■ Experian's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Paul Brooks has passed away, the credit-checking and information services firm revealed on Monday.
■ Electrical components manufacturer Laird said trading in the final quarter has followed the same trends as the third and is confident of delivering earnings in line with company forecasts.
■ Biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has said that full-year earnings are now expected to come in at the lower end of previous guidance.
■ Pay-TV and internet service provider British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) is to integrate the technology of TV guide and chat app (software application) developer zeebox into its own TV platform in the UK, and will take an equity stake in the UK technology start-up.
■ Anglo-American drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline and US counterpart Theravance said the phase III registration programme for the once-a-day respiratory medicine, Relovair, in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been completed.
■ Following the expiry of Rio Tinto's offer to buy up shares in Hathor on Friday, mining giant Rio has announced that it has now taken up 93.76 per cent of the outstanding common shares of the Canadian uranium firm.
■ Housebuilder Persimmon said it expects a 50 per cent increase in underlying pre-tax profit after it introduced a raft of measures to combat the sluggish UK housing market (IC COMMENT).
■ Like-for-like (LFL) sales growth continued at supermarket chain Morrisons over the final six weeks of 2011, albeit at a slower rate than in the third quarter.
■ Sports fashion wear retailer JD Sports Fashion has confirmed press speculation that it is in talks to buy assets of struggling camping equipment retailer Blacks Leisure and that talks are at an advanced stage.
■ EnQuest, the North Sea focused oil company, is spending up to $90m for a 20 per cent interest in the Kraken oil discovery in the East Shetland basin.
■ DS Smith, the recycled packaging company, is about to receive a tidy sum as a result of its 49.6 per cent interest in Rubezhansk, the leading paper and packaging business in the Ukraine.
■ HMV, the troubled music retailer, has dropped 6.7 per cent this morning after reporting like-for-like sales down 8.1 per cent over the crucial five weeks to the end of December when compared to the same period of 2010.
■ Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, has won a 10-year deal to run services and facilities for the future Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London.
■ Italian clean energy company Acta is to sell two solar energy project consents to Fedi Impianti, its joint venture partner on a number of previous solar energy projects.
■ There has been a spate of profit warnings among recruitment firms recently but Hydrogen bucked the trend, saying profit before tax for 2011 will come in at the top end of analysts' forecasts.
■ Anthracite and silica miner Petmin was waxing enigmatic on Monday morning, advising shareholders to stand by for a possible blockbusting announcement.
■ Shares in Noble Investments, the international rare coin and stamp dealer, became highly collectible on Monday morning as the company said full year figures for 2011/2012 will come in ahead of market expectations.
■ Pharmaceutical company AGI Therapeutics is to be swallowed up by Aravis Therapeutics, a recently formed Irish subsidiary of Altiva.
■ Instem Life Sciences, a software provider to the healthcare industry, has barely been quoted for a year but already has a profits warning under its belt.
■ Shares in power control components manufacturer XP Power plunged 10 per cent after group revenues for the last three months of 2011 contracted 5 per cent compared to 2010.
■ Wearing a smart dark suit with a tie in British racing green, Lloyds Banking Group chief António Horta-Osório has eased back into the driving seat at the part-owned British lender after a two-month rest period taken so he could recover from exhaustion.
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Business press headlines courtesy of Weekend City Press Review:
Tensions rise at Tesco as chain is set for worst Christmas sales for decades
Tesco is this week expected to unveil a 1.5 per cent fall in UK same-store sales in the six weeks to 7 January, its worst Christmas performance in the UK 'for decades'. The poor performance came in spite of a £500m price-cutting campaign launched in the autumn and the sales fall has reportedly led to increased tensions among senior management. Rival chain Asda is seen by analysts as the most likely winner over the Christmas period.[Financial Times pp.1, 16]
Loans squeeze spurs buy-to-let boom
Buy-to-let investors are experiencing a 'bonanza' as a result of the squeeze on mortgage lending hitting the traditional housing market. New figures show that private landlords have seen their share of residential stock increase by 42 per cent since 2007 and they have also benefited from rising rents.[Financial Times pp.1, 3]
Cable to shame fat cats on pay
David Cameron and Vince Cable are finalising new measures to force quoted UK companies disclose more information on the pay of top executives and directors, including giving powers to shareholders to veto large pay rises. But the government has apparently decided against a plan to give worker representatives a say in setting executive pay levels.[Sunday Times pp.1.2, 3.1, 3.5]
China calls on Germany to save the euro
China believes the euro will survive its current crisis, although only if Germany does more to prop it up. The official Chinese news agency made the views of the leadership in Beijing known ahead of a key Franco-German meeting on Monday to discuss the continuing eurozone crisis.[Sunday Times p.3.1]
Panmure woos rival
Panmure Gordon is reportedly holding talks with rival Cenkos Securities about a merger to create a broking group with a market value of £65m. The move reflects the consolidation pressures among stockbrokers because of lower commissions and fewer floats in the past year.[Sunday Times p.3.1]
City jobs cull claims one in seven senior bankers
More than 21,000 senior City bankers - about one in seven of the total - lost their jobs last year according to data from corporate advisory firm IMAS. The figures suggest that the total number of high-ranking executives in financial services is now at its lowest since records began.[Sunday Times p.3.1]
Revealed: retail's Christmas turkeys
Leading retail chains are due to reveal this week a weak level of Christmas trading, with HMV, Argos and Game Group expected to disclose sales up to 10 per cent down on the previous year. Deutsche Bank is also forecasting that Tesco will post a 2 per cent decline in its sales from its UK stores for the six weeks to 7 January, although rivals Wm Morrison and J Sainsbury are likely to reveal small gains.[Sunday Times p.3.2]
City anger over new pay rules
The government plans to make shareholder remuneration report votes mandatory on companies in an effort to curb excessive boardroom pay, although the measure is likely to lead to a 'bruising battle' between business and the coalition. David Cameron, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, said the coalition planned to attack 'crony capitalism'. He also made clear the controversial 50p tax rate would stay, but rejected the Liberal Democrat's proposal for a 'mansion tax' on expensive houses.[Sunday Telegraph pp.1, 4-5, B1]
RBS moves on investment merger to boost profits
Royal Bank of Scotland's radical restructuring plans will see its global banking and markets division merged with the global transactions services operation. The move is part of plans to create a 'non ring-fenced' bank which can be hived off from the retail operations. Meanwhile, plans to give CEO Stephen Hester a bonus are likely to provoke criticism of the state-controlled bank.[Sunday Telegraph p.B1]
Wind Hellas collapse triggers legal battle over private equity role
Liquidators to the collapsed Wind Hellas group, Greece's third biggest mobile phone operator, have launched an investigation into the role of its private equity owners Apax Partners and TPG as well as advisers Morgan Stanley and Ernst & Young. The company was Europe's largest pre-pack administration with Eu1.45bn of debt when it was bought back by its owner, Weather Group, backed by Egypt's Naguib Sawaris.[Sunday Telegraph pp.B1, B5]
