BG Group profit hit by North Sea tax May 10, 2011 Civil unrest in North Africa and floods in Australia conspired to hit British gas and oil producer BG Group’s profit in the first quarter and forced it to cut its output growth forecast for this year. Underlying pre-tax profit fell eight per cent, the company said in an update that missed forecasts and knocked 3.4 [...]
Ronson in petrol station bid April 3, 2011 Veteran property developer Gerald Ronson is one of a consortium of investors in exclusive talks to buy around 800 UK petrol stations from Total. The consortium includes Snax 24, the retail chain founded by Ronson, Investec and investment group Grovepoint Capital. The petrol stations comprise about 10 per cent of the market. The deal comes [...]
Why Greece is the new Lehman Bros June 16, 2011 IT is a tale of two economies and two very different responses to catastrophe. Last week, the Icelandic government borrowed $1bn on the bond markets, paying only just over 3 per cent interest. It is an astonishing recovery for a country that just two years ago was written off as a bankrupt, discredited pariah, its [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: IS THERE LIFE AFTER BART BECHT? April 20, 2011 ANDREW WOOD | BERNSTEIN Fears by some investors that the departure of Bart Becht heralded a disappointing quarter are unfounded. Growth was led by continued strong growth in the developing markets …with flat growth in Europe not being the disaster that some had feared. We are not surprised to see the stock react positively MARTIN [...]
Banks and commodities fall as Greek debt crisis lingers June 20, 2011 BANKS and commodity stocksdragged Britain’s top index lower yesterday, as Greece’s lingering debt crisis looks likely to stall the FTSE’s progress near-term, analysts said. Investors reacted negatively after European finance ministers postponed a final decision on extending a further €12bn in emergency loans to Greece. The International Monetary Fund weighed in, saying it needed to [...]
FESTIVALS KING TO FLOAT FIRM ON AIM June 8, 2011 RELIEF at Music Festivals, the new live music venture from Mean Fiddler founder Vince Power, which will this morning announce its intention to achieve a £10m valuation by floating on the alternative investment market (AIM). So no more sleepless nights at Merchant Securities, the adviser on the deal, after Power managed to raise the £6.5m [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DOES THIS PROFIT WARNING MEAN FOR ALTERIAN? April 13, 2011 ALEX JARVIS | PEEL HUNT We have made provisional revisions to the current year and substantially reduced full-year 2012 and 2013 forecasts as evidently it will need to be rebased. We provisionally value the company on two times full-year 2011 revised sales, implying a 135p target price, assuming £8m net cash. GEORGE O’CONNOR | PANMURE [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DOES THIS PROFIT WARNING MEAN FOR ALTERIAN? April 13, 2011 ALEX JARVIS | PEEL HUNT We have made provisional revisions to the current year and substantially reduced full-year 2012 and 2013 forecasts as evidently it will need to be rebased. We provisionally value the company on two times full-year 2011 revised sales, implying a 135p target price, assuming £8m net cash. GEORGE O’CONNOR | PANMURE [...]
ECONOMISTS’ VIEWS: IS THE UK ON COURSE TO BOUNCE BACK IN QUARTER ONE? April 3, 2011 SIMON WARD | HENDERSON I am encouraged by the strength of employment expectations in EU surveys for March, suggesting that firms have weathered recent events with their optimism intact. PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC We expect to see GDP rebounding by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year. That would reflect around 0.5 [...]
Parisian Pyramid set to strike for red hot Ryan June 3, 2011 THE finale to this year’s Derby Festival is the Investec Specialist Bank Handicap and it’s another complicated puzzle to unravel. Last year the old boy Flipando came with a rattle under Philip Makin to lead near the finish and Graham Gibbons will be trying to repeat the trick on the evergreen 10-year-old. Horses tend to [...]