News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

Profits down at Enterprise as pubs suffer

November 17, 2009

BRITAIN’S second-biggest pubs company, Enterprise Inns, yesterday blamed consumer belt-tightening, higher costs and competition for lower profits and warned of more woe this year. Enterprise, which has 7,400 leased and tenanted pubs, said underlying pre-tax profit fell 21 per cent to £208m in the year to the end of September, just below a forecast for [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS

November 17, 2009

BT GROUPJP Morgan downgraded BT to “neutral”, saying that the group delivered on earnings in its first-half, but that there is reduced upside and scope for positive surprises. This and the increased pension liability drove the downgrade to the broker’s valuation, with the target price dropping to 170p. It believes the pending pension review will [...]
City warns on harmful tax policies

November 17, 2009

BUSINESS leaders yesterday implored the government to consider the long-term effects of tax and spending policies on the future competitiveness of the UK as a global financial powerhouse, in a new report co-authored by Canada Corporation and business group London First. Baroness Jo Valentine, the chief executive of London First, said London [...]
Reshaped Fortis is in the black after strong inflows

November 17, 2009

BELGIAN insurer Fortis yesterday unveiled a profit for the third quarter and said revenues in 2009 would at least match last year’s. The former Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance group, which was broken apart after becoming one of Europe’s largest victims of the global financial crisis, said net profit totalled €196m (£173m) between July and September. [...]
Sainsbury’s ramps up price war

November 17, 2009

J Sainsbury has fired another shot in the supermarket discount war by matching Tesco with a buy one, get one free later offer. The offer, which has been welcomed by food waste campaigners, allows shoppers to pick up their free product when they want it via a voucher system. Sainsbury’s said its offer will also [...]
INM rejigs Irish production unit

November 17, 2009

Independent News & Media (INM) has announced the complete reorganisation of its print and production assets in Northern and the Republic of Ireland, meaning that its leading facilities in Dublin, Newry and Belfast are to be managed as a single, combined entity. INM said that the move will deliver “significant efficiencies” and “improved time to [...]
Obama creates fraud taskforce

November 17, 2009

The Obama administration created a new task force yesterday to crack down on financial fraud, an increasingly important political issue after a spike in mortgage scams and big Wall Street scandals. President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing the task force, led by the Justice Department, to investigate and prosecute financial crimes connected to [...]
Regal fined 600,000 for rules breach

November 17, 2009

OIL explorer Regal Petroleum was yesterday landed with a £600,000 fine from the London Stock Exchange for “numerous, serious breaches” of its rules in relation to the company’s Greek exploration wells. The LSE’s Aim market disciplinary committee said statements released by Regal between 2003 and 2005, claiming oil reserves of up to 227m barrels at [...]
ALLEN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER

November 17, 2009

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been diagnosed with cancer. He has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has begun chemotherapy. Allen left Microsoft in 1983 after being first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, and is said to be optimistic he can survive this time also. He continues to work at his investment firm, Vulcan.
IrishLife tumbles after third quarter stats reveal rising bad loan provisions

November 17, 2009

BANCASSURER Irish Life & Permanent saw its shares fall by as much as 15 per cent in morning trading yesterday as it revealed rising impairments in its loan book. In a statement described by analysts as “very weak”, the company said total bad debt provisions for the three years to 2011 had risen from €700m [...]