One shareholder won’t be happy January 27, 2011 STRANGE as it sounds, Rupert Murdoch will be disappointed by BSkyB’s first-half results, which knocked the socks off everyone else. The company is simply performing too well. Churn – the amount of customers that left during the period – has fallen to a decade low of 9.5 per cent while the company has beaten expectations on [...]
Misys’ investors redeem shares February 22, 2011 Software firm Misys said the majority of its shareholders had chosen to have their shares redeemed as part of a scheme to return to investors some of the proceeds from the sale of its stake in Allscripts-Misys. The company said 69.5 per cent of shareholders elected to have their “B” shares redeemed. Meanwhile, 23.3 per [...]
Advertisers slam Lords’ proposal February 17, 2011 UK advertisers and broadcasters including BSkyB, Discovery and MTV yesterday railed against proposals by a Lords committee to cut back on TV advertising, arguing that programme investment will come under threat as a result of a drop in ad revenue levels. The Lords communications committee also tabled a proposal yesterday that ITV should be freed [...]
Moody’s sees rising risk of Greek default March 7, 2011 MOODY’S delivered a jolt to Eurozone bond markets yesterday by downgrading Greece three notches to B1 – a lower rating than Egypt – and assigning the sovereign a “negative” outlook. The yield on Greece’s three-year debt reached highs not seen since the government had to be bailed out last May, spiking to 16.8 per cent, [...]
RETURN TO SENDER: ROYAL MAIL SPINNER POSTS P45 TO ITV’S PR May 25, 2011 ALL GOOD things come to an end, and so it is that ITV is parting company with Tulchan, its financial public relations adviser of four years, The Capitalist can reveal. The commercial broadcaster, whose new press chief is former Independent and Sunday Telegraph journalist Mary Fagan, has told Tulchan it wants a regime change among [...]
UBS CHIEF’S MOUNTAIN MISSION IMPOSSIBLE April 12, 2011 IT’S NOT every day The Capitalist finds herself talking to a senior banker as he shelters from the wind halfway up the world’s tallest mountain. But yesterday that was exactly the scenario for an interview with David Tait, managing director of macro directional trading at UBS Investment Bank, as he prepares to embark on his [...]
M&B to offload pubs for £373m August 20, 2010 Pubs and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has announced plans to sell 333 pubs as it concentrates on its premises offering food. The pubs are being sold to Stonegate Pub Company – which is controlled by TDR Capital – for £373m. Earlier this month, M&B announced the sale of its Hollywood Bowl 10-pin bowling [...]
Virgin looks to businesses for growth February 17, 2011 CABLE-to-entertainment group Virgin Media yesterday reported quarterly revenue figures of £1bn, up from £941.3m a year ago, predicting strong growth from its business services division in the year ahead. Virgin chief executive Neil Berkett said the order book for business data services was up 40 per cent from a year ago and he said that [...]
Virgin looks to businesses for growth February 17, 2011 CABLE-to-entertainment group Virgin Media yesterday reported quarterly revenue figures of £1bn, up from £941.3m a year ago, predicting strong growth from its business services division in the year ahead. Virgin chief executive Neil Berkett said the order book for business data services was up 40 per cent from a year ago and he said that [...]
Refresh, revive and get fit at a Swiss mountain retreat March 27, 2011 WHETHER it’s the ski season or the summer holidays, the Swiss Alps are crawling with tourists. If people aren’t whizzing down a snow-covered hillside in the winter, come summer they’re resolutely trudging up a well-marked, well-trodden path. But head to these same Alpine villages only a week or two out of season and you’ll have [...]