Michael Page International share price down as recruitment company reveals strong profit growth for year ended December 2015, driven by robust jobs market in US March 10, 2016 Share price in Michael Page International fell today despite the recruitment company revealing strong profit growth for its year ended December 2015. The recruiter, which also trades as PageGroup, revealed a profit before tax of £90.7m, up 12.9 per cent on £80.4m the year before. Meanwhile, revenue inched up slightly to £1.1bn, an increase of 1.7 per [...]
Sweet: Krispy Kreme could be planning an IPO in London March 10, 2016 Krispy Kreme is planning an IPO in London, City PM understands. It may be a volatile time to do it – but we'd imagine there will be a hole lot of interest… Sky News reported that the company's owner, Alcuin Capital Partners, had appointed Investec to oversee the flotation. The news comes a day after [...]
Amec Foster Wheeler share price jumps on plan to weather oil price rout March 10, 2016 Shares in Amec Foster Wheeler jumped this morning after it announced the sale of one of its units and plans to halve net debt in the next 15 months, despite Britain's largest oil and gas engineering group swinging to a loss in 2015. The figures: Amec made a pre-tax loss of £235m in the 12 months ended 31 [...]
Latin American oil producers push back early meeting on output freeze March 10, 2016 Latin American oil producers have postponed a meeting due tomorrow, where they would have coordinated support for an output freeze or other measures to bolster low oil prices. Scheduling difficulties mean the meeting between Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico will now take place at the end of this month or the beginning of April. "One of the problems [...]
John Lewis grows market share in challenging conditions, but PBT falls as pension charges and property declines take hit March 10, 2016 John Lewis Partnership has heralded its market share growth despite "challenging markets". The figures Profit before tax was down 10.9 per cent to £305.5m, in line with expectations, "entirely due" to pension charges and lower property profits, the partnership said. Operating profits before property rose 3.9 per cent to £8.87m at Waitrose and £1.8m at [...]
Renters to be priced out of the market by 2026 as deposits rocket 40 per cent March 10, 2016 A lot has been made of the problems first-time home buyers are having at the moment – but won't someone please think of the renters? A new report by Money.co.uk has suggested even those in the rental market could be priced out of the market by 2026 – as deposits rocket by 40 per cent to [...]
John Lewis bonus falls to 10 per cent – but still gets a big cheer March 10, 2016 John Lewis Partnership staff gave a huge cheer this morning as the retailer revealed this year's bonus stood at 10 per cent – down on last year's 11 per cent boost. More than 91,000 JLP partners – who work for both the eponymous department store and Waitrose – applauded as the figure was revealed from a giant [...]
Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden’s total remuneration plummeted last year, sad face March 10, 2016 Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden's pay packet was cut by almost 80 per cent last year, as the energy giant faced a challenging year ahead of its mega-merger with BG. The boss pocketed a mere €5.1m for 2015, having received a total remuneration of €24.2m the year before, though this included pension accrual, taxes and other [...]
Competition and Markets Authority investigation into the UK’s big six energy companies: CMA wants energy price cap for pre-payment meters March 10, 2016 Britain's competition watchdog wants to introduce temporary price controls for four million households which are on pre-payment meters, as it laid out sweeping reforms aimed at injecting more competition into Britain's energy market. This would cut bills by a total of £300m a year and will remain in place until 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) [...]
Morrisons’ share price falls 2.5 per cent as dividend is cut on sales and profits decline March 10, 2016 Sales and profits at Morrisons have fallen again – but the supermarket management is talking confidently about progress made so far, and guided on future dividends in an effort to woo shareholders. Morrisons' share price was down 2.5 per cent in mid-morning trading, however, as investors digested the news that this year's dividend was being slashed [...]