Economics
Mortgage approvals: Official data showed that mortgage approvals rose
in September for the first time in more than a year to 33,000, from a record
low of 32,000 in August. Net mortgage lending rose by £2.167 billion, more
than twice analysts’ forecasts but still a fifth of the figures reported
last year.
Interest rates: The credit crisis could be more far-reaching than the
1929 crash and big interest rate cuts are needed to avoid a deep recession,
David Blanchflower, the Bank of England policymaker, said.
Sterling: The pound leapt more than 7 cents against the dollar, closing
at $1.6297 in London, up from $1.5591.
German inflation: The annual inflation rate for Germany slowed to 2.4
per cent in October, from 2.9 per cent in September, falling for the third
month in a row and in line with analysts’ expectations.
Hungarian economy: The first European Union country to finalise an
emergency rescue for its economy is Hungary which has secured $25 billion
(£15.6 billion) from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the World
Bank.
US durable goods orders: Official statistics from the US Commerce
Department showed that US new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods
rose in September by 0.8 per cent, after a surge in demand for defence goods
and transport equipment, and following a 5.5 per cent drop in August.
Excluding transportation, September durables orders were down 1.1 per cent,
after falling 4.1 per cent in August.
US interest rates The Federal Reserve has cut US interest rates to 1
per cent, matching the lowest levels of recent decades.
US mortgages: US regulators are working on a federal programme that
could provide government guarantees for up to $600 billion (£368.5 billion)
of mortgages to help to prevent foreclosures, sources said. The plan could
provide guarantees for up to three million at-risk mortgages.
Emerging markets: The International Monetary Fund has approved an
emergency short-term liquidity facility for emerging market economies.
Banking
& finance
Sindicatum Holdings: The Financial Services Authority, the City
regulator, has fined a senior manager of Sindicatum Holdings, the financial
advisory and asset management group, nearly £20,000 for failing to have
adequate money-laundering controls in place.
HBOS: The struggling HBOS bank said that it had issued a two-year bond
of €3 billion (£2.3 billion) backed by the Government which had been
oversubscribed at €4.5 billion.
Standard Life: Savers with Standard Life, the Edinburgh-based life and
pensions group, will see their payouts reduced after it cut final bonuses.
It also said that it was introducing stricter penalties for policyholders
who want to cash in their pensions and investments early. price this year
and replaced him with Bernard Dan, president and chief operating officer.
European Investment Bank: Britain’s biggest banks will be offered £4
billion by the European Investment Bank to lend to small businesses in a
move that will restrict their ability to impose punitive interest rates.
MF Global: The US futures brokerage MF Global has sacked Kevin Davis,
its chief executive, after a 90 per cent slide in its share price this year
and replaced him with Bernard Dan, president and chief operating officer.
Construction
& property
YIT: The Finnish builder YIT reported a fall in third-quarter profits
to €57 million (£45.2 million), from €82 million last time, citing the
market shake-up and weakening demand, and said it has halted the
construction of 2,400 flats in Russia.
Consumer
goods
Foster’s: The Australian beer and wine group, Foster’s, said that
it had delayed a decision on the fate of its troubled wine business until
next year while it examined various options. It began a review of the
business, whose brands include Rosemount and Penfolds and which is worth
about A$5 billion (£2 billion)), earlier this year after sliding sales
dragged down overall profit.
Wine drinkers: The majority of wine drinkers cite promotions as the
biggest factor when deciding what wine to buy, according to a survey by the
Wine and Spirit Trade Associaition, which also found that consumers were now
trading down from the £5 to £6 a bottle range to the £4 to £5 range.
Kraft Foods: The American food and beverage group reported quarterly
net profits of $1.4 billion (£858 million), helped by price increases and
new products that boosted sales.
Engineering
Armoured vehicles: Britain will spend £700 million on new and up-graded
armoured vehicles to protect its troops, the Ministry of Defence said,
adding that the order would include more than 400 new armoured support
trucks of the Wolfhound, Husky and Coyote categories, more than 100 new
cross-country Warthog vehicles and 100 all-terrain Jackal vehicles.
Marshall Aerospace: The Ministry of Defence has signed a £97 million
seven-year contract with Marshall Aerospace of Cambridge for the logistic
support of the TriStar fleet. The group will provide maintenance and
engineering support to the RAF’s core passenger fleet.
General Motors: Speculation that General Motors, the US car-maker,
could be on the verge of a merger deal with Chrysler sent its shares up by
nearly 9 per cent in afternoon trading on Wall Street.
BAE Systems: Europe’s largest defence company is one of three
contenders to be shortlisted for a tender to build the next generation of
Humvee military vehicles in a US contract worth up to $40 billion (£24.4
billion).
Health
Shire: The London-listed pharmaceuticals group Shire, based in
Hampshire, reported third-quarter revenues of $779 million (£478 million)
and said it was well placed to take advantage of the decline in valuations
in the biotech sector.
Industrials
Akzo Nobel: Higher than expected costs from integrating ICI have wiped
23 per cent off the third-quarter profits of Akzo Nobel, the Dutch chemicals
group. It bought the Dulux paint manufacturer this year. It reported pretax
earnings down by 9 per cent to €367 million (£292 million), in line with
forecasts after it gave a profit warning in July.
Nippon Steel: The world’s second-biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel,
reported a 13 per cent fall in quarterly profits but boosted its full-year
outlook above market expectations, as raw material costs decline. Japanese
steelmakers are benefiting from lower costs for steel scrap, oil and
freight.
Leisure
Budget travel: Websites that sell budget travel deals are benefiting
from the squeeze on household budgets, with companies such as easyJet,
Ryanair and Travelodge seeing a 5.3 per cent increase in “hits” in the year
to September, compared with a fall of 4.6 per cent for the wider travel
sector, according to Hitwise.
Yotel: The budget hotel chain Yotel has launched an estimated £5
million bid to buy the Kingsway Tunnels in Central London from BT, the
telecoms group, for conversion to an underground hotel.
WorldSpreads: The spreadbetting group WorldSpreads reported a surge in
first-half pretax profits to £3.1 million on increased betting activity and
said it was confident of exceeding its full-year targets.
Media
CNN International: The US television news channel CNN International
will become available on Freeview in January, effectively doubling its UK
distribution.
Time Warner: Time, the world’s largest magazine company which is owned
by Time Warner, plans a restructuring that could lead to as many as 600 job
cuts, or about 6 per cent of its workforce.
Datz Music Lounge: EMI Music and Warner Music, the record labels, and
Beggars Group and The Orchard, two independent labels, have joined forces
with Datz, the online music download site, to create a music download
package called Datz Music Lounge. This will allow consumers to download
tracks from a database of 2.5 million songs for £99.99.
Natural
resources
Ferrexpo: The London-listed iron ore pellet maker Ferrexpo said that
slower demand from steelmakers would hit its sales and added that its chief
executive had resigned. The group mines iron ore in Ukraine and turns it
into pellets for sale to steel producers.
Royal Dutch Shell: The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas group Royal Dutch Shell
has named Peter Voser as its next chief executive. Mr Voser, who is the
group’s chief financial officer, will take up the position when Jeroen van
der Veer retires at the end of June.
Retailing
Office Depot: The US office supply chain reported a third-quarter loss
of $6.7 million (£4.1 million) as North American sales fell.
Tesco: Britain’s biggest supermarket group said it had not altered its
UK sales forecasts but was concerned about the “depth and longevity” of an
economic slowdown in its domestic market.
Support
services
RPS Group: The energy and natural resources consultancy said
third-quarter trading had been robust and it was likely to meet analysts’
full-year expectations .
Technology
Japanese electronics groups: Three of Japan’s largest electronics
companies have reported a combined profit fall of £777 million in just three
months because of a slump in consumer demand. Toshiba said its operating
profits in the three months to the end of September fell 99 per cent to 707
million yen (£4.5 million), Sony’s net profits fell by 72 per cent to Y20.8
billion, while Fujitsu’s operating profits dropped by 20 per cent to Y32.7
billion.
CSR: The London-listed technology group based in Cambridge, which makes
Bluetooth microchips for mobile phones, said the global recession will force
job cuts and a sales fall of about 25 per cent in the fourth quarter. CSR
added that it would cut between 40 and 50 UK jobs to save £12.3 million in
2009.
Yahoo!: The US online search engine is engaged in “meaningful” due
diligence about a possible combination with AOL, the Time Warner internet
unit, but a deal is not imminent, according to a source.
Telecoms
Polkomtel: Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile phone company by
revenue, said that it has raised its stake in Polkomtel, Poland’s
second-largest mobile operator, to nearly 25 per cent. The British group
already owns 19.6 per cent of Polkomtel and hopes to increase its stake
further as part of its push into emerging markets.
Transport
Sterling: Thousands of travellers have been left stranded across Europe
after the collapse of Sterling, the Icelandic budget airline which operated
out of Denmark and flew from Britain to Scandinavia. All the company’s
aircraft have been grounded.
Stagecoach: Megabus, the low-cost bus service that operates in Britain
and North America, has helped Stagecoach, the bus and train operator, to
increase revenues as passengers choose cheaper forms of transport.
Stagecoach said like-for-like revenue growth in Britain was up by 9.2 per
cent in the 24 weeks to mid-October; its US revenues were up by 8.4 per cent
in the five months to the end of September.
Bmi: Lufthansa, the German flag carrier, has bought a controlling stake
in bmi for €400 million (£318 million) from Sir Michael Bishop, the
chairman, and now owns 80 per cent of the former British Midland
International. It is expected to make a bid for the remaining 20 per cent
owned by Scandinavian Airlines — which has put both the stake and itself up
for sale.
Delta: The US Justice Department has approved a merger between Delta
and Northwest, clearing the way for the creation of the world’s largest
airline which would be called Delta.
Utilities
Yorkshire Water: Platelet Technology, which seals leaks in water pipes
from the inside without the need to dig up the road, is to be tested by
Yorkshire Water, the first company to do so.
