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Economics
US confidence: American consumer confidence has ticked up to its
highest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September. The
Reuters/University of Michigan index rose to 61.9 in April, from 57.3 in
March, to be at its highest since 70.3 last September.
Japanese economy: Kaoru Yosano, the Japanese Finance Minister, said
that it was too early to say that the country’s economy had hit bottom, even
though inventories and consumer sentiment were showing signs of stabilising.
Japanese confidence: Japanese consumer confidence rose from a record
low in March. The Cabinet Office survey’s sentiment index for general
households, which includes views on income and jobs, was 28.4 in March, up
from the previous reading of 26.9 in December. Seasonally adjusted figures
are released only quarterly.
Banking
& finance
Bank of England: Sir David Lees, the chairman of Tate & Lyle, is to
become chairman of the Bank’s Court of Directors.
Halifax: The lender is to offer big incentives to entice mortgage
customers, the first time that this has been done since the credit crunch
struck two years ago.
Citigroup: The bank has continued this month’s better than expected
first-quarter results from American banks. It reported a $1.59 billion
(£1.08 billion) net profit after five quarters of losses in succession.
Financial Services Authority: The regulator has rejected claims from a
former employee that it stood by while building societies began lending on
more risky mortgages. The claims were publicised by Vince Cable, the Liberal
Democrat Treasury affairs spokesman.
Legendary Investments: Shami Ahmed, the fashion entrepreneur, has
stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Legendary Investments, his
investment company. Its shares have been suspended since November after the
collapse of Echelon Wealth Management, its broker. Legendary had most of its
cash, about £600,000, with Echelon and had admitted uncertainty about
recovering it at the time.
Construction
& property
Property companies: A survey by Macfarlanes, the City law firm, has
found that banks are charging property companies arrangement fees of up to
1.5 per cent to reset debt covenants. Its survey showed that the fee charged
by a bank is 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent, although it may be less for a short
waiver.
St Modwen: The urban property specialist said it had completed three
property sales, totalling £17.3 million. It said: “The property market
remains challenging.”
Consumer
goods
Dawson International: The cashmere group’s biggest shareholder — Leeds
Group, controlled by Peter Gyllenhammar, the Swedish activist investor — has
begun an attempt to oust Mike Hartley as chairman of Dawson.
Beer duty: The Treasury faces a shortfall of £242 million in tax
revenue because of pub closures since the last Budget, and should scrap its
planned duty increase in the Budget on Wednesday, the British Beer & Pub
Association said.
Wine: Sales of wine in America fell from $30.4 billion (£20.5 billion)
to $30 billion last year, the first annual decline since 1993, according to
figures from the California Wine Institute.
Carlsberg: The Danish brewer’s Norwegian business, Ringnes, is to sell
its brewery in Arendal to local investors as part of its cost-cutting
programme. Ringnes will keep a 20 per cent stake in the brewery.
Engineering
General Electric: The American conglomerate said its first-quarter
earnings fell by 36 per cent after a sharp drop in profits of its troubled
finance arm. The results still beat Wall Street forecasts.
Health
GlaxoSmithKline: The pharmaceuticals group is set to report a strong
rise in sales and profits in sterling terms next week but the picture will
be a lot less healthy once flattering effects of a weak pound are stripped
out. Group sales are seen up 19 per cent, with earnings per share up 11 per
cent, according to consensus forecasts. In constant exchange rate terms,
earnings may be down by 15 per cent.
Aids drugs: The cost of Aids medicines in poor countries is to fall
farther, after a new bulk purchase arrangement negotiated with generic drug
manufacturers. The Clinton Foundation HIV/Aids Initiative and the
international drug-buying consortium Unitaid said that they had struck deals
offering steeper discounts.
Industrials
Low & Bonar: The technical textiles group said that it had seen
“material” year-on-year falls in sales volumes between December and April 17
because of continuing tough economic conditions. Sales to the truck and car
sector had been worst hit, it said.
Leisure
Hilton Hotels Corporation: The group’s recent entry into the lifestyle
hotel market is in tatters after Starwood Hotels, its American rival,
accused the company of theft of trade secrets.
Freedom Direct Holidays: The Newcastle-based online travel agency has
collapsed, blaming the economic downturn. About 9,000 people who have booked
holidays with Freedom may now not be able to take them. Freedom’s 109
employees will lose their jobs.
PartyGaming: The online gaming company, which declared last week that
it was seeking to raise both debt and equity to fund acquisitions, has
appointed Numis Securities as joint corporate broker, working alongside
Deutsche Bank, its existing broker.
Media
Trinity Mirror: Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror,
publisher of the Daily Mirror, has criticised newspaper publishers for
allowing Google to “erode the value of news” by giving away stories via the
search engine. She said that long-established titles were at risk of being
forced out of existence by the twin threats of Google and the recession.
Natural
resources
Diamonds: Angola, the world’s fifth-largest diamond producer, said that
sales were finally picking up after demand for gems slid in 2008 because of
the global economic downturn. It said that sales of Angolan gems had
surpassed $70 million a month, up from $25 million at the start of the year.
Northern Petroleum: Production in 2008 declined but revenue from
producing fields was increased by higher hydrocarbon prices, the company
said. For 2008, its net attributable production was about 0.12 million
barrels of oil equivalent, against 0.16 million barrels of oil equivalent
the previous year.
D1 Oils: The biofuel group said it was seeking a partner to fund its
joint venture with BP for the commercial development of jatropha, the
biofuel crop. D1 said it would delay issuing its 2008 results pending
developments in this process.
Retailing
John Lewis Partnership: Waitrose, the John Lewis-owned supermarket,
said that it had received a sales boost at Easter as more Britons stayed at
home for the holiday weekend. Its sales rose 23.6 per cent to £94.7 million
in the week to last Saturday. Sales at John Lewis department stores were
down by 1.5 per cent on the same week last year, the best performance in the
11 weeks of this financial year. However, the timing of Easter inflated
sales.
Next: The fashion chain warned that high inflation could return to
Britain next year as low interest rates and a weak pound had their effect.
In its annual report, Next also said that it had increased the maximum bonus
of Simon Wolfson, its chief executive, to 150 per cent of basic salary, from
100 per cent. He earned £831,000 in the year to January 31, down from
£979,000 in the previous year.
Support
Services
Abtran: The Irish services group is to create about 250 jobs at a new
innovation centre. The Cork-based group is to expand its existing facility
at Bishopstown, just outside the city.
Technology
Broadband: More than £1 billion of taxpayers’ money could be used to
connect 12.5 million homes in small towns and rural areas to superfast
broadband.
Computer sales: World computer sales fell by a record 6.5 per cent in
the first quarter of this year against the same period last year because of
the economic crisis, Gartner, the US technology market research group, said.
Gartner is predicting a fall in sales of 11.9 per cent over 2009 as a whole.
Toshiba: The Japanese electronic goods group has forecast a record
annual loss and announced 3,900 redundancies less than four months after
cutting 4,500 jobs.
Facebook: Users of Facebook can vote on new terms of use after a U-turn
by the website in February. Facebook tried in February to impose rules that
angered users because they took away their rights to images uploaded. Users
can vote until April 23, at which point the results will be reviewed by an
independent auditor.
Time Warner Cable: The company has cancelled a controversial test of
“consumption-based billing” under which high-speed internet users were being
charged for the amount of bandwidth that they consumed.
Telecoms
Telecoms: Shares in telecom companies rose yesterday, with BT and
Vodafone up 4.8 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively, after Morgan
Stanley said that it saw a 45 per cent upside on Vodafone.
Sonatel: Unions in Sonatel, Senegal’s biggest telecom operator, have
threatened to strike to prevent France Télécom from getting a 52.2 per cent
controlling stake in the company. Denouncing “a recolonisation of the
telecoms system by France”, the unions said that they had notified the
Government and Sonatel that they could go on strike in the next 30 days.
Transport
Cathay Pacific: The Hong Kong airline said that it would cut flights
and ask all 17,000 staff to take unpaid leave as it announced a 22 per cent
drop in first-quarter revenue. The announcement came only weeks after Cathay
said that it had lost more than $1 billion in 2008, the company’s first
full-year loss in a decade, because of the global slowdown and hedging bets
on fuel prices that went wrong.
Ryanair: The budget airline said that it had received more than 100,000
online votes in favour of introducing a “fat tax” for overweight passengers.
Ryanair is polling passengers on types of ancillary charges and 40 per cent
of respondents have so far voted for charging overweight people extra.
Utilities
Renewable Energy Generation: The windfarm operator received a bid
approach yesterday, sending its shares up nearly half. The company runs 11
windfarms in Britain and Canada and a power station fuelled by vegetable
oil.
