Music, books and games retailer HMV has today reported a pre-tax profit of £28.9 million in the 12 months to the end of April – a fall of 61% compared with the £74.2 million in the same period a year earlier. Furthermore, like-for-like sales have dived 11% over the past year as it struggles with [...]
Taylor Wimpey, which was formed by the merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey, today said it had returned to profitability but remains cautious. The housebuilder, which is the country’s third largest by value, said pre-tax profit before exceptional items came in at £75.1 million for the 2010 year – against a loss of £96.1 [...]
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 [...]
The UK’s biggest coal producer, UK Coal, has today reported increased losses for the 2009 year due to a fall in production and lower coal prices. The company said pre-tax losses grew to £129.1 million for the full year, against a loss of £15.6 million the previous year. Meanwhile, revenues plunged by 20% to £316 [...]
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is 84% state-owned, has today announced it will dispose of its factoring unit in Germany to GE Capital, the financial services division of General Electric. In a statement, the bank said: “The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc has agreed the sale of RBS Factoring GmbH to GE [...]
Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, has today said pre-tax profits fell to $7.07 billion (£4.6 billion) last year compared with $9.3 billion in the previous year. The banking giant said loan impairments charges and other credit provisions were $26.5 billion in 2009 – a rise of 9% compared with the previous year. Stephen Green, chairman of [...]
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41% owned by the taxpayer, has today posted a full-year loss of £6.3 billion. Lloyds is the third major UK bank to report its 2009 results. Yesterday, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) posted a £3.6 billion loss, while last week, Barclays announced record profits of more than £11 billion – [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is 84% state-owned, has today posted a full-year loss of £3.6 billion. RBS is the second major UK bank to report its 2009 results. Last week, Barclays announced record profits of more than £11 billion – a 92% rise on the previous year. However, RBS’ loss is not as [...]
Banking giant Barclays has today reported a 92% rise in full-year profits to £11.6 billion, compared with £6.07 billion in 2008. The bank said the strong figures were the result of its sale of its fund management division, Barclays Global Investors, for £8.2 billion last summer. Barclays is one of the few banks not to [...]
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 [...]
Budget airline easyJet has posted a severe fall in profits for the full-year to the end of September as a result of rising fuel costs. The airline posted underlying pre-tax profits of £43.7 million, compared with £123.1 million in the same period a year earlier – a fall of 64.5% However, the no-frills airline said [...]
Carpetright, which has been hit by the housing market slump and the recession, has today posted 72% decline in full-year profits. Britain’s largest carpet retailer reported a pre-tax profit of £16.7 million in the year to May 2, compared with £59.5 million for the same period a year ago. Annual revenues were down 7.4% from [...]
Japanese electronics giant Sony has today announced its first annual loss in 14 years. The group reported a loss of 98.9 billion yen (£685 million) for the year ended 31 March, against a profit of 369.4 billion yen the previous year. Following the company’s first back to back loss since 1958, Chief Executive Officer, Howard [...]
The world’s largest advertising group WPP has announced that revenue is down by 5.8 percent like-for-like in the first 3 months of 2009 and recovery is unlikely until 2010 after a trading update was released today. Cuts in clients’ spending, as a result of tightening advertising and marketing budgets means that 2009 will be a [...]
Leeds Building Society yesterday posted its 2008 results, with profits remaining strong despite the global financial downturn. Assets of the UK’s seventh largest building society grew by over £900 million to £10.1 billion. End of year operating profit was £68.6 million, compared to £69.4 million in 2007. Savings balance increased by more than £500 million [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
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