Amec is upbeat on future as customers spend more August 26, 2010 OIL services and engineering group Amec posted a 20 per cent rise in first-half profits yesterday and said it saw customer spending returning in most of its key markets. Amec’s first-half earnings before interest, tax and amortisation rose to £113.5m from £94.5m in the same period last year. Its order book grew eight per cent [...]
Savills cautious on 12 month outlook August 26, 2010 GLOBAL property adviser Savills maintained a cautious second-half outlook and raised the spectre of a flat performance in the first six months of 2011 after posting much-improved interim results yesterday. Savills booked group revenue of £304.4m for the first half, up 23 per cent from the same period a year ago. Group underlying profit advanced [...]
Segro posts a rise in its property value as it eyes future industrial development August 26, 2010 INDUSTRIAL landlord Segro posted a slight rise in the value of its properties yesterday and aims to restart new developments amid returning interest from potential tenants. Segro, which has about two-thirds of its properties in the UK and the rest across continental Europe, said its portfolio value grew 1.4 per cent in the first half, [...]
Deloitte upbeat despite lower partner profits August 25, 2010 DELOITTE, one of the Big Four accountancy firms, has seen UK revenues fall for the second year in a row in the face of challenging markets and a difficult economic environment. The global firm posted £1.95bn in UK revenue for the year ended 31 May, marking a £16m fall from last year. “Despite a second [...]
Derwent posts higher profit on bargain hunters August 25, 2010 OFFICE landlord Derwent London reported sustained growth in the value of its portfolio to £2.2bn yesterday, easing fears of a new real estate slump as Britain’s economic prospects wilt. Chief executive John Burns said Derwent’s signature strategy of providing affordable offices in the capital’s nascent business hubs would hold up as firms budgeted for slower [...]
The angry wannabe queen August 25, 2010 THE RED QUEEN BY PHILIPPA GREGORY Simon & Schuster, £18.99 MEGA-novelist and Tudor historian Gregory returns to her new series, The Cousins’ War, with an instantly, electrically gripping story about Margaret Beaufort. Who? Indeed. Beaufort, the grandmother of Henry VIII, was merely a shadowy character on the edge of The White Queen, Gregory’s previous book [...]
Petrofac gains from Middle Eastern work August 23, 2010 OIL services group Petrofac said it forecast a 20 per cent rise in pre-tax profit for 2010 yesterday, thanks to a strong backlog of work and new operations in the Middle East built up over the last half year. The FTSE 100-listed firm posted revenues of $2.13bn (£1.37bn) for the last six months, which is [...]
The car insurance boss who wants to motor into new foreign markets August 22, 2010 It is a case of ‘Recession? What recession?’ for motor insurance firm Admiral, which is in the middle of taking on 750 staff in the UK alone this year. And that means an awful lot of meetings for the Cardiff-based firm’s 53-year-old chief executive Henry Engelhardt. The Chicago-born boss meets every one of his new [...]
NatWest 3 put the spotlight on extradition August 16, 2010 LAWYERS have warned that the spirited defence mounted by two of the “NatWest Three” against their prosecution in the US should act as an eye-opener for the government ahead of a planned review of extradition policy. David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew, two of the former NatWest bankers convicted two years ago of cooking up an [...]
Britain should support banks, not vilify them August 15, 2010 AS fears over a double-dip recession have intensified in the past week, with economic data in the UK, US and elsewhere suggesting the global recovery is slowing, many commentators have again turned their attention to the banks. Even as the banks return to profit, the argument goes, they are constraining growth by reducing lending to [...]