 weeks to 28 June compared with a drop of 1.5 per cent in [...]
Exclusive: Shelf Drilling pulls $500m float plan after investors get cold feet July 1, 2014 Oil-rig contractor Shelf Drilling is to pull its plan to float on the London Stock Exchange today, citing insufficient interest to justify proceeding with the sale. Sources close to the deal yesterday told City A.M. the decision was made late last night to cancel the initial public offering, which was set to raise at least [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 01 July 2014 June 30, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES EU slams US over Microsoft privacy A US attempt to force Microsoft to hand over emails held on servers in Ireland has drawn a strong rebuke from Brussels in one of the first tests of cross-border privacy raised by cloud computing. The US demand could contravene international law and should have been handled [...]
Lloyds private equity arm sells Metronet to Isis in £45m buyout June 30, 2014 The private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group has sold its stake in Manchester-based tech group Metronet (UK) to Isis Equity Partners for £45m. Lloyds Development Capital, which ploughed £11m into Metronet in 2012, had made a four times return on its equity investment after selling the stake, it said. Metronet [...]
City Moves for 01 July 2014 | Who’s switching jobs June 30, 2014 Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty David Wilson has been appointed global head of energy claims at the insurance business. He has over 13 years’ experience in claims, and was most recently energy and property claims manager at a London-based insurance company. Perella Weinberg Partners Jorma Ollila has been named an advisory partner at the financial services [...]
Barclays’ Antony Jenkins must show dealmakers some love June 30, 2014 On the day that Barclays felt the full brunt of allegations about its so-called “dark pools” from a New York attorney general, its corporate finance arm in Europe was reporting a significant success. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) announced a merger deal and with it a near £1bn rights issue, solely underwritten by Barclays. This [...]
UK’s £4bn app economy is the biggest in Europe June 26, 2014 The app economy in the UK is the biggest in Europe and set to generate £4bn revenue by the end of the year, cementing the country’s position as the leading tech hub outside of the US. The UK generates more than a third of app revenue produced across Europe and employs just under a fifth [...]
Amazon’s lockers arrive in London Tube station car parks June 25, 2014 Amazon has introduced new lockers at Finchley Central and Newbury Park tube station car parks in a partnership between the online retail giant and Transport for London that will let customers collect their purchases at the lockers – like they can do in some Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s car parks. Amazon has lockers in over [...]
Cycle shop Wiggle candidate for IPO after appointing advisers June 25, 2014 Cycle shop Wiggle’s private equity owner Bridgepoint is mulling plans to float the company on the London stock market. The private equity group, which owns Pret a Manger, has been working with Rothschild to explore options for the business, one of which may include a share sale. Nomura and Numis are also said [...]