LONDON (Reuters UK) - Britain's biggest back-office outsourcing firm, Capita Group CPI, posted a 16 percent rise in first-half profit on Thursday and said the second half of the year had started strongly. Capita, which runs London's vehicle congestion charge and collects payments from Britain's...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Spread-betting firm IG Group IGG said it met market forecasts with a 40 percent rise in full-year profit, as volatile financial markets encouraged clients to place more bets. IG said its pretax profit for the year to May 31 was 96.99 ...
By John Bowker LONDON (Reuters UK) - Budget airline easyJet warned on Thursday that the soaring cost of fuel could cut full year pretax profits 42 percent to 110 million pounds, and unveiled plans to cut capacity this winter. Analysts had been expecting a drop to...
By Dan Lalor LONDON (Reuters UK) - House builder Persimmon PSN is cutting over a quarter of its workforce as first-half home sales fell 31 percent, but said there would not be a significant writedown in the value of its land holdings. Chief Executive Mike Farley...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Outdoor retailer Blacks Leisure BSLA said like-for-like group sales fell 5.4 percent in the 19 weeks to July 12, but it was making good progress in reducing costs and improving margins. The company, which has 428 stores selling camping equipment and...
By Mark Potter LONDON (Reuters UK) - Sporting goods retailer Sports Direct SPD, reported a 30 percent fall in core earnings for its first year as a public company, calling it the toughest in its history and forecasting no upturn this year. The Sports World and...
By Steve Slater and Andrew Hay LONDON/MADRID (Reuters UK) - Spanish bank Santander is buying Alliance & Leicester for 1.3 billion pounds to provide "critical mass" to its existing bank Abbey, but its target was slammed for selling out cheaply. Santander, Europe's second-biggest bank after HSBC...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Public sector borrowing rose more than expected last month to a series high for the month of June, official figures showed on Friday, in a sign that a slowing economy is taking its toll on the public purse. The Office for National...
By Dan Lalor and Mark Potter LONDON (Reuters UK) - Builders Bovis Homes BVS and Redrow RDW are cutting 40 percent of their workforces, about 750 jobs in total, to cope with the deepening depression in the housing market. The downturn has gathered pace in the...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Property developer and housebuilder Berkeley Group (BKG_u) reported a 3.2 percent increase in annual profit on Friday, at the bottom end of estimates, and deferred the last payment of its cash return programme. The company said the market had been challenging since...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Womenswear retailer Jacques Vert JQV said trade had continued to deteriorate in the last 10 weeks and it expects no improvement for the rest of the financial year, sending its shares to a two-month low. The company, which retails the Windsmoor, Planet...
By Rhys Jones LONDON (Reuters UK) - Recruitment company Michael Page Intl MPI reported better than expected second quarter profits but said uncertainty in the UK economy would continue to hit growth as the slowdown in financial sector recruiting continues. The international recruitment firm, which...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley Group BEZG first-half profit fell by 25 percent, it said on Friday, but beat market expectations. Pretax profits were 45 million pounds for the first six months of this year, above analysts' average forecast of 43.8 ...
By Mark Potter LONDON (Reuters UK) - Electrical goods retailer DSG International DSGI met lowered forecasts with a 30 percent drop in annual profit on Thursday and said it remained "very cautious" about consumer confidence in many of its markets. DSG, whose store chains include Currys...
By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters UK) - Gas producer BG Group BG said profits soared in the second quarter, and beat forecasts, thanks to high gas prices but shares fell as investors focussed on lower-than-expected production and gas prices in Britain. BG said in a statement...
By Mark Potter LONDON (Reuters UK) - Demand for car maintenance products and commuters switching to bikes to avoid soaring petrol prices are helping Halfords HFD to beat a consumer downturn, the retailer said on Wednesday. Halfords, which sells one in three bikes in Britain, said...
By Marc Roca LONDON (Reuters UK) - Shares in most housebuilders rose on Thursday following a government announcement that it will introduce a package of measures to help stabilise the housing market this month. Housebuilders, which have seen their market value plummet by over three...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Goods trade deficit with the rest of the world held broadly steady in May as both imports and exports picked up slightly, official data showed on Wednesday. The Office for National Statistics said the goods trade gap eased to 7.494 billion pounds...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Kier Group KIE said on Friday it would axe around 350 staff, or 60 percent of workers in its residential division, the latest construction firm to announce job cuts due to a housing market slump. The construction, house building and maintenance company...
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey TW, hit by a downturn in the housing market, plans to raise 400-500 million pounds from institutional investors, newspapers reported on Sunday. The Sunday Times said the package was being coordinated by UBS UBSN and JP Morgan Cazenove...
