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Economics
Manufacturing sector: Official figures showed that manufacturing has
expanded unexpectedly at its fastest pace in two years, as the Chartered
Institute of Purchasing and Supply’s latest reading jumped to 53.7 in
October, from 49.9 in September, on a scale where any figure above 50
indicates growth.
House prices: The average price of a home in England and Wales climbed
by 0.2 per cent in October to £156,400, according to the latest survey by
Hometrack.
Eurozone manufacturing: The Markit eurozone manufacturing purchasing
managers’ index rose to 50.7 in October, from 49.3 in September, its first
expansion for 17 months.
German manufacturing: The purchasing managers’ index for Germany's
manufacturing sector rose to 51 in October — the highest reading for 16
months — from 49.6 in September, according to Markit Economics.
French manufacturing: The Markit/CDAF final manufacturing purchasing
managers’ index for France rose to 55.6 in October, from 53 in September,
its highest level in almost three years.
US manufacturing: The US Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing
managers’ index rose to 55.7 in October, from 52.6 in September, expanding
at its fastest pace in more than three years.
Banking
&
finance
Lloyds Banking Group: The lender said that it has received £235 million
from the sale of Insight Investment Management to Bank of New York Mellon.
Lloyds added that it retains a strong investment management capability in
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and was in the process of
transferring funds from its other businesses to this operation.
Commerzbank: The German lender reported a third-quarter loss of €1.05
billion (£949 million), compared with a loss of $285 million a year ago,
amid a restructuring effort and charges related to its acquisition of
Dresdner Bank.
Royal Bank of Scotland: The lender, which is which is 70 per cent owned
by the taxpayer, has announced a further 3,700 job cuts as its negotiations
went to the wire over what businesses it will be forced to sell in return
for the billions of pounds of state aid that it has received.
Financial Services Authority: The regulator has confirmed that it would
begin a comprehensive review of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme,
a safety net for consumers to deal with a failure at a bank, insurer or fund
manager.
Construction
&
property
Rockspring Property Investment Managers: The group said that it has
bought £265 million of property on behalf of NPS Central London Property,
the Korean National Pension Service fund. The Korean NPS has set aside $3
billion (£1.8 billion) to buy property assets in London, New York, Tokyo and
Sydney this year.
Mill Group: The specialist property investment company has launched a
£500 million fund to invest in affordable housing. The fund allows
first-time buyers who cannot afford a deposit to acquire a share of between
25 and 50 per cent of the property, with the fund buying the rest.
Construction work: Tender prices for construction contractors are
falling at their fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s,
according to the Building Cost Information Service of the Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors. The price of new construction work fell by 4 per
cent during the second quarter and is 11.7 per cent lower than the same
period last year.
Carillion: The construction company, based in Wolverhampton, said it
had completed the sale of Enviros, its environmental consultancy business,
to Sinclair Knight Merz, the engineering and sciences group, generating net
cash proceeds of £26.8 million.
Land Securities: Britain’s biggest property developer has indicated its
fresh confidence in the market by setting aside £200 million for two big
developments in London next year.
Consumer
goods
Pernod Ricard: The French drinks group said it was targeting
like-for-like profit growth of about 1-3 per cent in the current financial
year on the back of increased advertising and promotional investment in
brands such as Chivas Regal Scotch whisky and Martell cognac. It added that
“early signs of improvement are appearing in certain markets”.
Glisten: The snack food company, based in Leeds, reported a worse than
expected full-year pre-tax loss of £746,000, compared with a £2.7 million
profit last time. This follows revelations that its Halo Foods business had
been understating costs in the race to provide cut-price snacks in the
consumer downturn. Glisten said Halo had enjoyed a profitable first quarter
in the current financial year.
Engineering
Rolls-Royce: The London-listed defence and engineering group announced
that it had won a $350 million (£214 million) contract for Trent engines to
power five Airbus A330 aircraft for Turkish Airlines. Aircraft deliveries
will start next year.
Peugeot Citroën: Faurecia, a unit of the French carmaker, has
agreed to buy Emcon Technologies, the US car parts manufacturer, from its
owner, One Equity Partners, the JPMorgan Chase investment fund. The deal
would value Emcon at about €276 million (£250 million).
Ford: The US carmaker reported third-quarter pre-tax operating profits
of $1.1 billion, from a loss of $3 billion a year ago, and said that it
might cut back its European production.
Lindley Pate: Buyers are being sought for the assets of the
agricultural engineering group, based in Lancashire, after its collapse. The
business, founded in 1912, ceased trading after a drop of 30 to 40 per cent
in sales of its horse trailers. Its assets will be sold at auction if no
buyers come forward.
Health
GlaxoSmithKline: The London-listed pharmaceuticals group said that
Benlysta, its experimental lupus drug developed with Human Genome Sciences,
the US biotech, had been successful in a second large clinical trial, paving
the way for approval of the first new treatment for the disease in 50 years.
Probiodrug: The German pharmaceuticals group said that it had raised
more than €36 million (£32.5 million) to fund its work on Alzheimer's
disease.
Industrials
Linde: The German industrial gases company reported that its
third-quarter net income had fallen by 5 per cent to €169 million (£153
million), from €177 million a year ago, as revenue dropped amid the economic
downturn, but said that demand was improving.
Leisure
JJW Hotels & Resorts UK: Peter Tyrie, who founded The Eton
Collection of boutique hotels in 1998, has resigned as chief executive of
the UK arm of JJW Hotels & Resorts, which acquired the business two
years ago.
PartyGaming: The online gambling operator said it still expected to
complete the acquisition of certain assets of WPT Enterprises, owner of the
World Poker Tour, for $12.3 million (£7.5 million), plus a revenue share of
at least $3 million, despite a late counter-offer of $36.5 million from
Mandalay Media for the whole of WPTE.
Las Vegas Sands: The US casino operator is aiming to raise $2.5 billion
through an initial public offering in Hong Kong this month. Sands plans to
use the proceeds from selling a stake in its Macau business to pay down its
heavy debt load, estimated at nearly $11.8 billion. The fresh capital will
also go towards resuming work on multibillion-dollar casino resorts in the
Chinese city of Macau, the world’s largest casino market.
Media
ITV: The commercial broadcaster has been told that its attempt to sell
the Friends Reunited website for £25 million to Brightsolid, the genealogy
specialist, will have to be examined by the Competition Commission.
Independent News & Media: Brian Hillery, chairman of the newspaper
group, is expected to survive a vote calling for his removal at an
extraordinary meeting. Denis O’Brien, the rebel investor who holds 26 per
cent, is understood to have gained little support from the company’s
shareholders for his attempted coup.
Yell: The Yellow Pages publisher said that it had won the
support of 95 per cent of its banks to agree a relaxation of its £3.8
billion debt burden and raise £500 million of cash in a rights issue.
Natural
resources
Minara Resources: The Australian nickel miner is participating in the
sale process of BHP Billiton’s Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western
Australia. Minara said it was exploring various funding options.
Dragon Oil: Emirates National Oil, Dubai’s state-owned refiner, said
that it had agreed to pay £1.15 billion for the 48 per cent of the shares in
the Turkmenistan- focused oil explorer that it does not already own. Dragon
is listed on the London and Irish stock exchanges.
Russian oil production: Russia held its lead as the world’s top oil
producer, reporting more than 10 million barrels per day of crude extracted
in October.
Valerus Compression Services: TPG Capital, the American private equity
group, said that it will be investing $500 million (£305 million) to buy a
majority stake in the US natural gas handling services company.
Retailing
Hugo Boss: The German fashion retailer reported third-quarter net
profits of €51.5 million (£46.6 million), from a net loss of €16 million a
year ago. But sales fell by 16 per cent to €450.4 million.
Carphone Warehouse: The London-listed mobile phone retailer has warned
that the government’s 50p-a-month broadband tax to fund the expansion of
fibre-optic networks to rural areas could force 100,000 low-income
households to give up their internet lines.
Support
services
BaxterStorey: The catering group has won a contract from Barclays
covering all the bank’s non-branch offices in the UK. It already has the
contract for Barclays’ head office in Canary Wharf in the Docklands area of
London.
AssetCo: The AIM-listed emergency support services group has signed a
ten-year joint venture agreement with the Abu Dhabi Government to develop
and manage an emergency services training centre to be called Rabdan
Disaster City.
Chloride: The London-listed group, which provides blue-chip companies
with systems to protect against power outages, reported first-half pre-tax
profits down by 41 per cent to £10.4 million, but said that orders had grown
by 4 per cent to £143.7 million.
Serco: The support group, based in Hampshire, said it had signed a
contract to provide environmental services to the London Borough of Bexley.
The £160 million contract involves refuse and recycling.
Technology
Sanderson: The software and IT services group, based in Coventry, said
that it had enjoyed an upturn in trading towards the end of its financial
year and performance for the 12 months would be slightly ahead of market
expectations.
Telecoms
Orange: The mobile phone operator has resisted the temptation to spark
an iPhone price war when it starts to sell the Apple device next week.
Alternative Networks: The London-listed business communications
provider has acquired Aurora Kendrick James, the billing software group, for
£5.5 million.
Telefónica: The Spanish telecoms group’s long-running battle to
take over HanseNet, the German broadband operator, appears to be drawing to
a conclusion with reports in Spain suggesting a deal of up to €1 billion
(£904 million) will be agreed shortly.
Transport
Ryanair: The budget airline reported an 80 per cent rise in first-half
profits to €214.6 million (£194.1 million), boosted by a 42 per cent fall in
fuel costs. Passenger numbers rose by 15 per cent to 36.4 million.
TNT: The Dutch mail and express package delivery company reported a 12
per cent fall in third-quarter net profits to €99 million (£89.5 million),
from €113 million a year ago. Sales fell 8 per cent to €2.48 billion. as
companies spent less on express mail.
National Express: Key shareholders in the transport group are calling
for Jorge Cosmen, the deputy chairman, to reconsider his position as tension
grows between the senior executive and other board members.
Utilities
EDF: The French utility, which is seeking to acquire nearly half of the
nuclear assets of Constellation Energy, the American group, has agreed with
the conditions set by US regulators to proceed with the $4.5 billion (£2.7
billion) joint nuclear venture. Constellation said that the venture will
enable it to build a third reactor to meet future energy demands.
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