Aegon plans €1bn rights issue and US insurance sale to repay Dutch state aid February 24, 2011 DUTCH life insurer Aegon is to raise about €1bn (£850m) from a share issue to help repay €2.25bn of state aid by the middle of the year. The repayment would free Aegon from EC restrictions imposed on companies that received government cash during the credit crisis. “After repayment the limitations that were imposed on us [...]
A string of strong earnings reports sends FTSE jumping April 20, 2011 COMMODITY stocks helped power the FTSE 100 index sharply higher yesterday, while earnings from Reckitt Benckiser and Home Retail, following US tech bellwether Intel, boosted risk appetite. The FTSE 100 closed up 125.39 points, or 2.1 per cent, at 6,022.26 following a 0.5 per cent gain on Tuesday. This wiped out Monday’s 2.1 per cent [...]
Serco profit rises but warns over UK headwinds March 2, 2011 British outsourcing group Serco posted a 21 per cent rise in full-year profit, helped by strong revenue growth in the Americas, while it admitted government cuts were hitting the UK market. Serco, which runs London’s cycle-hire scheme, several prisons in Britain and Dubai’s metro, said pre-tax profit rose to £214m. Shares in the FTSE 100 [...]
Manufacturing PMI holds record high in February March 1, 2011 Manufacturing growth held at a record level in February and factory costs stayed near January’s survey high, suggesting price pressures are continuing to build, a survey showed. The Markit/CIPS headline manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 61.5 in February, unchanged from a downwardly revised 61.5 in January. That was the highest since the survey [...]
Goldman Sachs rues decision on the ISS IPO March 21, 2011 THERE was massive disappointment at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs last Thursday over the sudden and unexpected decision to pull the £1.6bn flotation of Danish outsourcing group ISS. While both banks had reason to rue the chain of events which led to the issue being dropped, Goldman Sachs could be forgiven for thinking it lost [...]
John Lewis sales stall again February 18, 2011 John Lewis JLP.UL posted a fourth consecutive week of lacklustre sales, adding to evidence consumers are cutting back on spending in the face of macro economic headwinds. The employee-owned group, which has been outperforming the broader retail sector for over a year, said on Friday sales at its department stores increased 1.4 per cent to [...]
Traditional two-storeys boost developer February 7, 2011 DURING the debt-fuelled property boom, developers built endless blocks of flats. Many of these were located in so-called “regeneration” areas, downtrodden urban wastelands on the edge of Britain’s former industrial cities like Manchester and Sheffield; many now stand empty, a testament to the industry’s collective stupidity. Part of the problem was central government-imposed housing density [...]
Traditional two-storeys boost developer February 7, 2011 DURING the debt-fuelled property boom, developers built endless blocks of flats. Many of these were located in so-called “regeneration” areas, downtrodden urban wastelands on the edge of Britain’s former industrial cities like Manchester and Sheffield; many now stand empty, a testament to the industry’s collective stupidity. Part of the problem was central government-imposed housing density [...]
ABB promises $1bn cost cuts February 17, 2011 SWISS engineering company ABB has unveiled a further $1bn (£610m) of cost savings as it continues to cope with price pressures from increasingly competitive emerging market players and falling Asian orders. ABB’s new planned savings of more than $1bn build on deep cost cuts made during the recession. The firm said yesterday that price pressures [...]
Denmark could teach Ireland a lesson March 31, 2011 SO Ireland’s banks need another €24bn if they are to become strong enough to withstand another shock. It is a fiscal catastrophe of immense proportions to which the European establishment doesn’t seem to have much of an answer, at least not right now. But if you want to see how to really deal with troubled [...]