Games fans lift HMV fortunes July 2, 2008 HMV, the UK’s leading music retailer, reported yesterday a 25 per cent jump in pre-tax profits. The company told investors its recovery is on track after the first year of its three-year turnaround plan. Strong video game sales helped pre-tax profits soar to £56.6m, up from £45.2m in 2007. Games and technology sales rose 7 [...]
Falling share prices set to fuel activism July 2, 2008 A wave of shareholder activism is expected to hit companies in the coming months as falling share prices galvanise shareholders into action. Tim Stocks, a leading city lawyer at law firm Taylor Wessing, told City A.M. he was already instructing on several activist shareholder cases and expected the numbers to increase rapidly. Stocks, who said [...]
The CFA is a mark of talent and also trust July 30, 2008 In these troubled times, employers want people who know the basics, says Nitin Mehta In recent years, a host of new products have been launched which promise to help professionals working in the investment industry. Often, these qualifications have been accompanied by hype and hope and not a lot else. In the current conditions, many [...]
Auntie’s problems run deeper than executive bonuses July 11, 2008 The case of “trebles all round” for top BBC executives, after a year in which viewers were deceived and trust damaged, rightly dominated news about the Corporation’s annual report this week. But an eyebrow should be raised at the scale of the bonuses. The overall pay of director of vision Jana Bennett rose by 24 [...]
Despite the gloomy market, investors still have something to cheer about July 3, 2008 Look beyond the doom-mongering, and there is still money to be made in property, says Alex Delmar-Morgan Property is a subject close to the hearts of the British people, and many home-owners have been chuffed over the past few years to see the prices of their properties increasing at massive rates. Surely, though, even the [...]
Giving the dream July 1, 2008 Fund manager Nicola Horlick wants to do her bit for society, she tells Timothy Barber Nicola Horlick has never been known for mincing her words. When asked about the turmoil currently engulfing Western economies, the chief executive of Bramdean Asset Management is characteristically forthright. “This all feels like the last days of the Roman Empire, [...]
New Orange supremo in drive back to basics July 4, 2008 For a man who has spent his entire career in the telecoms industry, it seems strange that Tom Alexander, Orange UK’s newly installed chief executive, should list his first passion as racing cars. As we travel across London in the back of his chauffer driven BMW 7-series, he tells me he never expected to make [...]
Mowlem admits takeover approach November 1, 2005 Mowlem, the construction group chosen to build a new stand at Twickenham, is the latest company to be at the centre of takeover talks. The Middlesex-based company, which has added support services to its remit, admitted yesterday it had received an approach for the business, although it declined to reveal the identity of its suitor. [...]
Oil giants compete for Bengal find October 17, 2005 Three of the world’s biggest oil companies – BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil – are fighting it out for a new natural gas find in India’s Bay of Bengal, according to news agency reports late last night. British oil giant BP and America’s Chevron and ExxonMobil are said to be talks with India’s largest private sector [...]
More upheavals at Highbury House October 19, 2005 Mike Frey has left troubled magazine publisher Highbury House Communications just 18 days after his appointment as chief operating officer. In a brief statement yesterday the company, headed by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, said Frey, who had at one stage been due to take over as chief executive, had “left the company by mutual [...]