Economics
Retail sales confounded City predictions of a further fall in the
volume of goods sold to stage a surprise 0.8 per cent rise during July. The
modest but unexpected revival came after a sharper than previously estimated
4.3 per cent plunge in June and despite an average 1.6 per cent rise in
prices in July, the steepest increase for ten years. The surprisingly strong
official figures caused confusion about the true state of consumer demand,
conflicting as they did with recent and much weaker survey data.
Banking
& finance
Amlin, the insurance group, reported a 26 per cent fall in its
first-half pretax profits to £137.3 million, from £185 million a year ago,
but still managed to beat analysts’ forecasts. It blamed the fall on reduced
investment income, saying that its core underwriting business remained
strong. Amlin’s shares fell by 3 per cent to 273.5p.
Fortis, the troubled Belgo-Dutch bank, has continued its asset sale
with the news that it has sold a 49 per cent stake in AATEDA Fund
Management, its Chinese joint venture, to Old Mutual, the international
financial services group, for €165 million (£130.9 million).
Lehman Brothers China’s Citic Securities and the state-owned Korea
Development Bank have denied that they had held formal talks earlier this
month with Lehman Brothers about buying up to half of the beleaguered Wall
Street bank.
The Coventry, the UK’s fourth-largest building society, said that its
mortgage lending levels had soared to three times its normal market share as
borrowers decided that they would prefer to stay with the society rather
than move to other lenders.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China was the world’s most
profitable bank in the first half, reporting a 64.5 billion yuan renminbi
(£5.05 billion) net profit, a 57 per cent rise on the same period last year.
Construction
& property
Persimmon, the York housebuilder which is the UK’s biggest by market
value, reported a 64 per cent plunge in first-half pretax profits to £100.9
million, from £281.1 million a year ago. At the same time, it cut its
dividend by 73 per cent to 5p a share in a bid to save cash ahead of an
uncertain autumn. lying interim pretax profits to £68.3 million.
Consumer
goods
Equatorial Palm Oil, the Liberia-focused producer of crude palm oil,
said that it plans to raise up to £15 million on the admission of its shares
to London’s junior Alternative Investment Market.
Northern Foods said that its factory in Grantham, Lincolnshire, which
produces Marks & Spencer ready meals, will close after two decades spent
supplying the retail group. The plant lost its contract in May after failing
to agree new terms with M&S. It had employed 730 staff.
Engineering
Invensys, the AIM-listed engineering and technology group, said that it
had bought SAT Corporation, the American industrial software supplier, for
$52 million (£27.7 million).
Tata Motors, the Indian group, has been forced to scrap a planned 30
billion rupee (£368 million) rights issue that was intended to help to
finance the group’s acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar. Tata, which bought
the British marques from Ford for £1.15 billion earlier this year, cancelled
the convertible preference share issue after its share price plummeted.
PV Crystalox Solar, the London-listed manufacturer of silicon ingots
and wafers for the solar panel industry, which is based in Oxfordshire,
reported that its half-year net income had almost tripled to €36.9 million
(£29.3 million), from a year ago, thanks to strong demand for silicon
products and firm wafer pricing. ”
Domino Printing Sciences, the inkjet and laser technology group, which
is based in Cambridge, said that it has bought Alternative Printing
Services, the German maker of inkjet printers, for an initial €15.2 million
(£12.05 million).
Health
ProStrakan, the London-listed pharmaceuticals group which is based in
Galashiels, on the Scottish Borders, said that the launch of Abstral, its
pain relief treatment, would boost its second-half revenues and added that
it expects to become profitable in 2009. The company reported a 26 per cent
rise in first-half revenue to £26.4 million, while its operating loss before
a £2.2 million impairment charge was £7.6 million.
Industrials
Dyson, the London-listed group which develops high performance
materials for demanding environments, said that its divisional performance
has been hit by high energy costs and lower sales, mitigated to an extent by
price increases and cost reduction, resulting in an overall satisfactory
performance for the Sheffield group in terms of pretax profit and debt
levels.
Leisure
Ladbrokes Usdaw, the trade union, said that workers at Ladbrokes’s
telephone betting call centre in Liverpool have voted in favour of taking
industrial action after receiving a pay offer of 3 per cent.
Cineworld, which operates 74 cinema complexes throughout the United
Kingdom and Ireland, said that it is confident of meeting analysts’
full-year operating expectations of about £50 million, despite a 4.8 per
cent downturn in admissions in the first half of 2008. The group said that
while admissions were lower in the period, first-half box office takings
were up by 6.1 per cent to £89.6 million, which is slightly better than the
industry average.
Media
WPP, the London-listed advertising group, said that it has acquired a
minority stake of 12.82 per cent in IGA, the Cayman Island parent company of
InGame Ad Inter-active Technology in China.
International Greetings, the gift wrap and cracker company based in
Hertfordshire, predicted that its UK arm will return to profitability within
the next two years. It said that a new management team and steps to
streamline the business, after the loss of about 200 jobs, will help the
recovery.
CEC Unet, the Chinese media services company, said that it has sold its
interest in China Business Post for $3.4 million (£1.8 million) to
Chen Zengjie, a Chinese citizen.
Natural
resources
Eurasian Natural Resources, the Kazakh mining group which is the
world’s largest producer of ferrochrome, reported a 160 per cent jump in
half-year earnings per share, thanks to strong metals prices and higher
output.
Hochschild Mining, the Latin American silver and gold producer,
reported an 86 per cent increase in core first-half earnings to $104 million
(£55.5 million) and said that it was on track to achieve its 2008 production
target.
Retailing
Boots A former drive-through McDonald’s restaurant has been taken over
by Boots, the high street health and beauty retailer. The store will allow
customers to drive up to a window, hand in a prescription and pick up the
medication from a collection point. The stores could be introduced across
the UK if the pilot in Colchester, Essex, proves a success.
Tesco, the supermarket group, said that it has raised a further £605
million in four sale-and-leaseback property deals. The transactions mean
that it has raised nearly £2 billion since it set a target in 2006 of £5
billion from its UK property portfolio by 2011 to fund growth opportunities.
Mamas & Papas, the specialist retailer, said that it will open four
new stores after a 46 per cent sales rise so far this year. The group plans
to open in Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast and the Westfield shopping centre in
White City, West London.
Retail expenditure Britons spend more on health and beauty products
than consumers in any other country in the European Union, according to
figures from Verdict Research. We spend an average of €375 (£297.5) on such
products per person each year, compared with €327 in France, €305 in Italy
and €289 in Germany.
Support
services
Hydrogen Group, the London-listed specialist recruitment company,
reported a fall in first-half pretax profits to £3.3 million, from £3.91
million a year ago, because of lower revenues, and said it expects the
challenging trading conditions to continue.
John Menzies, the aviation services to news distribution group,
reported a 26 per cent fall in first-half pretax profits to £11.3 million,
down from £15.3 million last year, as it used £3 million of start-up costs
to expand its ground-handling operation for airports.
Monitise, the mobile payments service, said its full-year pretax loss
had widened to £14 million, from £8.7 million last time, because of product
development and deployment expenses, although its revenues had trebled.
Technology
Publishing Technology, the AIM-listed Oxford group which provides
software and consulting services to book publishers, reported an underlying
first-half profit of £100,000, boosted by a 10 per cent rise in revenue.
Telecoms
Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong telecoms to ports conglomerate,
reported a 63 per cent fall in first-half earnings to HK$3.18 billion (£217
million) because of a lack of asset sales, but beat forecasts as lower 3G
telecoms losses and a strong performance at Husky Energy boosted its
underlying profit.
Transport
Goldenport Holdings, the London-listed international shipping company,
said it has ordered two more bulk carrier vessels from Qingshan Shipyard of
China for a total of $91.6 million (£48.9 million). Qingshan, a member of
the Changjiang National Shipping Group, will deliver the 57,000 deadweight
tonnes vessels in 2010.
Utilities
Scottish & Southern Energy said that it will be putting an extra
29.2 per cent on its gas bills for customers and 19.2 per cent on its
electricity bills. Separately, more than four million customers of E.ON, its
fellow utility group, have been hit with energy price rises of up to 26 per
cent.
