Economics
Employment The number of jobs at UK companies picked up again in March
after a modest fall in February. A survey from the Recruitment &
Employment Confederation and KPMG shows that the index of permanent staff
placements rose to 51.3, from 49 in February.
Consumer confidence fell for the sixth month in a row during March to
reach a new low. The Nationwide consumer confidence index dropped to 77, the
lowest since its launch in May 2004.
House prices fell by 2.5 per cent in March, figures from Halifax
showed. Prices in the West Midlands fell by 5 per cent in the first three
months of the year, compared with a 2.2 per cent rise in the East Midlands.
US housing market According to the National Association of Realtors,
the index of pending sales of existing US homes fell to 84.6 in February,
from 86.2 in January. The index stood at 107.6 in February 2007.
Bank of Japan The main opposition party in Japan finally backed its
Government’s third choice for Governor of the Bank of Japan, Masaaki
Shirakawa, the acting governor, ending a stalemate that has left the world’s
second-largest economy without a permanent central bank chief for three
weeks.
Credit crisis Losses by financial institutions worldwide are set to
balloon to almost $1 trillion, threatening to trigger severe economic
fallout, the International Monetary Fund said in its Global Financial
Stability Report.
Banking
& finance
Charles Stanley, the stockbroker, said it expects full-year revenues to
be in line with market forecasts but warned that costs incurred on
acquisitions and branch openings have had a short-term effects on the
group’s margin.
The British Bankers’ Association, representing the banking
industry, has told the Government to slow down its reform programme, which
was put in place after the Northern Rock crisis.
Financial Services Authority Hector Sants, chief executive of the
Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, told a conference that it
was too soon to call the bottom of the economic cycle and financial market
conditions will remain strained for some time.
BNP Paribas, the French bank, said that it would struggle to meet a
promise to match last year’s investment banking revenue this year, in part
due to worsening market volatility.
Capital One, the credit card group, said that it will lay off 750
workers, mainly in Nottingham, as part of its plan to downsize in Europe.
The redundancies will see its British workforce shrink by 40 per cent. Jobs
in its UK call centres and account servicing division will be transferred to
India and other countries.
The British Chambers of Commerce, the business group, said in a report
that the cost of crimes against businesses has soared by 20 per cent in the
past few years and is costing companies £12.6 billion. A survey of 3,900
businesses for the BCC found that almost two out of three had been the
victim of crime in the past year.
UBS Morgan Stanley analysts have upgraded UBS from “underweight” to
“equal weight”, saying that the Swiss bank had revealed most of its bad
news.
Construction
& property
Hansteen, the London-listed European industrial property developer,
said it had increased its net asset value by 21 per cent last year to 138p
per share, with property assets increasing to £411.9 million, from £145.6
million in 2006.
Dawnay, Day Treveria, the AIM-listed German commercial property
developer, reported full-year post-tax profits of €36.4 million (£28.7
million), compared with €21.1 million in 2006
The Miller Group, Britain’s largest privately owned housebuilder, said
reservations in its homes division at the end of March were down by 30 per
cent on a year ago as it predicted a challenging year ahead.
Consumer
goods
PZ Cussons, the household products group which owns Imperial Leather
and Carex soap, said that its first-quarter results would be in line with
management expectations and that sales and profitability growth would
continue to be strong in its key markets of Britain and Nigeria.
Engineering
Tricorn, the structural engineering group which is based at Didcot,
Oxfordshire, said it expects its full-year earnings to more than match
market expectations, adding that the outlook was positive.
Gas Turbine Efficiency, the maker of gas turbine cleaning systems,
reported a flat full-year pre-tax loss despite a surge in revenues.
Boeing, the US aerospace group, is expected to announce that its 787
Dreamliner aircraft has been delayed by 18 months, a setback that will cost
the company billions of dollars in compensation payments to airlines.
Health
GW Pharmaceuticals, the AIM-listed specialist maker of cannabis-based
medicines, announced that its Sativex drug has missed a statistically
significant result in its Phase III trial for multiple sclerosis central
neuropathic pain.
GlaxoSmithKline, Europe’s biggest drugs maker, failed to report all of
the required post-approval data on its Avandia diabetes treatment to US
regulators, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
Industrials
ArcelorMittal, the steel group, said that it has agreed to raise the
price that it pays BHP Billiton, the mining group, for coking coal by a
higher than expected 220 per cent.
Leisure
Whitbread, the leisure group, has acquired three hotels from the Real
Hotel Company for £18.5 million as part of a £100 million expansion drive
for its Premier Inn chain in London.
888 Holdings, the online gaming operator, continued its recovery from
the US internet gambling ban with a doubling of its full-year pre-tax
profits from continuing operations and a 36 per cent rise in net gaming
revenues.
InterContinental Hotels has kickstarted the $1 billion (£503 million)
relaunch of its Holiday Inn brand that will see all 4,000 Holiday Inns given
a makeover, including a new-look logo, by the end of 2010.
Media
Five TV has signed a partnership with Blinkx, the video search engine,
which will allow visitors to blinkx.com to view highlights from Five News.
Global Radio, which acquired the former Chrysalis radio stations last
year and agreed to buy GCap, the owner of Capital 95.8, last week, is
implementing a cost- cutting drive across its networks, which will see local
programming reduced and a big increase in networked shows.
Natural
resources
EnCore Oil, the AIM-listed oil exploration and production company, has
decided to postpone the planned demerger of its gas storage business until
the drilling of the Esmond well is completed in the southern North Sea.
Kazakhmys, the UK-listed copper mining group, has requested the
Takeover Panel to issue a “put up or shut up” deadline to Eurasian Natural
Resources regarding a possible offer.
Gold reserves The International Monetary Fund is set to raise $12
billion (£6.03 billion) by selling off a chunk of its gold reserves to plug
a gap in its finances.
BP and ConocoPhillips, two of the world’s largest oil companies, will
jointly develop a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline to move North
Slope natural gas from Alaska to markets in Alberta, Canada. They plan to
spend $600 million in the first phase of the project over the next three
years.
Retailing
Baugur, the Icelandic retail investment group, has sold its media and
technology interests alongside its financial investments for £430 million in
two separate deals that will hand the group a “war-chest” for retail
acquisitions around the world. It is linked with potential bids for Saks,
the US department store group, and Moss Bros, the UK menswear chain.
Support
services
AEA Technology, the climate change and energy consultancy group, said
that it expects its full-year pre-tax profits to be slightly ahead of market
expectations as trading remained strong.
Amec, the oil services group, has agreed to buy Smith Williams
Consultants, the US environmental and geotechnical mining consultancy, from
its owner-managers for $6.3 million (£3.16 million).
Technology
Autonomy, the software group, said that the record management software
created by its Meridio unit has been selected by the Cabinet Office to
manage and control hundreds of thousands of electronic documents and records
across the British Government.
TomTom, the Dutch satellite navigation group, said that it expected its
full-year sales to be between €1.8 billion (£1.4 billion) and €2 billion,
compared with its guidance in February of €2 billion to €2.2 billion.
Telecoms
BT Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT Retail, is to succeed Ben
Verwaayen as chief executive of BT Group, the telecoms company, on June 1.
Mr Verwaayen will leave the board on June 30.
Transport
Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel operator, reported its first full-year
net profit since it floated in 1987 of ¤204 million in 2006. Revenues were
up with Le Shuttle, Eurotunnel’s car and truck service, enjoying an 8 per
cent revenue rise, while railway income from the independently managed
Eurostar service improved by 3 per cent.
Utilities
Ofgem, the energy regulator, has launched an investigation into whether
ScottishPower and Scottish & Southern Energy have abused their dominant
position in the UK power market.
Severn Trent, the Midlands water company, is considering whether to
challenge a record £35.8 million fine imposed by Ofwat, the water regulator,
for lying about its performance, which allowed it to overcharge customers.
The company has four weeks to decide whether to accept the fine or try to
persuade Ofwat to lower it.
British Energy The Government fired a warning shot to potential bidders
for British Energy, the nuclear power generator, saying that it will not
tolerate the emergence of a single “monopoly” player in Britain’s drive to
build a new generation of nuclear reactors.
