Wolseley in grim outlook as profit falls November 18, 2009 SHARES in Wolseley took a hammering yesterday after the world’s biggest builders’ merchant and plumbing supplier said it saw no sign of recovery in its key construction and industrial markets. Group profit plunged 41 per cent in the three months to the end of October to £104m as revenues fell 13 per cent to £13.4bn. [...]
Think inside the Square: why the City is a top spot to buy a home November 26, 2009 IF YOU’RE looking for the ultimate Tube-busting pied a terre, the Square Mile can’t be bettered for history, beauty and – of course – convenience. Other financial centres are not exactly places you’d want to live: tightly packed with skyscrapers and fumes, they have a sterile, uninhabitable feel (just think of mid-town New York or [...]
A helping hand to lift you on to the property ladder October 22, 2009 GETTING on the property ladder is notoriously difficult in London. But if you’re one of the thousands of young professionals earning a decent salary – but still not able to fork out the post-credit crunch minimum deposit of 20 per cent in order to attain a mortgage- then you may have more options than you [...]
Axa looks to offload its stake in Chinese Taikang Life arm October 22, 2009 FRENCH insurer AXA has started the ball rolling on a Chinese asset sale that could raise as much as $1bn (£604m). Axa will sell the 15.6 per cent Taikang Life Insurance Company stake it took on when it bought Swiss group Winterthur in 2006. The group has enlisted US investment bank Morgan Stanley to advise [...]
Bellway looks on bright side as profits fall October 13, 2009 HOUSEBUILDER Bellway has said it is well positioned for the future, despite the fact it saw an 82 per cent fall in full-year profits last year. The group said its pre-tax profits in the year to end-July were £29.8m, compared to £165.7m in the previous year, but this was slightly ahead of market expectations. Including [...]
Bellway looks on bright side as profits fall October 13, 2009 HOUSEBUILDER Bellway has said it is well positioned for the future, despite the fact it saw an 82 per cent fall in full-year profits last year. The group said its pre-tax profits in the year to end-July were £29.8m, compared to £165.7m in the previous year, but this was slightly ahead of market expectations. Including [...]
Forget Dubai’s woes: Iran is the real risk November 29, 2009 BANKS have written down $3 trillion or so over the past couple of years. We should therefore keep the crisis that is engulfing Dubai in some sort of perspective. The total debts of the Dubai government are around $80bn and nobody is suggesting that more than a small proportion will need to be written off. [...]
Finsbury spins another healthy profits increase October 6, 2009 CADBURY’S financial public relations adviser Finsbury has increased profits despite the downturn in the economy, according to documents filed at Companies House. Profits have reached £8.8m against £8.75m last year and founder Roland Rudd has seen his pay package reach £2.9m against £2.25m the year before. Rudd, a former financial journalist with the Financial Times, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 6, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphBRITISH GAS AIMS TO BECOME TOP INSURANCE PROVIDERBritish Gas is gearing up to become one of the UK’s top 10 insurance companies and the provider of choice to its 4.5m customers. The Centrica-owned utility has been granted approval by the FSA to underwrite its own household and warranty products and is in [...]
Profits hit at Grainger but sales improve October 6, 2009 PROPERTY company Grainger said yesterday sales in the year to end-September had risen by 21.6 per cent, but trading profit would be hit by lower house prices and more sales to investors. The group, which is Britain’s largest quoted residential landlord, sold about £220m of property in the 12 months, with sales from its core [...]