Alliance Boots sees profit climb May 16, 2011 Healthcare group Alliance Boots bucked the gloom around retailers, posting a 14.2 per cent rise in year profit, and cutting its debt. The group, taken private in 2007 in what at the time was Europe’s biggest leveraged buyout, said on Monday it made a trading profit of £1.05bn in the year to 31 March. Revenue [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW SERIOUS IS CARPETRIGHT’S FALL? October 27, 2010 KEITH BOWMAN | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN Despite clear exposure to an eventual recovery, fears for a ‘double dip’ in the housing market continue to dominate, with the current market consensus opinion denoting an out and out ‘sell’. MATTHEW MCEACHRAN | SINGER CAPITAL MARKETS Typically October is a key month for the group as consumers look to [...]
Let’s all go out shopping: US retailers are back in vogue November 15, 2010 WE USED to build civilisations. Now we build shopping malls”. So said Bill Bryson about his native land. For the last two years, however, America has not been building shopping malls. American retailers have been at the bottom of a deep pit and struggling to get out. They may well have just found a ladder, [...]
Britain needs its own Ronald Reagan July 5, 2011 HERO-WORSHIP is always a mistake. No statesman is perfect: all make mistakes. But Ronald Reagan – of whom a statue was unveiled in Grosvenor Square yesterday – was one of the few major figures of the 20th century to leave their country in a hugely better state than they inherited it. He helped America regain [...]
Britain needs its own Ronald Reagan July 4, 2011 HERO-WORSHIP is always a mistake. No statesman is perfect: all make mistakes. But Ronald Reagan – of whom a statue was unveiled in Grosvenor Square yesterday – was one of the few major figures of the 20th century to leave their country in a hugely better state than they inherited it. He helped America regain [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 13, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES PARCOM CAPITAL TO SELL SEE TICKETS FOR £120M See Tickets, one of the largest ticketing companies in Europe, is in the advanced stages of being sold by Dutch investment firm Parcom Capital for between £100m and £120m. The sale, which has reached second round bidding, has attracted interest from a handful of private [...]
Families cut back spending October 24, 2010 THE health of household finances and consumer confidence are in sharp decline, according to a survey released by research firm Markit today. The index measuring expectations for future household finances dropped from 40.7 to 37.7, with 50 being the break-even point that indicates no change in sentiment. The sharpest drop was among those working in [...]
CITY A.M. | SHADOW MPC STICKS AT 6-3 AGAINST RAISING RATES May 4, 2011 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “Quarter-point rise. Consumer price inflation is still expected to touch five per cent in the coming months, while the UK has recovered reasonably from the winter freeze. A gradual normalisation is required.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Half-point rise. February’s inflation report signalled that rate hikes would be necessary to return [...]
AN ODD MIX OF SIGNALS, SO BUY GOLD December 6, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT THE LAST few weeks have seen an overall improvement in reported economic data, especially in the US. We have seen a pick-up in a number of influential reports, including the Richmond Fed manufacturing survey, the Chicago Fed National Activity index, Chicago PMI and consumer confidence. This led to a feeling that [...]
Rose: Shoppers can cope October 25, 2010 Stuart Rose, chairman of bellwether British retailer Marks & Spencer, said consumers can cope with government spending cuts and retail sales will grow next year, even though trading will be tough. “I believe that consumers want clarity and what the chancellor did last week was give consumers absolute clarity about what to expect,” Rose said [...]