CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 4, 2013 Avanti Communications Group Paul Walsh, chief executive of Diageo, has joined the board of satellite data company Avanti Communications as a non-executive director. He is also a non-executive director of FedEx Corporation and Unilever. Prior to joining Diageo, Walsh held financial and commercial positions with InterContinental Hotels and in the GrandMet food business, becoming CEO [...]
London Report: BP’s court win sees FTSE defy US shutdown October 3, 2013 THE FTSE 100 rose yesterday, boosted by heavyweight BP which won a rare legal battle related to its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but ongoing US government shutdown uncertainty sapped momentum. Energy firm BP – the UK’s fifth biggest company by market capitalisation – rose 1.1 per cent after it won a legal [...]
Unilever drags down peers as Nestle hints at portfolio shake-up October 1, 2013 NESTLE hinted yesterday it was getting closer to disposing of bad brands and shaking up its portfolio, as shares suffered in the wake of a profit warning from consumer peer Unilever. Unilever warned late on Monday of a sharper slowdown in its emerging markets, sending its shares tumbling as much as four per cent in [...]
Bottom Line: This is just the start of the dreaded slowdown October 1, 2013 IT DOESN’T seem to matter what Unilever is selling. From Dove deodorant to PG Tips and Pot Noodles, the group’s emerging markets customers aren’t buying. Except that’s not strictly true. Monday’s profits warning from the consumer goods group didn’t say that sales are set to have fallen in the third quarter, just that growth will [...]
London Report: FTSE kept flat by Unilever and gold price slide October 1, 2013 LONDON’S top share index closed flat yesterday, as weakness in the gold price and poor sales from Unilever hit miners and consumer staples. The FTSE 100 edged down 2.21 points at the close, flat in percentage terms, to 6,460.01, with mining and consumer staples wiping more than 26 points off the index. Fresnillo fell five [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 1 October 2013 September 30, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Weidmann in sovereign debt warning Jens Weidmann, president of the Bundesbank, has risked angering Europe’s crisis-hit governments by warning of the dangers posed by high levels of sovereign debt on banks’ balance sheets. He wrote: “The time is ripe to address the regulatory treatment of sovereign exposures.” US asset managers face extra scrutiny [...]
Western retail business looks to Russian capital for new markets September 3, 2013 EUROPEAN retailers are increasingly shifting their focus eastwards, as Moscow becomes a top destination for shoppers and consumer spending. Mark Faithfull, the editor of Retail Property Analyst, said: “Moscow is the obvious starting point for international retailers looking to expand”. He added that while luxury products were the first to find the market, familiar brands [...]
Ex-Diageo boss Walsh joins United Spirits August 19, 2013 FORMER Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh is joining the board of Indian drinks group United Spirits, six weeks after Diageo became a major shareholder in the firm. Walsh, who stepped down from the top job at London-listed Diageo in July after 13 years, was yesterday appointed to the board of United with immediate effect. Diageo [...]
The big brands changing hands August 12, 2013 A HOST of big name brands were caught up in a swirl of M&A activity yesterday as dealmakers shunned the traditionally quiet August period to push through a raft of deals. Soup maker Campbell Soups, Steinway Musical Instruments, tinned fruit producer Dole and packaging business Pinnacle all announced deals yesterday in one of the [...]
Unilever offloads salad dressing August 12, 2013 PINNACLE Foods, the US packaged food business behind brands such as Birds Eye and Hungry Man, said yesterday it has agreed to buy Unilever’s Wish-Bone salad dressings business for $580m (£374.7m). The deal is the latest sale of a well-known food brand by the FTSE 100 consumer group, after it sold its iconic peanut [...]