News

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

RadioShack beats Wall St forecasts

October 26, 2009

ELECTRONICS chain RadioShack yesterday posted third-quarter sales that topped Wall Street expectations, helped by its push into mobile phones, sending its shares up 16 per cent to a year high. Net sales totaled $990m (£606m), well ahead of average Wall Street forecasts of $961.7m. While profit was slightly below estimates, falling to $37.4m from $49.1m, [...]
Pension funds on road to recovery, says the OECD

October 26, 2009

IN the first half of 2009, pension funds tracked by the OECD recovered $1.5 trillion (£918bn) of the $5.4 trillion they lost in market value last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said yesterday. “The recovery in pension fund performance has continued through 30 September 2009, on the back of strong equity returns, [...]
Branson ups ante with launch of Virgin Bank

October 26, 2009

SERIAL entrepreneur Sir?Richard Branson is back with another audacious venture. This time, he is applying to City watchdog the FSA for permission to turn his Virgin Money business into a fully fledged bank – but the move has divided the City. Virgin has been trying to boost its financial services presence for some time now. [...]
CITY VIEWS: HOW UPBEAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SIR RICHARD BRANSON’S LATEST FORAY INTO BANKING?

October 26, 2009

JULIAN TAVORA CGD“As a consumer, it’s always good to have more options and more competition in the retail banking market. Branson’s name will add respect to the brand, but he is involved with many different things so will need to hire specialist talent to recognise the bank’s potential.” NISHA TAILOR RBC DEXIA“I am upbeat – [...]
EXPERT?VIEWS: IS THE VIRGIN BRAND ENOUGH TO DRAW CUSTOMERS TO BANK WITH BRANSON?

October 26, 2009

GRAHAM HALES MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERBRAND“The Virgin brand has always managed to pull customers towards it. Every time the company enters a market it always embarks on a consumer championing. People expect to get a better deal with Branson, and picture it to be a bright, fun environment, which will draw customers in.” ANGELA KNIGHT BBA“Competition [...]
Former GCap boss Richard Eyre is in the race for Channel 4 chairmanship

October 26, 2009

FORMER GCap chairman Richard Eyre has been short-listed for the role of Channel 4 chairman, a position Ofcom said yesterday it intends to fill within the next couple of weeks. The communications regulator is in the final interview stages to find a replacement for Luke Johnson, whose tenure as chairman of the state-owned broadcaster comes [...]
UKCoal sees production slump after worker death

October 26, 2009

UK COAL said yesterday its third-quarter revenue fell 20 per cent on lower sales, and added it expected deep mine output for the year to miss its own estimates after a death at one of its mines hit production. The firm said the death of a 46-year-old man at its Kellingley site in north Yorkshire [...]
Posen: lack of credit could hurt growth

October 26, 2009

POOR availability of credit to non-financial companies will lead to insufficient investment in the British economy and could harm the potential rate of growth in the future, monetary policy committee (MPC) member Adam Posen said yesterday. In his first public speech since joining the MPC in September, Posen said he was concerned about the ability [...]
Retailers forced to shut up shop as crunch bites

October 26, 2009

THE lingering recession has forced almost 26,000 shops out of business, draining life from the economy and leaving hundreds of town centres pockmarked with empty premises, figures from The Local Data Company show. One in ten of the 251,462 shops in 705 town centres tracked by the data house closed up in the nine months [...]
Lehman-backed products cause collapse of ACI

October 26, 2009

A THIRD UK company which sold investments backed by Lehman Brothers has gone into administration, after a Financial Services Authority investigation into the way “structured products” had been sold. London-based Arc Capital and Income (ACI) sold the complicated “capital guaranteed” structured products, some of which were backed by the collapsed US bank, via independent advisers. [...]