RADIO SILENCE BY SKY BOSS ON MURDOCH BID May 11, 2011 INNOVATION was the theme for BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch at the Institute of Directors’ convention yesterday, where fellow speakers included McDonald’s chief executive Jill McDonald, chancellor George Osborne and shadow chancellor Ed Balls. “The most successful businesses are those that constantly seek to adapt and renew themselves,” said Darroch, as he charted the broadcaster’s [...]
Morrisons FD gets £1.25m bonus May 11, 2011 Supermarket chain Morrisons gave finance director Richard Pennycook a £1.25m bonus in shares last year according to its annual report. Pennycook was one of the contenders for the chief executive job when Marc Bolland left the company for Marks & Spencer, but he lost out to Dalton Philips. He was paid £981,000 for 2010 before [...]
FTSE 100 sinks below 6,000 as banks and miners tumble May 11, 2011 COMMODITY and banking stocks dragged the FTSE 100 back below the 6,000 level yesterday, with these sectors pressured by Greece’s debt problems and uncertainty over global economic growth. London’s blue chip index closed down 42.89 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 5,976.00, having hit a one-week closing high on Tuesday. Atif Latif, director of trading [...]
HSBC drags FTSE back as investors eye inflation forecasts May 11, 2011 Banking giant HSBC sapped some of the confidence from the blue chip index today as it announced that it was aiming to slash costs by £2.1bn. The news followed a bruising start to the week for banks who have already earmarked billions for potential payouts over dubious insurance protection sales. HSBC fell 1.3 per cent [...]
MORRISONS’ FINANCE CONTROLLER COOKS UP WINNING WEB STRATEGY May 10, 2011 WITH a name like Richard Pennycook, there was only ever one possible vocation for Morrisons’ group finance director (FD), who proved he is worthy of the title by restoring the grocer’s profits after the slump when it bought Safeway in 2005. So keep those “cooking the books” jokes to yourself, because Pennycook last night received [...]
Milton Friedman was wrong: There is such a thing as a free breakfast May 9, 2011 IN ASSOCIATION with GFT, next Thursday City A.M. is hosting a free workshop on contracts for difference (CFD) and currency trading. The speakers will be the regular City A.M. columnists David Morrison, GFT’s market strategist, and Boris Schlossberg, GFT’s director of currency research. It is taking place on Thursday 19 May at The Grange St [...]
John Lewis sales hit by wedding and easter May 6, 2011 Easter and a half-day closure for the royal wedding led to a sharp fall in weekly sales at Britain’s biggest department store chain John Lewis, it said. Sales dropped 9.2 per cent year-on-year to £48.7m in the week ended 30 April, and were down 10.7 percent excluding VAT sales tax. Employee-owned John Lewis, viewed as [...]
Morrisons in royal boost May 5, 2011 PROMOTIONS and a surge in spending on bunting and picnics for the royal wedding helped Morrisons beat quarterly sales forecasts yesterday. But Britain’s fourth biggest supermarket chain said it was wary of the tough road ahead as customer spending come under more pressure. Sales at stores open over a year rose 2.5 per cent, excluding [...]
Lloyds leads slide in banking stocks as FTSE loses ground May 5, 2011 SLIDING commodity prices thumped energy stocks and miners while Lloyds Banking Group led financials down, pulling Britain’s top share index lower yesterday, with technicals pointing to further weakness. Bearish investors came to the fore as heavyweight commodity stocks Royal Dutch Shell and Lonmin fell 1.8 and 4.1 per cent respectively on lower crude and metal [...]
Morrisons in Royal Wedding boost May 5, 2011 Supermarket chain said its sales have been boosted by the royal wedding. Total sales excluding fuel during the 13 weeks to 1 May were up by 4.2 per cent from the same period a year ago, or by 2.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis. The company said campaigns such as its “Fuel Britannia” and [...]