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Friday's news and views

Created:

6 June 2008

Written by:

Tanya Malick

• No frills airline easyJet saw the number of passengers rise year-on-year in May but the load factor eased.

• US margins are under pressure at jeweller Signet but sales at UK brands H Samuel and Ernest Jones held up well in the company's first quarter.

• Pub owner, brewer and hotel group Fuller, Smith & Turner beat profit forecasts last year despite the cost of raw materials continuing to rise.

• Indus Gas, an oil & gas exploration and development company based in India, started trading on Aim after it raised £25m through the placing of 15.24m shares at 164p.

• Software specialist Flomerics escaped the unwelcome clutches of Mentor Graphics by jumping into the arms of computer aided design giant Autodesk.

• Shares in Sport Media plunged after the publisher said full-year pre-tax profits will miss expectations after the 'disappointing' relaunch of the Daily Sport newspaper.

• SABMiller and Molson Coors said the antitrust division of the US Department of Justice has cleared its proposed joint venture.

• Hedge fund manager Man Group has bought a 25% stake in a Bermuda-based alternative investment manager.

• Intellectual property group BTG is to look for commercial partners for its varicose vein treatment Varisolve after a US phase 2 trial caused no adverse after-effects in patients.

• Train set maker Hornby said it is confident that it will continue to deliver further growth despite challenging market conditions as it reported a 17% rise in full-year profits.

• Recruitment group SThree reports a good first half with no impact from the recent economic uncertainty.

• Electronic trading systems group Patsystems is seeing a slow-down in the finalisation of major purchasing decisions by its customers.

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PRESS SUMMARY:

Marks & Spencer faces yet another dispute with shareholders after lowering the target that Sir Stuart Rose must reach to earn a potential £4.5m bonus under the company's long-term incentive scheme.

The high street retailer said the move was an acknowledgement that it was becoming much harder to repeat the high levels of growth that the business enjoyed over the past three years, reports the Times.

Barclays is using controversial American anti-terrorism laws to shut down the personal bank accounts of British citizens who are working for Iranian-owned businesses, The Times has learnt. The bank has unilaterally enforced anti-Iran sanctions drawn up by the Bush Administration under the US Patriot Act against companies that operate completely legally in Britain.

Alistair Darling has given his clearest hint yet that he is likely to reject Mervyn King's first choice for Deputy Governor of the Bank of England when he announces the new appointment in the coming weeks. King, the Governor, is adamant that the job must go to a leading economist and insiders say that he is pressing hard for Charles Bean, the Bank's chief economist, to replace Rachel Lomax, who is to step down as one of two Deputy Governors on 30 June, writes the Times.

A panel of eminent City figures is to be brought in to make the Bank of England more alert to looming financial trouble and help avoid a repeat of the Northern Rock fiasco, under plans revealed on Thursday by Alistair Darling, the chancellor. Mr Darling wants City insiders to sit on the shoulder of Mervyn King, the Bank's governor, as part of an overhaul designed to put financial stability "right at the front" of its operations, reports the FT.

Lord Kirkham, founder of furniture chain DFS, collected a £46.3m dividend last year as the privately-owned retailer shrugged off the consumer downturn. The £46.3m payment to Lord Kirkham and his family is revealed in accounts filed by Britain's largest furniture retailer at Companies House this week, reports the Telegraph.

Brussels has expressed serious reservations about the restructuring package put forward by the government to save Northern Rock, the stricken mortgage lender, including fears that state aid could drag on for too long, reports the FT.

Vodafone is risking further wrath from shareholders over the lack of dividend payments from its Verizon Wireless stake with yesterday's $28.1bn (£14.4bn) takeover of Alltel, the US rural mobile company. The UK-listed group owns a 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, but its shareholders have not received a dividend from the stock since February 2005 because Verizon Communications, which owns the controlling interest, is using the company's cash to pay down debt, reports the Independent.

The price war among the exchanges in Europe intensified yesterday as the transatlantic powerhouse NYSE Euronext slashed its fees to help repel competition from three rival markets preparing to launch this year. NYSE Euronext announced it was to cut fees by up to 30 per cent in the fast growing market of "high-frequency" computerised trading from the start of next month, reports the Independent.

Silverjet, the business-class only airline that collapsed into administration last week, has received two tentative bid approaches from suitors interested in relaunching the carrier. Kingplace, a shelf-company registered in Ireland and managed by Heritage Cie SA, a Geneva trust and management company, has made an indicative offer to administrator Begbies Traynor, says the Telegraph.

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