News

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

AstraZeneca hikes profit forecast as early swine flu sales boost revenues

October 29, 2009

ASTRAZENECA, the UK’s second biggest drug company, yesterday increased its full-year outlook for the second quarter in a row yesterday as profits jumped 24 per cent, beating forecasts. The group reported pre-tax profits of $3.03bn (£1.83bn) for its third quarter as revenues rose by five per cent to $8.2bn, helped by earlier-than-expected sales from its [...]
Blacks fights for survival as losses soar

October 29, 2009

OUTDOOR retailer Blacks Leisure yesterday revealed it had submitted a rescue restructuring plan to its bankers, after reporting its losses had more than doubled in the first six months of the year. Blacks Leisure posted a pre-tax loss of £18.1m in six months to 29 August, compared to the £6.7m loss it reported a year [...]
INM profits dive but says ad market is stabilising

October 29, 2009

TROUBLED media group Independent News & Media (INM) said yesterday it had seen a 37 per cent fall in operating profits for the year to 23 October. The Independent publisher cut its full-year operating profit guidance range to between €170m (£153m) and €190m, down from a previous estimate of €200m to €230m. But the group [...]
Bond issues help out at Moody’s

October 29, 2009

MOODY’S, parent of Moody’s Investors Service, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday on a pickup in bond issuance, and raised its outlook for the full year. Moody’s, whose main business is providing ratings for debt, and its main rival McGraw-Hill’s Standard & Poor’s, were hit hard by a slump in debt issuance during the recession, but [...]
Mobile broadband future is bright for Orange but fixed-line looks dim

October 29, 2009

ORANGE said yesterday it broke through the 17m customer barrier in its third quarter, despite haemorrhaging fixed-line broadband subscribers. France Telecom’s UK operation said fixed-line broadband customers dropped by 12.2 per cent to 899,000 during the three months to September, from 1.023m last year. But mobile broadband subscriptions rose 64 per cent year-on-year to a [...]
Cond Nast profits slump

October 29, 2009

Condé Nast’s London-based international arm saw its profits fall 12 per cent to £33.5m in 2008, as both advertising and subscriptions were hit by the recession. The Vogue publisher’s annual accounts filed at Companies House showed that its UK magazines subsidiary, Condé Nast Publications, saw profits drop by 14 per cent to £18.9m in the [...]
BAE announces 500 job cuts

October 29, 2009

Union leaders expressed their "bitter disappointment" yesterday as defence giant BAE Systems announced plans to cut over 500 jobs in its Land Systems division. News on the job cuts comes just days before the company is due to submit a bid which would allow it to supply the British Army with a new scout vehicle. [...]
Kentz wins contract in Qatar

October 29, 2009

Kentz said yesterday it had received a multi-million dollar contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of a project for Laffan Refinery in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. The contract included full site development of the main fuel truck distribution point for the Laffan refinery tank farm. Qatar Petroleum holds a 51 per cent stake [...]
Lufthansa forecasts grey skies

October 29, 2009

Deutsche Lufthansa provided a gloomy outlook for the airline industry yesterday, saying any green shoots of recovery were being swamped by pricing pressures in both passenger and cargo services. It said it was still too early to give the all-clear for the air cargo industry. Drops in volumes were not as severe as in prior [...]
NOMURA PREPARING FOR OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE VARSITY CLASH

October 29, 2009

THE City’s rugby aficionados and former Oxbridge contingent are already gearing up for this year’s Varsity match, which is being sponsored for the second year running by Japanese bank Nomura. Nomura stepped in at the last minute to save the day after it rescued the European operations of failed bank Lehman Brothers, the event’s former [...]