CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 21, 2011 Linklaters The law firm has appointed Michael Cutting as global head of competition and Sir Christopher Bellamy (pictured) as chairman of the practice, both effective from 1 July. Cutting, who has been a partner at the firm since 2005, specialises in banking, energy and utilities competition law, and takes over from Gerwin Van Gerven, who [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 28, 2011 DOMINO’S PIZZA Numis rates the pizza maker a “buy” with a 600p target price as it says the market expects the firm to report negative like-for-like sales for the second quarter after hot weather in April and May. The broker instead believes new product launches and growing lunch and late night sales should fuel 12 [...]
BETFAIR’S IRON LADY IS ON HER LAST LEG July 31, 2011 FOUR down and one to go. No, not the number of top-level scalps claimed by the News Corp scandal, but the feats of endurance completed by Betfair’s Susannah Gill, the Iron Lady of the City, as part of her five-part “ultimate challenge” between April and September. Gill, who is making the original iron woman Margaret [...]
Domino’s buys franchisee stake April 27, 2011 Domino’s Pizza has bought 75 per cent of the main franchisee for the pizza delivery group in Germany, Intergrowth Enterprises. The other 25 per cent will be retained by Briskas, part of the German hotel operator Grand City Hotels Group. “While the total market size is yet to be determined, the company aims to open [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 4, 2011 WHITBREAD Credit Suisse rates the retail group “outperform” and has cut its target price to £19.92. The broker has cut its earnings per share forecasts for the next two years following cautious outlook comments from the firm, but adds that Whitbread shares have underperformed the UK sector by six per cent since early January and [...]
Leading the way to a digital Holy Grail June 12, 2011 WE USED to work in media buying so we know what makes media owners tick,” Henry Rowe tells me. He and his business partner Dominic Finney got the idea for their business, FaR Partners, when they realised that they had the killer combo of media buying know-how and tech savvy. It has been a roaring [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 5, 2011 RESOLUTION Citigroup rates the insurance group “buy” with an increased target price of 367p. The broker believes that M&A and mission creep fears have been over-discounted in the market, with the risks instead lying with changing regulation and agency costs. Citi likes Resolution’s low relative leverage and excess capital, and hangs its investment case around [...]
M&S to add to retail gloom April 3, 2011 MARKS and Spencer, the retail bellwether, is likely to add to the sense of impending doom on the High Street when it reports a sharp drop in sales later this week. Analysts expect like-for-like sales of general merchandise – which exclude food – to have fallen by a “grisly” six per cent in the fourth [...]
FTSE rally continues despite earnings woes for retailers March 30, 2011 THE FTSE 100 closed higher for a sixth consecutive session yesterday, its best run since August 2010, as investors ditched retailers over earnings worries in favour of growth sectors such as industrials and mining. Dixons issued a profit warning and gloomy outlook as a survey from the CBI showed the underlying trend for retail sales [...]
FTSE rally continues despite earnings woes for retailers March 30, 2011 THE FTSE 100 closed higher for a sixth consecutive session yesterday, its best run since August 2010, as investors ditched retailers over earnings worries in favour of growth sectors such as industrials and mining. Dixons issued a profit warning and gloomy outlook as a survey from the CBI showed the underlying trend for retail sales [...]