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 [...]
British insurance giant Prudential has today announced profits grew 17% in the third quarter – driven by higher sales at its Asian and US markets. The results were better than expected and sent its shares up 0.6% in early morning trading. The insurer, which is Britain’s largest, said it has focused its attention on expanding [...]
British retailing giant, Marks and Spencer (M&S) today reported half-year pre-tax profits of £348.8 million in the 26 weeks to October 2 – a rise of almost 17% compared with a year earlier. The 126-year-old retailer which sells clothes, food and homewares, said earnings after tax grew by 16.4% to £261.2 million Sales, meanwhile, increased [...]
Banking giant Barclays has today announced it made a pre-tax profit of £4.3 billion in the first nine months of the year, despite a slump in income at its investment banking division. The bank, which is one of the few not to have received any financial help from the Government, said activity at its investment [...]
Banking giant HSBC has today said third-quarter profits were well ahead of the same period a year ago with bad debts on the decline. The bank did not provide exact figures in today’s statement but did caution that the global recovery was “taking longer than previous cycles”. The bank, which is Europe’s largest, also expressed [...]
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has today announced third quarter profits rose 7% to $3.5 billion (£2.2 billion) – up from $3 billion last year. However, the group said net earnings dived 21% in the three month period, compared with the previous quarter. The company said it produced 3.058 million barrels of oil per day [...]
Spanish banking giant, Santander, has today reported a fall in third quarter profits, due to changes on bad loan provisions. The bank, which is the euro zone’s largest, said third quarter profits fell 13% to €2.1 billion (£1.8 billion) as provisions for bad loans hampered results. Before the changes to one-off provisions, which were put [...]
Banking giant Goldman Sachs today reported a fall in third quarter profits to $1.9 billion, or $2.98 per share, compared with $3.19 billion, or $5.25 per share, a year earlier. However, despite the fall, the results still beat expectations of $2.32 per share. The New York-based financial institution said net revenues for the quarter was [...]
Wall Street banking giant JPMorgan has kicked off the banking reporting season by announcing a 23% increase in profits for the third quarter – better than the markets had expected. The bank said net profit came in at $4.4 billion (£2.8 billion), against a profit of $3.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. [...]
London-based emerging markets bank, Standard Chartered, has today announced plans to tap investors for £3.3 billion by selling fresh shares in the banking group. The cash call, which represents the biggest for the bank, comes after new Basel III regulations, which agreed how much equity banks must hold in reserve in order to prevent another [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco has today revealed first half pre-tax profits of £1.6 billion – up 12.5% on the same period a year ago. The retailer, which is the world’s third largest, said the profits were boosted by strong sales in Asia, with profits rising 30%. Sales at the group’s international stores (open at least a [...]
More than a year after declaring itself bankrupt, US carmaker General Motors (GM) is planning an initial public offering (IPO) – which is set to be the second largest share sale in US history. The company has filed an official application (called an S-1 document) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to analysts, the [...]
It appears the airline industry is recovering after a devastating time during the recession, which saw a slump in air travel. According to the airline industry body, International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of passengers purchasing premium airline tickets grew again in June with demand for premium tickets up 16.6% on year. This compares [...]
According to a report in the Financial Times, British banking giant Barclays has refused to sign up to Government lending targets, suggesting they could encourage irresponsible lending. Steve Cooper, head of Barclays’ small business division, told the FT: “I’m not going to sign up to a target. I don’t want to create an expectation that [...]
British insurance giant Prudential has said the cost of its failed bid for AIA, the Asian arm of US company American International Group (AIG), is £377 million before tax relief. However, it is less than originally thought. Following the collapse of the deal, Pru said it faced costs of £450 million relating to the withdrawal [...]
Today’s results from Barclays has reinforced that the banking sector is in recovery mode after the bank reported a 44% rise in profits. The bank, which is one of the few not to have received any financial help from the Government, said pre-tax profits came in at £3.95 billion for the six months to the [...]
Standard Chartered bank has today unveiled a 10% increase in profits for the half-year ending June 30. The bank, which has a strong presence in Asia, said pre-tax profit came in at £1.96 billion during the six month period, a rise from the £1.78 billion it made in the same period a year earlier. Commenting [...]
The UK’s banking reporting season has got off to a flying start today after banking giant HSBC reported profits more than doubled, exceeding analysts expectations. Europe’s largest bank has today announced a pre-tax profit of $11.1 billion (£7 billion) for the six months to the end of June, compared with $5 billion in the same [...]
Exxon Mobil, which is the world’s largest oil company, has today announced profits nearly doubled in the April to June period – easily exceeding analysts’ expectations. The oil giant said net earnings rose to $7.56 billion, or $1.60 a share, against $3.95 billion, or 81 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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