Quality brands are becoming more popular again June 16, 2009 FOR a while we saw the march of the “value” brands, as the recession helped Aldi and co make advances on their more expensive rivals. The graph shows what actually happened to brand values. We have created two baskets of brands – seven associated with lower-end or “value-for-money’ (Aldi, Morrisons, Primark, Matalan, RyanAir, Walls, Subway), [...]
BAA suffers a traffic slump in downturn June 10, 2009 AIRPORT operator BAA said yesterday its passenger numbers for May had slumped for the 14th month in a row, as 11.8m passengers used its seven airports – down 7.3 per cent from a year ago. Stansted, one of three airports BAA is being forced to sell, was hit hardest, seeing its air traffic slump 18.5 [...]
Michael O’Leary sells off 16.5m of Ryanair stock June 8, 2009 MICHAEL O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, has sold off €18.75m (£16.5m) of stock in the budget airline, it emerged yesterday. O’Leary divested 5m shares, taking his holding in the firm down to just over four per cent, equal to 60m shares. The news comes after Ryanair last week fell to its first full-year loss [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 3, 2009 VODAFONE GROUPCitigroup analysts returned from travelling with Vodafone managers to meet investors and were no less positive on the structural opportunity at the group than before. The broker remains a “buy” on the stock with a target price of 118p, but argues that targets could be increased, perhaps in November. The focus remains on shareholder [...]
British Airways sees a slump in air traffic as downturn hits June 3, 2009 FLAG carrier British Airways (BA) said yesterday its premium passenger numbers for May tumbled 17.2 per cent, as airlines struggle to fill seats during the downturn. BA said its economy passenger numbers were down by only 4.2 per cent. Overall passenger numbers were down 6.5 per cent, suggesting the previous month’s rise may have been [...]
Ryanair falls to first ever annual loss June 2, 2009 BUDGET airline Ryanair reported its first ever annual loss yesterday, blaming high fuel costs and massive writedowns on the value of its stake in Irish rival Aer Lingus. The no-frills airline said its losses for the year to 31 March 2009 were €180.4m (£155m), down from a profit of €481m the previous year. The company [...]
WHERE DID RYANAIR GO WRONG ? June 2, 2009 RICHARD J HUNTER HARGREAVES LANSDOWNThere is some disappointment around the numbers, which have come in rather below market estimates. In terms of the figures, the Aer Lingus stake has proved to be something of an albatross around the company’s neck. It also had difficulty in hedging oil correctly over a turbulent period. DOUGLAS MCNEILL BLUE [...]
VEXED IN THE CITY SOLVING YOUR RECESSION PROBLEMS June 2, 2009 DEAR VEXED: A recent study said that attractive people go further at work. I’m working myself to the bone to hang in there but I have to be frank: I’m no looker. I’m overweight and haven’t been blessed with the best of faces – bit of a chinless wonder to be honest. What can I [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 1, 2009 RYANAIRAhead of Ryanair’s preliminary results, Collins Stewart has a “buy” recommendation on the airline. The broker expects a dramatic rebound on full-year 2010 profits as the company’s fuel bill falls. Aggressive fleet expansion remains a risk, said the analysts, but the firm continues to take market share from peers. TOPPS TILESGoldman Sachs upgraded its full-year [...]
Ryanair pursues pay cuts for Aer Lingus directors May 21, 2009 IRISH budget airline Ryanair kept up the pressure on arch rival Aer Lingus on Thursday with a campaign to extract large pay cuts from its chairman and non-executive directors. Ryanair, Aer Lingus’ biggest shareholder with a near 30 per cent stake, is proposing the former state carrier’s chairman Colin Barrington receive &1119;35,000 (£30,648) in pay [...]