View
video and Need to Know interactive heatmap
Economics
Services sector: The latest purchasing managers’ index for the services
sector from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing Supply/Markit gave a
reading of 56.9 for October, from 55.3 in September and its strongest
activity since August 2007. Any figure above 50 indicates growth.
Consumer confidence: Nationwide Building Society’s index of sentiment
was reported as 72 in October, the same figure as in September and at its
highest level in 18 months.
Eurozone services sector: Markit’s final purchasing managers’ index for
the eurozone services sector rose to 52.6 in October, from 50.9 in
September, its second month of expansion and its fastest pace of increase in
22 months, led by France.
Eurozone producer prices: Eurostat, the European Union statistics
office, reported a 0.4 per cent decline in eurozone industrial producer
prices (excluding construction) during September, from August’s figure.
Compared with September 2008, industrial producer prices in the eurozone
dropped by 7.7 per cent.
US services sector: The Institute for Supply Management’s index of US
non-manufacturing businesses fell to 50.6 in October, from 50.9 in
September, a bigger decline than had been anticipated.
Banking
&
finance
Aviva: The insurance group said that it would consider bidding for some
of the €22 billion (£20 billion) in assets being auctioned by ING, the Dutch
bank. Aviva added that it could use the unit to buy local assets.
Northern Rock: About 85 per cent of all the nationalised lender’s
mortgage borrowers — a total of 476,000 — are to become financial
“prisoners”, dumped into the rump of Northern Rock’s so-called “bad bank”.
Construction & property
Liberty International: The regional landlord and owner of the Covent
Garden estate in Central London, said that activity levels among tenants had
improved and there was greater footfall around the London shopping district.
Taylor Wimpey: The housebuilder said that it had raised the price of
its new-build homes in response to “significantly better” housing market
conditions that have resulted in it running out of completed stock for the
rest of the year.
Sovereign Land: A joint venture between Sovereign Land, the investment
consortium, Area Property Partners, the American private equity manager, and
Shepherd Construction, the building contractor, has bought the part-finished
Trinity Walk Shopping Centre site in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, from KPMG,
the administrator, for an estimated £100 million, including construction
costs.
Triskelion: The consortium, which includes Laing O’Rourke, John Laing
and Serco, the construction groups, has launched a £20 million legal battle
to reclaim costs after a decision to scrap the £921 million construction of
the UK’s third-biggest private finance initiative hospital in Leicester.
British Land: The property group has appointed Stephen Smith, global
head of asset management at Axa Real Estate Management, and Charles
Maudsley, co-head of Europe at LaSalle Investment Management, to its board.
Rugby Estates: The property investor behind Rugby Estates Investment
Trust, the subject of an attempted takeover by Laxey Partners, has sold two
industrial properties for £5 million to clients of CBRE Investors as part of
its plan to return capital to shareholders.
Consumer
goods
Heineken: Scottish & Newcastle UK, the Dutch brewer’s UK operation,
is to print alcohol unit information on all its beer glasses as part of
efforts to promote responsible drinking. Starting this month with Foster’s
glasses, it will supply more than ten million branded glasses to pubs and
bars by 2011.
Cadbury: The confectionery group said that its Roses Christmas tin would be repackaged in recycled cardboard for sale in Tesco this Christmas.
At the same time, its share price fell as weak results from Kraft Foods, its
US predator, made many doubt whether Kraft would come back with a higher
offer.
Adidas: The German sports goods company gave a cautious upbeat outlook
for 2010 after reporting that third-quarter operating profits had declined
by 29.7 per cent to €213 million (£190.6 million), on sales of €2.89
billion, down by 6.3 per cent.
Engineering
Vauxhall: The 4,500 workers at the British carmaker’s Ellesmere Port
and Luton plants are expected to escape the prospect of compulsory
redundancies after General Motors, its American parent, announced surprise
plans this week to scrap the sale of its European unit. Pages 60, 72, 73
Health
AstraZeneca: The failure of Brilinta, the Anglo-Swedish drugs maker’s
experimental blood-thinning treatment, to benefit North American patients in
a clinical study is most likely a statistical fluke, according to two of the
trial’s investigators.
Industrials
Tata Steel: The Indian steel maker said that it expected Corus, its
European unit, to be operating at full capacity by the end of the fiscal
year in March. Corus, Europe’s second-largest steelmaker, had been operating
at about half its 20 million tonnes steelmaking capacity in Europe for the
past few quarters. Tata has joined other steelmakers in predicting better
prospects.
Leisure
Haven Holidays: The family holiday park operator, which is owned by
Bourne Leisure, is to invest £40 million in its 35 parks during the winter
close after a rise of 10 per cent in bookings last summer and a 20 per cent
increase in sales of static caravans.
JD Wetherspoon: The discount pub operator said that it was on target to
open 40 pubs this year as it reported a 0.3 per cent rise in like-for-like
sales in the 13 weeks to October 25, implying a 0.6 per cent decline in the
past seven weeks, albeit against a strong comparative period.
Eating out: The cost of a three-course meal in pubs, restaurants and
hotels has gone up by 6 per cent to an average of £18.45 over the past year,
as operators have offset the impact of main course promotions by raising
prices on starters and desserts, according to Horizons’ Menurama
report.
BetOnSports: The brother and sister of the founder of the now- defunct
online gambling company were each sentenced to ten months’ house arrest
after agreeing to hand over $6 million (£3.6 million) held in Swiss bank
accounts. The sentences handed out to Neil Scott Kaplan and Lori Beth
Kaplan-Multz, who had both worked for the company, came a day after their
brother, Gary Kaplan, received a 51-month jail term.
Costa: The Advertising Standards Authority is understood to have
concluded in a draft report that the coffee shop chain’s claim that “7 out
of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa” fails to pass muster on a number of
points, although its final recommendations are not yet known.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation: The US hotel operator is expected to launch
its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange today at about $22 a share,
just below its estimated range of $23 to $26, raising about $836 million for
the feuding Pritzker family.
Mitchells & Butlers: The pub and restaurant operator is seeking a
new heavyweight non-executive director with a view to the successful
candidate taking over as chairman in the next few months. Drummond Hall,
chairman since June last year, is understood to want to step down.
Media
Comcast: The largest American cable television operator reported a 22.5
per cent increase in third-quarter earnings to $944 million (£569 million),
from $771 million last time, beating analysts’ expectations despite a
slowdown in subscriber growth.
ITV: Bob Wigley, the former head of Merrill Lynch in Europe, has
emerged as a leading candidate in the saga to find a successor to Michael
Grade as chairman of the commercial broadcaster. ITV has spent more than six
months trying to find a new leader in a process that has been embarrassingly
played out in public.
Natural
resources
Gold: The price of gold hit a record $1,092.60 an ounce on the spot
market, lifted by a weaker dollar and support from the news that India is to
buy 200 tonnes of the metal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The
Reserve Bank of India’s $6.7 billion (£4 billion) deal had removed concerns
that the IMF’s gold could flood the retail market and weigh on prices.
Retailing
Marks & Spencer: The high street retailer is introducing 400 non-M&S
branded products across its stores for the first time since the 1950s. The
move came as the group unveiled flat pre-tax profits of £298 million for the
six months to September 26 — ahead of analysts’ forecasts of £285 million.
Next: The high street fashion retailer reported third-quarter sales up
by 3.1 per cent, compared with a year ago, and raised its profit guidance
for the full year by £30 million to about £472 million, which would
represent a 10 per cent improvement on last year.
Support
services
WSP: The consultant said that market conditions remained “very
challenging” with difficult trading across its private sector-facing
businesses. The group, which has UK offices in Manchester, Leeds and
Bristol, added that its debt levels remained “comfortably within” its
banking covenants.
Technology
Logica: The London-listed IT services company has modestly reduced its
full-year revenue guidance by about 2 per cent but has dispelled notions
that it was set for a profit warning by maintaining margin guidance. It said
that it has continued to benefit from its investment in outsourcing services
with a 12 per cent rise in revenue in that business.
Pace: The London-listed set-top box maker said that it expected its
average selling price to rise in the second half after reporting that it
expects to hit its full-year expectations. The company, which sells kit to
Sky, Comcast in the United States and Canal Plus in France, has shaken off
the effects of delays to its launch in Germany.
Apple: The US computer group has revealed that its App Store now has
100,000 applications that customers can download. Since the iPhone was
launched two years ago, the number of applications available has grown, with
Apple offering the largest number by a substantial margin.
Intel: The legal battles of the US computer chip maker escalated when
Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney-general, accused it of using “illegal
threats and collusion” to dominate the marketplace for computer
microprocessors. This follows similar claims made in an action by the
European Commission that resulted in a record $1.45 billion (£874 billion)
fine for Intel earlier this year.
Ultrasis: The medical software group reported its first full-year
pre-tax profit of £704,000 and said that its “Beating the Blues” depression
treatment is now available in 120 of England’s 153 primary care health
trusts.
Telecoms
Telefónica: The Spanish telecoms group has raised its bid for
Brazil’s GVT by 5.2 per cent to ward off competition from Vivendi, its
rival. The renewed bid values GVT at $3.9 billion (£2.3 billion), compared
with its earlier $3.7 billion offer. Vivendi has yet to make a move on GVT
but has indicated that it is interested.
Transport
First Group: The bus and rail operator will receive almost £150 million
in taxpayers’ support this year, as rail revenues on two of its biggest
franchises slide. The group, which has been hit by the weaker economy, said
that pre-tax profits had fallen by 44 per cent to £30.3 million.
Bmi: A quarter of the staff at bmibaby have been told they are to lose
their jobs, only two days after Lufthansa, its German parent, put a new boss
in charge of the loss-making UK airline. It said that 158 of its 633
employees would go. The airline will consolidate its operations into East
Midlands airport and expand the number of routes it operates from there.
Utilities
Gas Natural: The Spanish utility said that its nine-month core earnings
had beat forecasts thanks to a solid performance of its regulated gas and
electricity business which had offset weak demand, but added that it is
looking to shed assets to reduce its debt burdeen. Net profits missed
forecasts after financial costs relating to the company’s €21.9 billion
(£19.6 billion) nearly trebled.
Your Comments
Order By: