Pearson warns of falling earnings in 2014 after US education slowdown February 28, 2014 Publishing company Pearson has reported a fall in profit before tax of two per cent to £382m in its preliminary results for 2013. Adjusted earnings per share also fell by 15 per cent from 82.6p to 70.1p. However, sales at CER climbed two per cent to £5.2bn, while the company experienced growth in emerging markets. [...]
Rise in online gaming fails to stem William Hill profit loss February 28, 2014 Shares in FTSE 100 company William Hill are up a healthy 2.6 per cent following final results for 2013 showing a rise in online net revenue of 10 per cent and an explosion in mobile gaming net revenue of 166 per cent. However, the bookmaker suffered a seven per cent fall in profit before tax [...]
Rightmove traffic booms in wake of rising house prices February 28, 2014 Property website Rightmove has reported a rise in profit before tax of £14m to £97m for the year ended 31 December 2013. Revenue jumped by 17 per cent to £140m while the website's traffic rocketed 27 per cent to 14bn page impressions. Chief executive officer of Rightmove Nick McKittrick, commented: I'm delighted that Rightmove's popularity [...]
£3bn wiped off RBS as it reveals turnaround plans February 27, 2014 RBS SHARES dived as the bank yesterday revealed an £8.2bn loss for 2013, and warned it will be years before there is even a chance of turning a profit on the taxpayer’s stake. The latest losses mean the bank has now lost £45bn in the six years since the financial crisis struck, amounting almost exactly to [...]
WPP falls short on margins but wins big clients February 27, 2014 NEW ADVERTISING clients have helped WPP deliver an industry-beating 18.7 per cent rise in profits for last year, though investors were disappointed yesterday by the FTSE 100 firm’s margin forecast. Sir Martin Sorrell’s media outfit said it expects margins to increase 0.3 percentage points this year, trimmed from an earlier prediction of 0.5 points. Operating [...]
Merlin conjures up more visitors after UK listing February 27, 2014 NEARLY 60m people visited attractions operated by Alton Towers owner Merlin Entertainments last year, boosting revenues by almost 11 per cent. The visitor numbers, equivalent to the entire population of the UK, was up 10.7 per cent on 2012, with increasing numbers visiting Merlin attractions like Madame Tussauds, the Sea Life centre, Warwick Castle, Thorpe [...]
Spotted: Weather mocks RBS’s results February 27, 2014 EVEN inanimate objects are hell bent on reiterating RBS’s poor results. The temperature outside the RBS building in Spitalfields yesterday morning exactly matched its £8.2bn losses. (Spotted by Chris Stevenson of Emanate London)
Capita rockets on swathe of new contracts February 27, 2014 OUTSOURCING firm Capita yesterday pleased the market with a 14 per cent rise in full-year profit, boosted by a £5.5bn bid pipeline. The FTSE 100-quoted company posted a 15 per cent rise in underlying revenue to £3.85bn and pre-tax profits of £475m in 2013. Shares rose over four per cent in the morning, before closing [...]
London Report: RBS weighs on FTSE but Yellen drives stocks up February 27, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index edged up yesterday, lifted by positive US data and assurances from Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, despite a sharp sell-off in Royal Bank of Scotland and increasing tension over Ukraine. RBS skidded 7.7 per cent as its new chief exec outlined plans for a large-scale overhaul after the mostly state-owned lender [...]
RBS restructuring execs to have bonuses suspended February 27, 2014 Following some worringly poor results this morning, and raised eyebrows, given the bonuses still being doled out to staff, there's news this afternoon that RBS has suspended the payment of bonuses to executives of its Global Restructuring Group (GRG), reports from the FT. That's the unit alleged to have deliberately put small and medium-sized (SME) [...]