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Economics
Quantitative easing: The Bank of England voted to increase its
quantitative easing programme by £25 billion, taking it to £200 billion, and
to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.5 per cent.
Manufacturing output: Official figures showed that manufacturing output
rose by 1.7 per cent in September, its biggest increase since July 2002,
after a surprise 2 per cent decline in August.
The economy: GDP decreased by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter,
according to an initial estimate from the National Institute of Economic and
Social Research.
Eurozone interest rates: The European Central Bank has left eurozone
interest rates unchanged at 1 per cent.
Eurozone retail sales: Official figures showed a 0.7 per cent drop in
eurozone retail sales in September, and a 3.6 per cent decline on a year ago.
French stimulus: The weight of public debt has forced President Sarkozy
to scale a back his plan to finance a stimulus package with a €100 billion
(£89.7 billion) loan. Instead the loan will be between €25 billion and €50
billion.
Banking
&
finance
RSA: The commercial insurer said that it was in the market for
acquisitions as premium sales rose 4 per cent to £5 billion in the nine
months to the end of September.
Nasdaq: The US exchange operator reported third-quarter profits of $60
million (£36.2 million), from $58 million a year ago.
French banks: The French Government will regulate how the country’s
banks award bonuses, including incentives to avoid risky practices and
short-term thinking.
UBS: The Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, fined the
Swiss bank £8 million for weak controls that allowed staff to make
unauthorised trades with clients’ money.
Northern Rock: The Treasury expects Northern Rock to lose retail
deposits worth billions of pounds once the Government removes financial
guarantees from the state-owned lender.
Construction
&
property
Grainger: The housing developer said that it plans to raise £238
million to take advantage of acquisition opportunities.
Quintain Estates: The property group announced a £183.5 million rights
issue to repay debt and invest in new ventures.
Jones Lang LaSalle: The consultant said bank lending to property
companies fell in the third quarter, for the first time since December 1997,
to £244 billion, from £246.5 billion.
US commercial property: Vacancies in US commercial property will rise
and rents will fall until 2010, according to a report by
PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Consumer
goods
Unilever: The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group beat forecasts with a
3.6 per cent rise in third-quarter sales volumes from a year ago, although
pre-tax profits were down 43 per cent to €1.4 billion (£1.3 billion).
L’Oréal: The French cosmetics group reported third-quarter
revenue down by 0.7 per cent to €4.24 billion, from $4.27 billion a year ago.
Engineering
Toyota: The Japanese carmaker reported quarterly profits of 21.8
billion yen (£146 million), down by 84 per cent on a year ago, but an
improvement after three consecutive quarters of losses.
General Motors: The US carmaker said it is confident that it can
restructure its European Opel unit, which owns the two Vauxhall plants in
the UK.
EADS: The South African Government has cancelled a $5.2 billion (£3.1
billion) contract to buy eight Airbus A400M military transport planes. The
aerospace group is trying to save the project from cost overruns and delays.
Society of Motor Manufacturers: The industry body said the car
scrappage scheme had helped to produce the year’s biggest monthly increase
in new car registrations in October, when sales jumped by 31.6 per cent.
Doncasters: Dubai Investment Capital, the sovereign wealth fund, has
put an extra £53 million into its £700 million Sheffield engineering
business to prevent a breach of banking covenants.
Health
BTG: The London-listed drugs maker reported a 59 per cent rise in
first-half revenues to £47.9 million, helped by its 2008 acquisition of
Protherics, the biotech.
Industrials
OM Group: The US speciality chemicals maker reported third-quarter
profits down by 80 per cent to $11.4 million (£6.8 million), compared with
$56.3 million a year ago, on lower selling prices and sales volumes, and
said it will cut 94 jobs as a result of reduced production.
Leisure
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels: Kwek Leng Beng, chairman of the
upmarket hotel operator, said “the worst may be behind us” as the company
reported a 37 per cent fall in third-quarter pre-tax profits to £21.9
million. He said the decline in revenue per available room had slowed and
fourth-quarter bookings were showing “some positive momentum”.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation: The US operator priced its initial public
offering at $25 per share on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $950
million (£573.5 million) for Pritzker family which controls the company.
De Vere Group: The hotel and conference centre operator, owned by the
Alternative Hotel Group, has appointed Deborah Kemp, former managing
director of the leased pub division of Punch Taverns, as chief operating
officer.
Merchant Inns: Sir John Ritblat, the former British Land chairman, is
tipped to regain control of Merchant Inns, his fledgeling pub chain, less
than a month after its collapse into administration. The chain of seven
inns, a joint venture between Sir John and Robert Breare, the entrepreneur,
could fetch up to £25 million.
MGM Mirage: The US casino and hotel group reported a third-quarter loss
of $750.4 million, from a profit of $61.3 million a year ago, largely
because gamblers continue to spend less during the recession.
Media
Thomson Reuters: The news and information provider reported
third-quarter net income down by 60 per cent to $162 million (£97.8 million)
from a year ago, as revenue in its legal and market divisions fell.
Channel 4: Lord Burns, the former Permanent Secretary at the Treasury,
has been appointed chairman of the state-owned broadcaster.
Natural
resources
Petroplus: The Swiss oil company said it will suspend its refinery
operations, leaving dozens of jobs on Teesside in doubt.
Royal Dutch Shell: The Anglo-Dutch oil group is a member of a
consortium which has signed a $50 billion (£30.2 billion) contract to
develop one of Iraq’s largest oilfields.
BP: The oil and gas group said that it hoped to build a US biofuel
plant next year that will produce ethanol from grass.
Central Rand Gold: The South African mining group said that it had won
a court battle with Puno Gold Investments, sending its share price up by 17
per cent.
Retailing
Signet: The parent company of H Samuel and Ernest Jones said that
cheaper diamond prices had helped the jewellery chains to report declines in
third-quarter same-store sales narrowing to 0.2 per cent, from a fall of 4.3
per cent in the previous three months.
Support
services
Shanks: The FTSE 250 recycling group said that its first-half pre-tax
profits had fallen by 28 per cent to £16.5 million in “challenging” markets.
Aramark: The contract caterer has acquired the facilities managment and
property management divisions of Veris, the Irish support group, for €50.8
million (£45.5 million) through Livingstone Partners.
Technology
Fujitsu: The Unite union has served notice of a three-day strike at the
UK branches of the Japanese IT company, after it announced 1,200 job cuts in
Britain. .
Illegal file sharing: The European Parliament has removed one of the
final hurdles to plans by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, to impose
sanctions on illegal file sharers.
IMS Health: The US data provider to the pharmaceuticals industry is to
be acquired by TPG and Canada Pension for $5.2 billion (£3.1 billion) in the
largest leveraged buyout this year.
Telecoms
Telefónica: The Spanish telecoms group is buying HanseNet, the
German internet company, after agreeing to pay €900 million (£807.3 million)
for the business.
T-Mobile: The mobile phone group, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom,
said that its performance in the UK has continued to improve ahead of its
merger with Orange. The company added a net 20,000 new customers during the
third quarter.
Deutsche Telekom: The German group reported that its third-quarter net
profits had risen by 7 per cent to €959 million, from €895 million a year
ago, helped by cost cutting.
Cable & Wireless: The London-listed telecoms group has confirmed
its plans to demerge its regional and business divisions into separate
companies. But the news was overshadowed by a profit warning related to the
company's Caribbean operation which has been hit by a slowdown in tourism.
Transport
National Express: The Government has announced that it will take
control of the transport group’s loss-making East Coast main line rail
service from London to Edinburgh next week and will keep the franchise until
a new operator is found.
Emirates: The Dubai-owned carrier reported a 165 per cent rise in
first-half profits 752 million dirhams (£123.5 million), from 284 million
dirhams a year ago, thanks to cost cuts and lower fuel prices. But the
airline warned that it would take time for travel demand to recover
significantly.
Civil Aviation Authority: The industry body has begun a consultation on
improving airport competition after the decision by BAA to sell Gatwick and
a ruling from the Competition Commission that BAA should also dispose of two
other airports.
Wincanton: The haulage and logistics company, based in Wiltshire,
reported first-half pre-tax profits down by 16 per cent to £18 million, but
said that a mix of new contracts and cost-cutting was helping to stem the
impact of the recession.
British Airways: Cabin crew at the carrer will “unwillingly” accept
changes to their work rotas later this month, according to the Unite union,
after the High Court failed to grant an injunction against the airline’s
cost-cutting measures.
Utilities
Horizon Nuclear Power: The new nuclear power company, based in
Gloucester and formed from a joint venture between E.ON and RWE, the German
utilities, aims to invest £15 billion and create 11,000 jobs in the UK
energy industry over the next 15 years. The first reactor is expected to go
online in 2020.
Gas storage: A billion-pound project to develop Europe’s largest gas
storage facility in the North Sea is close to collapse because the Crown
Estate, the owner of the UK seabed, is obstructing its development.
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