Sports Direct sales jump as board squares up to shareholders April 23, 2014 Sports Direct has reported a jump in sales of 10.3 per cent to £360m for the nine weeks ended 30 March. The sports retailer saw gross profit rise 11.5 per cent £147m. The company enjoyed strong increases from the brands division and sports retail sales. Premium Lifestyle sales also rose by 0.7 per cent to [...]
GlaxoSmithKline trades assets with rival Novartis April 22, 2014 FTSE 100 drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) yesterday unveiled a complex string of asset deals with Swiss rival Novartis in a move set to deliver a £4bn windfall for shareholders. GSK closed up 5.2 per cent in trading yesterday after investors cheered the three-part transaction, which will see the business sell its cancer drugs offering to [...]
RBS to trim £65m from its cost base by cutting contractor pay April 22, 2014 RBS is reducing contractors’ pay by 10 per cent from the end of this month as its cost-cutting programme gets underway, City A.M. has learned. The bank wants to make savings of £1bn by the end of the year, and this move should contribute up to £65m towards that goal. All of the roughly 11,000 [...]
Gosden can land third Investec Derby Trial in eight years with Marzocco April 22, 2014 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE ACTION ON INVESTEC DERBY TRIAL DAY AT EPSOM THE INVESTEC Epsom Derby dates back to 1780 and is the most prestigious race for three-year-old colts in the world. It’s also the richest race in the British calendar with a prize fund of £1.325m and the showpiece on Saturday 7 June is [...]
Pets at Home hit by lower target price from bank April 22, 2014 GOLDMAN Sachs, one of the banks that advised on the recent £1.23bn flotation of Pets at Home, initiated research on the company yesterday with a target price for the stock of 242p – or 3p below the 245p flotation price. The research note from Goldman will inevitably anger some of the original investors in the [...]
Colt slumps as it exits mobile call contracts April 22, 2014 TELECOMS group Colt will withdraw around 85 per cent of its voice contracts – or calls from mobile operators that it carries on its network – over the next few months as part of a review of the business. Colt’s shares crashed 10.1 per cent on the announcement yesterday to close at 130p. On the [...]
Polymetal commits to London listing as gold production rises April 22, 2014 RUSSIAN precious metals miner Polymetal said yesterday that it has no plans to move its listing from London to Moscow, as it unveiled a 34 per cent surge in gold output in the first quarter. The FTSE 250 company, which fell out of the top 100 index last year, shrugged off recent proposals from Russian [...]
Qinetiq mulls new markets as it sells US unit April 22, 2014 THE CHIEF executive of Qinetiq yesterday said he would consider “strategic acquisitions” both in the UK and overseas, as the British defence technology firm announced the long-awaited sale of its struggling US services division. FTSE 250-listed Qinetiq has agreed to sell the unit, which offers cyber security services, for $165m (£98.1m) to US-based company The [...]
London Report: Glaxo pharma deal puts FTSE market on high April 22, 2014 CORPORATE activity in the pharmaceutical sector yesterday pushed Britain’s benchmark stock index to a two-week high and to within sight of a peak for the year so far. Drugmaker AstraZeneca rose 4.7 per cent, with trading volumes in the stock more than three times its 90-day average, after the Sunday Times reported a £60bn approach [...]
What does GSK’s “transformational deal” mean for the rest of the sector? April 22, 2014 It looks like pharma M&A frenzy may have returned, with the slew of activity over the Easter weekend buoying European markets as big players see substantial gains. A $16bn (£9.5bn) three-part tie-up between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis will see the former buy the latter’s oncology unit, along with the setting up of a global consumer [...]