Everton and Manchester City matches fall victim to storms February 12, 2014 STORMS sweeping through Britain last night caused the postponement of Premier League matches at Manchester City and Everton. Title-chasing City were due to host struggling Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium, but the fixture was called off shortly before 7pm following advice from Great Manchester Police and the club’s own safety officer due to “exceptional and [...]
Failed credit union savers rescued February 11, 2014 The 400 savers who put cash in the Wantsum Credit Union are being rescued by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The members of the union, which is based in Kent, had a total of around £100,000 saved. The union was declared in default yesterday, and the FSCS said the majority of savers should have their money back [...]
Bottom Line: Clouds of uncertainty remain over shares February 9, 2014 Modern tech firms often have opaque business models that lead to headscratching – just look at the multi-billion dollar buyout offers from Facebook and Google for Snapchat, a firm with no revenue, let alone profit. But just because a business model isn’t blindingly obvious, it doesn’t mean it’s without merit. Enter Blinkx, the “internet media [...]
Eurozone on track for 2014 recovery despite retail hit February 5, 2014 THE EUROZONE’S economy has enjoyed a strong start to the year, business surveys revealed yesterday, despite separate figures pointing to a disastrous December period for the currency bloc’s retailers. Output in the euro area economy grew at its fastest rate since June 2011 last month, according to Markit’s widely-regarded purchasing managers’ index (PMI). However, Brussels [...]
No end for PPI claims as cutoff date is ruled out February 4, 2014 CUTTING short the PPI scandal by imposing a deadline on compensation claims would hurt victims of the crisis, Martin Wheatley said yesterday. Banks are still unveiling higher and higher estimates of the final cost of the redress payments as the flow of claims from customers shows no sign of ending. But the chief of the [...]
Real Good Food Company struck by slump in sugar prices in EU February 4, 2014 INGREDIENTS supplier The Real Good Food Company said trading had been mixed in the third quarter of the year as strong earnings across three of its businesses was offset by a “dramatic” fall in sugar prices in the European Union. Executive chairman Pieter Totte said market conditions had been challenging and that its specialist sugar [...]
Profits slide at recruiter SThree but firm hires more sales staff February 3, 2014 SHARES in recruitment firm SThree sank 5.08 per cent yesterday after the white-collar specialist posted a 17 per cent slide in annual profits to £21m. The company said a tough jobs market in its core IT and finance businesses weighed on its results, though this was offset by growth in new offices overseas. Earnings in [...]
We mustn’t delude ourselves about the scale of the crisis Britain went through February 3, 2014 OVER the past three years, the debate over the coalition’s deficit reduction plan and the sluggishness of the subsequent recovery has dominated the agenda. On almost all sides, this debate has been framed in a way that implies that, had we adopted marginally different policies, the fallout from the crash need not have been anywhere [...]
Slashing prices hit Ryanair hard February 3, 2014 Europe's largest budget airline Ryanair has suffered a worse than expected loss for the third quarter to 31 December. The low-cost airline has posted a loss of €35m (£28.7m), against analysts estimates of €32m. The results are a far cry from the €18.1m of profit seen a year earlier. But beyond the headline figure there [...]
Blackstone rips past estimates as floats deliver January 30, 2014 WALL Street titan Blackstone shot the lights out with its quarterly results yesterday, shattering analysts’ profit expectations after prospering from a bout of multi-billion deals including the UK float of Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments. The group, which offers an array of private equity and real estate funds for the world’s biggest investors, said pre-tax profits [...]