Strong Christmas drives second profit upgrade in two months at Laura Ashley January 20, 2011 FASHION and homewares retailer Laura Ashley issued its second profit upgrade in two months yesterday. The company said it was confident that full-year profits would be better than City forecasts. It said a strong performance over Christmas and early January means that the results will be “significantly higher than earlier expectations”. Analysts on average were [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 28, 2011 Amlin The insurance group has appointed Andreas Luberichs, formerly of Chubb Europe, to the new role of group head of underwriting. Luberichs joins on 7 March as a member of the group executive management team and will be based in the London headquarters. Luberichs has spent the past seventeen years of his twenty year career [...]
Sterling’s outlook waiting on rates May 17, 2011 IG INDEX DAVID JONES Tuesday saw the usual flurry in forex markets when the latest UK inflation figures were released, showing annual CPI at a larger than widely expected 4.5 per cent. The pound rallied half a cent against the US dollar in very short order and then over the course of the next few [...]
Minerva values rise but lettings remain elusive February 22, 2011 PROPERTY developer Minerva remained tight-lipped over possible tenants for its Walbrook and St Botolph developments yesterday, as it reported a 6.2 per cent rise in net asset value. The London-focused firm made £10.4m profit in the last six months of 2010, while the value of its properties rose 3.2 per cent to £1.2bn “Our short [...]
Minerva values rise but lettings remain elusive February 22, 2011 PROPERTY developer Minerva remained tight-lipped over possible tenants for its Walbrook and St Botolph developments yesterday, as it reported a 6.2 per cent rise in net asset value. The London-focused firm made £10.4m profit in the last six months of 2010, while the value of its properties rose 3.2 per cent to £1.2bn “Our short [...]
Less than half of City jobs are in finance January 30, 2011 FINANCIAL companies in the City and Canary Wharf stimulate a vast and varied range of jobs outside the sector, according to official figures seen by City A.M. Less than half (44 per cent) the jobs in London’s main financial districts were in finance and insurance in 2009, with 232,682 other jobs existing in support services [...]
FTSE buoyed by upbeat corporate results April 26, 2011 Strong corporate results and positive broker research buoyed the FTSE today, leading the market to its highest close in more than two months. The FTSE 100 closed 0.9 per cent higher at 6.069.36 in low volumes following the long Easter weekend and ahead of a second four-day weekend to celebrate the Royal wedding and Mayday. [...]
Vickers rules out break-up January 23, 2011 SIR John Vickers, chair of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), ruled out breaking up the financial industry into “narrow banks” on Saturday in his first official speech since the commission was convened. But Vickers’ speech, which gave a glimpse of the ICB’s thinking three months before its preliminary report is due out, did discuss [...]
Catastrophes send Hiscox’s profit reeling February 28, 2011 LLOYD’S insurer Hiscox yesterday attributed a 34 per cent fall in its 2010 pre-tax profit to devastating earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand. Full-year profit slid to £211.4m from £320.6m in 2009 as disaster claims rose to £165m in the year. “Mother Nature has well and truly tested us this year,” chairman Robert Hiscox said. [...]
Catastrophes send Hiscox’s profit reeling February 28, 2011 LLOYD’S insurer Hiscox yesterday attributed a 34 per cent fall in its 2010 pre-tax profit to devastating earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand. Full-year profit slid to £211.4m from £320.6m in 2009 as disaster claims rose to £165m in the year. “Mother Nature has well and truly tested us this year,” chairman Robert Hiscox said. [...]