Britain’s largest building society, Nationwide, has today posted a surge in underlying pre-tax profits. Nationwide said pre-tax profits fell 7% to £317 million – primarily due to accounting changes. However, underlying profits surged 30% to £276 million in the year to 4 April. Meanwhile, the amount written off for bad loans to customers dropped by [...]
Newcastle-based housebuilder Bellway has today reported a 26% rise in first-half profit and experienced strong activity in home buying since the start of 2011. The housebuilder, which is the fifth largest by market value, said pre-tax profits came in at £24 million for the six month period to the end of January – compared with [...]
Persimmon, which is the UK’s largest housebuilder by market value, has announced full-year underlying pre-tax profit jumped to £95.5 million compared with £7 million in the previous year. The company said it sold more homes at higher prices and it is “encouraged” by the group’s performance in the first two months of the year, with [...]
The Lloyd’s of London insurance market today reported a massive fall in profits, due to a series of catastrophes, including the Chilean earthquake and BP’s oil spill. The market reported pre-tax profits of £628 million for the first six months of 2010, compared with £1.32 billion a year earlier – a significant fall of 50%. [...]
Housebuilder Bovis Homes has today claimed the coalition Government’s spending cuts and tax hikes have dented consumer confidence. Its claim comes as the company reported a pre-tax profit of £3.5 million in the first half of 2010, compared with a loss of £8.6 million for the same period last year, Meanwhile, it added it planned [...]
British retailing giant, Marks and Spencer (M&S), has today announced pre-tax profits totalled £632.5 million for the 12 months to 27 March – a rise of 4.6% on the same period a year ago. UK like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, grew 0.9% over the 12-month period. Sales of general [...]
Fashion chain Next has today announced its pre-tax profits for the 2009 year rose 18% to £505.3 million. The retailer said annual revenues rose to £3,406 million, from £3,271.5 million the previous year. Chairman of the fashion chain, John Barton, described 2009 as “an extraordinary year” and added it had seen a “marked improvement” in [...]
John Lewis Partnership, the renowned employee-owned department store, has revealed its staff will share a bonus pot of £151 million. The announcement came after the 146-year-old group said annual pre-tax profits grew 9.7% to £306.6 million. According to John Lewis chairman, Charlie Mayfield, the company’s 70,000 staff – or partners, as John Lewis refers to [...]
London-based bank Standard Chartered today announced a rise in pre-tax profits – meeting analysts expectations. The bank, which has a strong presence in Asia, said pre-tax profits in 2009 were £3.4 billion ($5.15 billion), a rise of 13% on 2008 figures. Meanwhile, revenue was up 9% to £10.14 billion ($15.18 billion). However, while many other [...]
Telecoms company Vodafone is seeking to increase its £1 billion cost-cutting programme by a further £1 billion by 2012 as a result of a sharp decline in revenues from its core UK market. The company, which is the world’s largest mobile phone operator, is struggling amid the global economic downturn and has already announced hundreds [...]
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, [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
