Travis Perkins buys out Toolstation from founder January 3, 2012 THE FOUNDER of Somerset-based hardware store Toolstation netted a £24m windfall yesterday after Travis Perkins – owner of DIY chain Wickes – bought the company. Mark Goddard-Watts set up the business in 2003 after leaving rival Screwfix, which he also founded, following its takeover by B&Q owner Kingfisher. Yesterday he sold the remaining 70 per [...]
RBS chief waives £1m bonus payout January 29, 2012 ROYAL Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has bowed to growing political pressure and agreed to waive his bonus. Hester decided to forego the award of 3.6m shares, worth around £960,000, after the Labour party said it would force a House of Commons vote on the issue in a bid to make the government [...]
Murdoch set to survive at Sky says Odey November 27, 2011 JAMES Murdoch will be comfortably re-elected as a director of BSkyB at tomorrow’s annual general meeting, says one of the broadcaster’s biggest investors, despite shareholder calls for him to resign in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. Hedge fund boss Crispin Odey, who holds a 2.7 per cent stake in the satellite business, says [...]
Mild autumn boosts profit at Kingfisher December 1, 2011 KINGFISHER posted better-than-expected third quarter profits yesterday, after the unseasonally mild autumn weather helped boost sales at the retailer’s stores in the UK and France. Europe’s biggest DIY company, which runs over 800 stores across the continent, posted a 13.9 per cent rise in operating profit to £273m in the the 13 weeks to 29 [...]
Mild autumn boosts profit at Kingfisher December 1, 2011 KINGFISHER posted better-than-expected third quarter profits yesterday, after the unseasonally mild autumn weather helped boost sales at the retailer’s stores in the UK and France. Europe’s biggest DIY company, which runs over 800 stores across the continent, posted a 13.9 per cent rise in operating profit to £273m in the the 13 weeks to 29 [...]
Daily Mail owner warns on UK news market November 23, 2011 DMGT, the media group behind the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers, has posted a 14 per cent fall in pre-tax profit for the year to 2 October, but said its underlying performance showed a three per cent improvement. The FTSE 250-listed company said its statutory pre-tax profit was £125m but the underlying value was £237m [...]
Wimbledon champ Kvitova serves up awards challenge January 30, 2012 IN LESS than a week, Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will find out if she can add the prestigious Laureus Statuette to the historic silver salver she won on Centre Court last July, after beating Maria Sharapova in the ladies’ final. The Czech Republic’s Kvitova is one of the favourites to win the 2012 Laureus World [...]
LLOYD’S WEIGHS RISK OF OFFSHORE GAMBLE February 9, 2012 LLOYD’S of London is moving offshore, as The Capitalist hears the insurance group has entered a team in one of the world’s most competitive yacht races – a two-day zigzag around 11 Caribbean islands that is a magnet for seafaring captains of industry. First to arrive in the Caribbean was Marshall Bailey, the COO of [...]
Entrepreneurs’ wish list for Wednesday’s Budget March 18, 2012 TAX MADSEN PIRIE CURBING public spending keeps down borrowing rates, but we need a growth agenda, too, and specifically we need encouragement for the entrepreneurs who will create the new wealth and the new jobs of Britain’s future. We don’t need a few more token sums available to approved borrowers; we need instead a shift [...]
Newspapers prove drag on DMGT profits November 23, 2011 DMGT, the owner of the Daily Mail, posted a drop in full year profits yesterday, after a strong performance from its events arm failed to offset falling revenues and higher costs in its newspaper divisions. Revenues at Associated Newspapers, the division which publishes the Daily Mail and the Metro, were flat on an underlying basis [...]