News

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

Bellway looks on bright side as profits fall

October 13, 2009

HOUSEBUILDER Bellway has said it is well positioned for the future, despite the fact it saw an 82 per cent fall in full-year profits last year. The group said its pre-tax profits in the year to end-July were £29.8m, compared to £165.7m in the previous year, but this was slightly ahead of market expectations. Including [...]
FREE (DELIVERY) TO A GOOD HOME

October 13, 2009

Amazon UK is offering free delivery on everything in the run up to Christmas, scrapping the previous £5 threshold to qualify for the service. Free delivery will apply for all items until January 1, but does not apply to goods from third party sellers trading on Amazon. Amazon UK, along with Argos and eBay, is [...]
J&J sees a profit rise, as sales dip

October 13, 2009

Johnson & Johnson, the US healthcare firm, posted weaker-than-expected quarterly sales yesterday as sales of prescription drugs and cardiac stents disappointed. While third-quarter profit topped analyst forecasts, that was largely because of cost cuts and lower taxes. Generic competition and safety concerns have undermined sales of many major products for the firm. Anaemia medicine Procrit, [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS

October 13, 2009

RothschildThe bank has hired Penny Lovell as client director in its private banking and trust business. Lovell joins from Fleming Family & Partners, where she spent eight years in a variety of senior client relationship roles, most recently as group head of business development. Prior to that, she spent five years at Coutts & Co, [...]
AIGin $2.15bn Taiwan sale

October 13, 2009

INSURER American International Group (AIG) has finally struck a deal to sell its Taiwanese life insurance arm for $2.15bn (£1.36bn), in a key step in its bid to pay off its $80bn government bailout. AIGsold its Nan Shan Life arm to two little-known buyers – a start-up financial group run by a former Citigroup banker [...]
CIT chief plans exit as the lender struggles on

October 13, 2009

Embattled CIT Group said yesterday that its chief executive Jeffrey Peek will retire at the end of the year, as the commercial finance company struggles to avoid bankruptcy. The company, which lends to small and medium-sized businesses, said its board of directors is forming a committee to search for a successor. Peek has led CIT [...]
RBS Coutts to ramp up hires after exodus

October 13, 2009

RBS COUTTS may look to speed up its hiring plans in Asia after 70 staff staged a co-ordinated mass exodus from the private bank. The group of staff at the Singapore office of Royal Bank of Scotland’s private bank left simultaneously and many are now expected to join Swiss rival BSI. The departures come just [...]
Condom maker SSL sees sales growth but news isn’t enough to lift its shares

October 13, 2009

Condom maker SSL International is on course to hit its earnings targets after sales grew 20 per cent during the first half of the year, the company said yesterday. SSL, whose products include Durex condoms and Scholl footwear, said sales in the six months to 30 September were up 20 per cent to £387m, from [...]
Union reaches deal with Magna on the future of Vauxhall’s 5,000 jobs in UK

October 13, 2009

JOB fears at the UK’s Vauxhall plants were eased yesterday, after Unite union said it had made a deal with the car brand’s new owner, Magna. The union said 600 jobs would go in the UK – far fewer than the 1,200 initially anticipated – and all through voluntary redundancies. Vauxhall, which trades as Opel [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS

October 13, 2009

TATE & LYLECredit Suisse raised its forecasts for Tate & Lyle by four per cent for next year and seven per cent for the following year, upped its price target to 550p, from 300p, and upgraded its rating to “outperform”. The broker notes that the starch business is holding up and said that the new [...]