BAT in £1.25bn buy back February 23, 2012 British American Tobacco , the world’s second-biggest cigarette maker, increased its share buyback to £1.25bn ($1.96 billion) after it raised prices and saw strong growth in emerging markets to help boost its annual earnings. The London-based maker of Kent, Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes completed a share buyback of 750 million pounds in [...]
Why it is time to rename the Bric nations the Bics February 22, 2012 IT HAS been clear for some time that global growth for the foreseeable future will not be driven by Europe and the US, but rather by the so-called Bric countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China. This group of countries, representing around a third of the world’s population, now form a loose but increasingly vocal [...]
Yandex to show new tweets February 21, 2012 Twitter has joined hands with Yandex in a deal to allow Russia’s top search engine to display new tweets almost instantly in the results it brings up. While the companies declined to give financial details of their partnership, a similar deal saw Microsoft – whose search engine Bing has less than one percentage point more [...]
STOCK EXCHANGE BLOCKS STELIOS FROM AIRING HIS LATEST ATTACK February 21, 2012 EASYJET founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has never been shy about letting the airline’s management know what he really thinks. But yesterday’s attack on chairman Mike Rake’s team, in which he paints EasyJet lawyers Herbert Smith in an unflattering light, was the straw that broke the London Stock Exchange’s back – it refused to publish the [...]
Tata doubles Jaguar Land Rover funds February 21, 2012 TATA Motors will double investments in its Jaguar Land Rover brands to £1.5bn a year, even as the Indian carmaker warned that it will be a challenge to sustain high margins at its key profit generator. With soaring revenues and expanding margins, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has driven the company’s growth in recent quarters, as [...]
MAKING A SPLASH | Chinese duo strike gold in London February 20, 2012 LONDON’S magnificent new Olympic Aquatics Centre hosted its first day of competitive action yesterday with China’s divers taking gold in a World Cup event chosen to test the venue. World champions Qin Kai and Luo Yutong won the men’s synchronised 3-metres springboard ahead of Russia’s Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov, while Malaysia’s Brian Nickson Lomas [...]
Fizz to fall out of Carlsberg profits in 2012 February 20, 2012 DANISH brewer Carlsberg yesterday warned its operating profits will be flat in 2012, hit by declining beer markets in northern and western Europea while its biggest market, Russia, will show a slow recovery. The world’s fourth largest brewer said yesterday it expects the Russian beer market to return to modest growth this year after a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 16, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES HEDGE FUND PIONEER BACK FOR ASIA VENTURE William Bollinger, one of the pioneers of London’s hedge fund industry, has come out of retirement to launch a new venture – in Singapore. A protégé of the renowned investor Julian Robertson and a former donor to the Labour party, Mr Bollinger set up Egerton Capital, [...]
B&Q boss set for windfall as goals met February 16, 2012 KINGFISHER boss Ian Cheshire is in line for a windfall payout after the retailer said it was on track to meet analyst forecasts for a full-year profit of £800m. Cheshire is likely to receive shares worth up to £6.14m, after the owner of the B&Q chain beat two main targets set out in its 2008 [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 16, 2012 US Bank US Bank Global Corporate Trust Services has named Tom Cubitt, senior vice president, as leader of the bank’s European corporate trust business, based in London. Cubitt is responsible for US Bank’s securitisation and structured finance trust and agency business. The firm has also appointed Breige Tinnelly and Emma Hanley to run the London-based [...]