Ryanair share price rises as passenger numbers soar to a record high September 3, 2014 Outspoken Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary stayed resolutely quiet this morning as the budget airline announced record monthly traffic. Passenger numbers grew four per cent, from 9 million in August 2013 to 9.4 million in the same month this year, pushing shares up 1.35 per cent in early trading. Marketing manager Kenny Jacobs put the rise [...]
FTSE at its highest in 14 years as Ukraine agrees “permanent ceasefire” with Russia September 3, 2014 Markets reacted with relief this morning after Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko tweeted that the country had agreed a "permanent ceasefire" with Russia. The FTSE 100 rose 1 per cent to 6,897 – its highest in 14 years – while the euro jumped 0.12 per cent, to 1.31 dollars. Investors also piled back into Russian equities, [...]
Halliburton finally settles Gulf of Mexico lawsuits September 2, 2014 For those living in New Orleans and the cities around it, the six months between the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico well and it being declared officially "sealed" may have seemed like an age – but that was nothing compared to the length of the ensuing legal wrangles. Now [...]
More mining M&A on the cards? Anglo American share price rises as boss says “come and get us” September 2, 2014 Shares in Anglo American, the world's largest platinum miner, jumped 2.6 per cent this afternoon after its chief executive said the company is open to takeover offers. In an interview, Mark Cutifani said his job is "to create value" – adding that "if somebody sees value, then there's a conversation to be had". I'm not [...]
Date for the diary: George Osborne reveals when he will make his Autumn Statement September 2, 2014 George Osborne today announced he will deliver his Autumn Statement on December 3. Since Osborne took the helm at the Treasury, the Autumn Statment has slowly crept later in the year. While Gordon Brown, who delivered the first Autumn Statement in 1997, preferred to use his as a sort of summary of the state of [...]
Co-operative Group sells cash security arm Sunwin for £41.5m September 2, 2014 Alright, for a corporate deal it is hardly a princely sum – but the Co-operative Group has taken another step along the road to filling its £1.5bn capital hole by selling its Sunwin Services Group to Cardtronics for £41.5m The company, which transports and provides security for cash and has 1,500 workers and 14 regional [...]
Scuppered Pfizer-AstraZeneca deal leaves UK M&A at an all-time low September 2, 2014 Pfizer's thwarted acquisition of AstraZeneca may have kept proponents of British business happy – but it also helped push the number of mergers and acquisitions taking place in the UK to a historic low in the second quarter of 2014, official figures published this morning showed. The number of mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies [...]
Cameron: Police can seize UK passports under new terrorism legislation September 1, 2014 Police will be given the temporary power to seize the passports of those suspected of being involved with terrorism, the Prime Minister said today. In a statement to parliament afternoon David Cameron said it was "abhorrent" Brits had "declared their allegiance" to the Islamic State. Police will be able to seize passports at borders, while [...]
UK manufacturing PMI: Russia tensions push growth to its lowest in 14 months September 1, 2014 It turns out even the UK manufacturing sector, which over recent months has staged a glorious recovery, is vulnerable to the whims of Vladimir Putin. The Purchasing Manager's Index, published this morning, fell to 52.5 in August, its lowest reading since June 2013 and well below economists' expectations of 55. The index, published by Markit [...]
It’s official: German GDP contracted 0.2 per cent in the second quarter September 1, 2014 More bad news for the Eurozone: the German economy contracted during the second quarter of the year, the country's Federal Statistics Office confirmed today. The figures confirmed preliminary estimates, which suggested GDP shrank 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, after 0.7 per cent growth in the first quarter. Compared with the same period in [...]
