Housebuilder Bovis Homes issued a positive statement today after saying 2011 had started well for the company and it will resume dividend payments. According to the company, pre-tax profits for 2010 were £18.5 million – more than double the £7.5 million it reported for the 2009 year. Revenues were up 6% at £298.6 million and [...]
Housebuilder Bovis Homes has today issued a positive trading statement after saying it expects profits to be ahead of expectations for the 2010 year. The company, which is one of the smaller listed housebuilders, said it will also start paying dividends again to shareholders. Many housebuilders took a battering during the housing market slump and [...]
Budget airline easyJet has today said profits have been boosted by a rise in passenger volumes and the group said it will pay its first ever dividend in 2012. The no-frills airline said passenger numbers grew 8% in the full-year to the end of September to 49 million, while profits totalled £154 million in the [...]
Research by Capita Registrars Dividend Monitor has revealed how shareholders will suffer this year due to a fall in dividend payments. Dividend payouts by London-listed companies will fall 6.5% in 2010, the company said, primarily due to the suspension of oil giant BP’s dividend. The research estimated British companies would pay £54.7 billion to shareholders [...]
Oil giant BP suffered another blow today after Moody’s credit rating agency downgraded the company’s credit rating by three notches, from A2 to Aa2. The downgrade follows similar moves from the two other major international credit ratings agencies, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s, who also downgraded the company‘s rating. In a statement today, Moody’s said [...]
BP shares have risen more than 9% this morning after it was revealed that a $20 billion (£13.5 billion) compensation fund for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is to be set up. Details of the fund emerged late yesterday following talks at the White House after BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward and [...]
The Co-operative Group has announced a record dividend payment of £50 million after posting its highest ever profit in 2009. The five million members of the Co-operative Group will share in the £50.4 million payout, with an average payment of £9.88 per member. This is a 30% increase on last year’s dividend payment of £38.8 [...]
Credit rating agency Fitch has today downgraded BP’s rating by six notches, from AA to BBB. The downgrade comes as the oil giant continues to battle to contain the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico which has resulted in the company’s shares plunging in value. Commenting on the downgrade, Fitch said it is concerned [...]
Anglo-Swiss mining group, Xstrata, has today reported a fall in full-year pre-tax profits to $1.87 billion (£1.2 billion), against $6.05 billion a year earlier. However, despite the fall, the company said it will resume dividend payments after scrapping them for the first half of 2009, as a result of growing debt and a slump in [...]
Britain’s largest clothing retailer, Marks & Spencer (M&S) has dealt a blow to its shareholders today by announcing it is slashing its dividend to 15p a share for the 12 months to the end of March, down 7p from the previous year. The cut was larger than analysts had expected but M&S said the cut [...]
Telecoms giant BT has today announced plans to axe 15,000 jobs this year – with the majority being in the UK. The group also announced a full-year loss of £134 million due to a poor performance within its Global Services unit – which has written down £1.3 billion within the division. The loss of £134 [...]
Legal & General has cut its final dividend for the first time in living memory following a £1.5 billion pre-tax loss, compared to an £848 million profit in 2007. The UK’s fourth largest insurer slashed its dividend in half to 2.05p per share in a bid to preserve capital strength. The cut will save the [...]
Barclays Bank has announced a full year pre-tax profit of £6.08 billion for the 2008 year – this represents a fall of 14% compared with the 2007 year. However, the profits still exceeded analysts’ expectations. The bank has also announced £5.4 billion of write-downs (nearly double a year earlier) and has cancelled its final dividend [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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