Best of the brokers December 5, 2012 WILLIAM HILL Nomura rates the bookie “reduce” with a target price of 260p. The broker thinks the firm’s exit from Greece will cost one per cent of 2013 earnings, and believes a deal to buy Sportingbet would be “excellent”. HOME RETAIL Morgan Stanley has an “overweight” rating on the Argos owner and a price target [...]
Online retailers prepare for busiest day ever December 2, 2012 HIGH street shops and online retailers will face one of their fiercest battles yet for customers this Christmas, with today set to mark the busiest internet shopping day of the year. UK online sales will peak today – dubbed Mega Monday by City analysts – with Visa Europe expecting 6.8m transactions worth £320m to be [...]
Hobbs gets the ladies on board without quotas December 2, 2012 NICKY Dulieu, the boss of fashion retailer Hobbs, has managed to recruit a nearly all-female board since taking up the helm in 2008 but insists that imposing quotas is not the way to increase the number of women in the boardroom. Asked whether she was in favour of quotas, Dulieu told City A.M: “I genuinely [...]
Ladies who power lunch are celebrated at One Marylebone November 29, 2012 SOME of the City’s best-respected women flocked to One Marylebone on Wednesday, to enjoy a slap-up lunch and give themselves a well deserved pat on the back. The excuse for such a decadent afternoon was Red’s fourth annual Women of the Year awards. Representing the business ladies at the ceremony were shortlisters Lynn Rattigan, deputy [...]
Ocado investors prop up £36m capital raising November 19, 2012 OCADO’S shareholders ploughed more money into the online grocery chain yesterday to support a £36m placing that will keep the firm financially stable for at least 18 months. Existing shareholders including Jorn Rausing of the Tetra Pak dynasty and Ocado’s management team took up around 19 per cent of the shares placed, in line with [...]
Royal Mail deliver the goods with profit leap November 13, 2012 ROYAL Mail yesterday fuelled government hopes of delivering the firm into private sector hands next year after posting a jump in profits on the back of the boom in online shopping. The group, which is 100 per cent owned by the taxpayer, posted operating profits of £144m for the six months ending 23 September this [...]
Profit hopes at Royal Mail pave way for float November 11, 2012 ROYAL Mail Group is expected to post a bumper set of profits tomorrow led by strong growth in its parcel delivery business – opening the door for a possible float of the state-owned business by government next year. The postal group, which increased operating profit after costs to £211m last year from £39m the year [...]
Asos boss denies bid talks as the retailer posts soaring profit October 25, 2012 ASOS boss Nick Robertson yesterday dismissed talks of a bid by Amazon after the online fashion firm posted soaring sales abroad. He poured cold water on speculation that he had met with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos saying “I have not spoken to Amazon in three years.” The retailer, which has changed its year-end from March [...]
Asos posts soaring profits October 25, 2012 Fashion retailer Asos this morning posted pre-tax profits of £44.5m in the year to August, up from £31.7m the year previously. Retail sales at the AIM-listed retailer rose to £538m over the year, with UK sales edging up to £205m. It posted a strong performance in overseas markets, and international sales were up 64 per [...]
Why investors should take a stake in high-growth UK tech companies October 22, 2012 THE campaign to reawaken the London tech initial public offering (IPO) market has kicked off. Recent announcements from Downing Street and the London Stock Exchange should result in some small but important regulatory changes. They are important steps towards making London a major hub for tech IPOs. But regulation is not the only barrier to [...]