London office market recovery lifts Morgan Sindall’s order book August 4, 2014 Construction group Morgan Sindall said yesterday a pick-up in the London office market has helped to boost the value of its order book, despite reported a decline in first-half profits. The company, which builds houses, refurbishes offices and carries out redevelopment projects, said its forward order book rose by 14 per cent to £2.7bn in [...]
Best of the Brokers for 16 July 2014 July 16, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com HUNTING Goldman Sachs has downgraded to “neutral” from “buy”, reducing the target price to 900p from 965p. The broker thinks that Hunting is well positioned to benefit from strong activity in US onshore, but said the appreciation of sterling against the dollar could [...]
Chestertons up for sale in hope of pocketing more than £50m July 2, 2014 LONDON estate agent Chestertons is considering putting the business on the block, as sales volumes of properties in the capital struggle to recover in line with prices. Cavendish Corporate Finance is understood to have been hired a couple of weeks ago to manage the sale process, which is now underway and is expected to fetch [...]
Sotheby’s announces EBay deal: Partnership brings auction houses together July 14, 2014 Auction houses, old and new, are being brought together. Sotheby's has today announced that it will be partnering with EBay to sell the art and collectibles for which it is famous. EBay's platform currently boasts 145m active buyers in 190 countries, and collectibles accounted for $8bn of the site's gross merchandise volume in 2013. While [...]
Housebuilder Galliford Try reports record group profit July 9, 2014 Housebuilding and construction group Galliford Try is expecting to report group profits for the financial year, according to its latest trading statement. Profit before tax is expected to be at the upper end of the analysts' current range of £92.8m – £95.2m, and in excess of pre 2008 figures. Following average sales price-increases for both [...]
London Report: Retailer data to reveal strength of UK recovery September 7, 2014 THE NEWLY-MERGED Dixons Carphone will report its maiden quarterly results tomorrow in a week containing a flurry of updates for retailers. Figures for the company, whose merger only completed a month ago, will be keenly watched by investors, who will be hoping the firm’s planned synergies are starting to take effect. Other retailers due to [...]
Taylor Wimpey hikes average selling price to £224,000 July 7, 2014 Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey says it has performed strongly in the first half of 2014, with sales rates and pricing at the upper end of the company's expectations. The average selling price of completions rose to £206,000 from £188,000 in the first half of 2013, while the average selling price on private completions jumped by nine [...]
Reds roll the dice in £16m Balotelli bid August 21, 2014 LIVERPOOL could hand Mario Balotelli a debut in Monday’s top-of-the-table Premier League clash against former club Manchester City after closing in on a £16m deal for the controversial AC Milan star yesterday. Balotelli is expected to sign a contract worth around £90,000 per week at Anfield, where it is hoped the Italy striker will ease [...]
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct swoops on MySale stock June 18, 2014 Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct yesterday snapped up a 4.8 per cent stake in online fashion site MySale just a day after a pricing error caused shares to tank on its stock market debut. MySale plunged 27 per cent on Tuesday after the share price was listed as 2.26p instead of 226p, leading trading programmes to [...]
Barratt Developments expects to build strong profit growth July 10, 2014 Housebuilder Barratt Developments has continued the trend of construction companies predicting increases in pre-tax profits, completions and average sales price. Like Bovis Homes, Taylor Wimpey and Galliford Try before it, Barratt announced a sizeable increase in the average cost of one of its houses; up 13 per cent to £220,000 in the financial year. Completions were [...]