Bric countries boost profits at Siemens January 25, 2011 SIEMENS, Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate and a German bellwether, beat profit forecasts due to robust demand in emerging economies and said signs for future sales were strong. Like most of its German peers, Siemens relies heavily on exports of manufactured goods to China, Brazil, India and Russia to power growth, profiting from infrastructure investment in [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 25, 2011 RSM Tenon The seventh largest accountancy firm has named accountant Peter Musgrave as head of its enlarged London office. RSM Tenon has brought together teams from four offices into the central London location in Chiltern Street in the West End and created a 450 strong team covering all the Group’s services. Peter previously ran the [...]
Siemens beats forecasts January 25, 2011 Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate, beat forecasts for its first-quarter profit helped by robust demand in fast-growing emerging economies. Net profit from continuing operations – which exclude units planned to be spun off – rose 17 per cent to 1.79bn euros (£1.5bn) in the quarter, beating the average forecast of 1.47bn euros in a Reuters [...]
McDonald’s sees profits rise but misses December targets January 24, 2011 McDONALD’S has reported a nine per cent rise in global profits for 2010 with net profits of $4.95bn (£3.1bn) across its business, despite a slowdown in both fourth-quarter profits and sales. The fast-food retailer also said it expected to raise its prices this year, to offset a hike in its ingredients used to make its [...]
Russia’s Koks prices its IPO January 24, 2011 RUSSIAN coking coal and pig iron producer Koks will seek to raise around $520m (£325m) in its IPO, landing a windfall for its owners and kick-starting a stampede by Russian firms to the stock market. The Siberia-based company, which is planning to list existing shares in both London and Moscow, said the offering could make [...]
Medvedev delays Davos trip due to terrorist blast January 24, 2011 RUSSIAN president Dmitry Medvedev has delayed his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week due to a suicide bomb at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that killed 35 people yesterday. The president swore to hunt down the culprits, writing on Twitter: “Security will be strengthened at large transport hubs. We mourn the victims of the [...]
Weak TV sales drag Philips below target January 24, 2011 PHILIPS ELECTRONICS blamed television sales for disappointing fourth-quarter profit and said western consumers would be reluctant to spend this year, adding urgency to its drive into emerging markets. Shares in the Dutch consumer appliances, healthcare and lighting group, which is seeking to boost sales in fast-growing countries including China and India, tumbled more than six [...]
THE TIPSTER January 24, 2011 THE improving risk appetite and the prospect of better yields on cash deposits threaten to create a top for precious metal prices. So the question is can gold re-test the $1,400/oz level in the near term? The current IG Markets price on spot gold is $1,350.25-$1,350.75. Kesa Electricals, the parent company of the electrical retailer [...]
Playing the new uranium boom January 23, 2011 INVESTMENT COMMENT OVER the past six months, the price of uranium has risen more than 60 per cent to $68 an ounce and thanks to increasing demand and tight supply, prices could be headed even higher. There are 442 operating nuclear reactors worldwide but with 60 new ones under construction (a further 156 are in [...]
Strong Christmas drives second profit upgrade in two months at Laura Ashley January 20, 2011 FASHION and homewares retailer Laura Ashley issued its second profit upgrade in two months yesterday. The company said it was confident that full-year profits would be better than City forecasts. It said a strong performance over Christmas and early January means that the results will be “significantly higher than earlier expectations”. Analysts on average were [...]