View
video and Need to Know interactive heatmap
Economics
Pre-Budget Report: Alistair Darling has announced a £20 billion fiscal
stimulus to help the economy through the global downturn, including an
immediate cut in VAT designed to boost consumer confidence in the run-up to
Christmas.
Shares: The FTSE 100 share index enjoyed its biggest-ever one-day gain
as markets toasted the weekend bailout of Citigroup, the American bank. The
index of Britain’s leading 100 companies surged 372.12 points to 4,153.08, a
gain of 9.84 per cent, with markets also taking heart from the Government’s
plans to revive the economy.
Germany: Business confidence fell to its lowest level in more than 15
years in November. The monthly business climate index calculated by Ifo, the
Munich-based economic research institute, fell to 85.8 points, from 90.2 in
October. It is the sixth month in a row that business confidence has fallen.
US homes: Sales fell by 3.1 per cent in October. Sales of homes and
apartments dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.98 million
units, down from 5.14 million in September. This was below economists’
forecasts of 5.05 million sales.
US advisers: Barack Obama, the US President-elect, has chosen Timothy
Geithner as treasury secretary, Larry Summers as director of the National
Economic Council and Christina Romer, a professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, as head of the White House Council of Economic
Advisers.
Pakistan: The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
has approved a $7.6 billion (£5 billion), 23-month stand-by arrangement for
Pakistan to help its economic stabilisation programme. This comes after an
IMF decision to help Pakistan to stave off a balance of payments crisis and
revive its economy.
Banking
& finance
Barclays: Investors in the bank staged a dramatic rebellion against its
capital-raising plan, with almost a quarter of the bank’s owners refusing to
endorse the terms of the controversial deal. Investors voted to accept the
deal, but the refusal by 22 per cent of its shareholders to back it is a
blow to Marcus Agius, the chairman, and John Varley, chief executive.
Citigroup: HSBC may consider buying some of Citigroup’s assets, Stephen
Green, its chairman said. The US Treasury will inject a further $20 billion
(£13.1 billion) into the bank, once the world’s largest, and guarantee most
of the losses on about $306 billion of toxic assets on its balance sheet.
Dubai: Investment bankers from London have flown into Dubai as the
bailout of the struggling Gulf state’s banking sector begins. Goldman Sachs,
UBS, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are speaking to the governments of
Dubai and Abu Dhabi about the restructuring of Dubai’s financial services
sector.
Standard Chartered: The lender in emerging markets is seeking to raise
£1.78 billion through a rights issue in an effort to bolster its balance
sheet. Temasek, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund that owns 19 per cent
of the bank, supports the rights issue.
Construction
& property
Speymill: The property investor reiterated that its full-year profits
might miss market expectations as troubles at its Speymill Contracts
subsidiary, coupled with the wider economic environment, continued to hurt
results.
Consumer
goods
Anheuser-Busch InBev: The newly merged global brewer has revived its
postponed $9.8 billion (£6.5 billion) rights issue after issuing new shares
at a 69 per cent discount to Friday’s close. The equity issue, which will
part-fund InBev’s recently completed $52 billion acquisition of
Anheuser-Busch, was put on ice last month as the Belgian brewer cited
unprecedented volatility in the global capital markets.
British American Tobacco: The cigarette company gave warning that new
antismoking guidelines from the World Health Organisation would lead to a
rise in smuggling. Delegates from 160 countries agreed at a weekend summit
to implement a global antitobacco treaty.
Engineering
Siemens: Johannes Feldmayer, a former management board member, was
given a suspended sentence for his role in a slush funds scandal. A court
sentenced him to a two-year suspended term and a €228,800 fine (£194,437)
for breach of confidence and tax evasion. He confirmed two months ago that
his company had funnelled money to AUB, a union.
Kentz Corp: The Irish engineering group was confident of meeting market
expectations for the full year on the back of continued strong performance
in the second half of 2008. The company, which focuses on the oil & gas
industry worldwide, said that there continued to be strong demand for its
services, despite volatile markets.
Health
General Healthcare: The private hospitals group reported revenue up 12
per cent to £773 million for the year to September 30 and operating profit
up to £131.3 million from, £112 million the year before.
Vectura: The biotech company specialising in inhaled drugs reported
that gross profit was up 17 per cent to £11.4 million, with revenues up 9
per cent to £13.3 million. The company is expected to reveal more about a
generic version of one of the world’s bestselling asthma treatments in the
next six months.
SSL International: The maker of Durex condoms and Scholl foot-care
products has agreed to buy the Crest condom brand – the No 2 brand in
Switzerland, with 32 per cent of the market – and related assets for SwFr7
million (£3.8 million) in cash from Doetsch Grether, a privately owned
company. The deal will be completed on December 31.
Industrials
ArcelorMittal: The South African subsidiary of the world’s biggest
steelmaker said that it would cut prices for a third month running and
repeated that it expected fourth-quarter earnings to fall.
Leisure
Gambling: A draft European Union document has concluded that there are
grounds for a common approach to regulating the gambling sector. The report
is likely to be opposed by member states that have laws banning internet
gambling operators based outside their borders.
TUI Travel: Talks about a merger between the tour operator’s TUI-fly
airline and Air Berlin are close to collapse, according to sources.
Powerleague: The five-a-side football centre operator said that total
revenues in the first 21 weeks of its current financial year were up
“significantly” on a year ago, with margins stable, despite the economic
downturn. It said that it was confident of profit growth in the current
year.
Media
Character Group: The toy maker gave warning about profits for the
present financial year, saying that it was suffering because of the slowdown
in consumer spending. It expects to report pretax profits of £5 million for
the year to August 31, 2008, in line with market expectations, but was
braced for a “more uncertain outcome” for the current year.
Natural
resources
Rio Tinto: The miner has cut production by one third at its Lynemouth
aluminium smelter in North East England because of high electricity prices
and low aluminium prices. The plant has the capacity to produce about
175,000 tonnes of primary aluminium.
Retailing
Woolworths: Ardeshir Naghshineh, the retailer’s largest shareholder, is
in talks with its banks about an alternative to a sale of the high street
chain’s retail arm to Hilco for £1.
JJB Sports: The retailer said that it had been approached about the
possible acquisition of its fitness clubs. It did not identify the potential
suitor and it was not certain that a deal would take place.
Alexon: The owner of Kaliko and Ann Harvey, the fashion brands, said
that like-for-like sales were down 11 per cent after trading became
increasingly challenging. The company, which also operates as Bay Trading
and Minuet, reported weaker margins because of increased promotional
activity and the need to control stock ahead of the key spring selling
season.
John Lewis: The department store chain said that it had suffered
another big fall in weekly sales. Takings in the seven days to last Saturday
were down 13 per cent on the same period last year. It was the tenth week in
a row that it has reported a drop in sales. But it also suggested there were
signs that Christmas had finally arrived on the high street.
Support
Services
Homeserve: The emergency cover and repair company gave warning of a
possible fall in full-year profits, sending its shares down nearly 29 per
cent. The company, which has 6.66 million policies in force, said that if
the present retail environment persisted, full-year operating profits would
be £2 million to £3 million lower than would otherwise be the case.
Mitie: The cleaning and buildings management group reported a 12 per
cent rise in half-year profits and said its prospects had been boosted by
expectations that more companies will outsource work. The group said
long-term contracts also underpinned the business as revenues rose 11.5 per
cent to £760.7 million and pre-tax profits reached £37.6 million for the six
months to September 30.
Linklaters: The world’s second-largest law firm has reported flat
growth in the first half of the financial year, despite its high-profile
role in the liquidation of Lehman Brothers. The firm generated fee income of
£653 million for the first six months to October 30, up from £633 million
during the same period last year, an increase of 3 per cent.
Shanks Group: Owing to a production error, in some editions on Saturday
a reference to Woolworths’ problems (Need To Know, November 22) appeared to
refer instead to Shanks Group, the waste-processing company, which has in
fact just won a £700 million contract with Cumbria County Council. We
apologise for the error.
Technology
RM: The education technology group has reported a 6 per cent rise in
its underlying pretax profit for the year and said it was operating in a
market which is resilient to the economic downturn. The company made an
adjusted pretax profit of £16.4 million in the year to September 30, up from
£15.5 million the previous year.
Telecoms
Ofcom: More people are contacting the telecoms regulator about
fixed-line mis-selling and silent calls than any other telecoms issue, the
regulator said, as it launched a consumer guide in response to complaints.
Transport
Emirates: The airline, owned by the Dubai Government, wants to increase
its flight slots at Italian airports, a move which could boost tourism to
Italy from the Gulf. Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned airlines, also
wants flights to Rome and Milan.
Utilities
Centrica: The owner of British Gas said that its shareholders had
approved on Friday a three-for-eight rights issue at an issue price of 160p
a share.
