magazine archive


magazine archive

Story In Numbers

Eurozone inflation revised down

Thursday 22 Mar 2018

Inflation in the eurozone is cooling. The year-on-year inflation figure for February was revised down from 1.2% to 1.1%; that compares with 1.3% in January and is the lowest level since December 2016. The latest figure is a long way short of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target of 2% and...

Biffa loses valuable source of income amid ongoing Chinese issue

Thursday 15 Mar 2018

Waste management company Biffa ( BIFF ) has been hit with earnings downgrades as restrictions on the export of paper recyclables to China continues to cause issues for the UK-listed business. It used to get £70 a tonne for exporting mixed paper to China; now it gets next to nothing. Analysts had...

Origin Enterprises surprises with strong results in its seasonally quiet period

Thursday 15 Mar 2018

Agri-services company Origin Enterprises ( OGN:AIM ) typically generates over 90% of its earnings in the seasonally-vital second half of its financial year. It was therefore encouraging to see underlying operating profit grow 12.6% to €2.3m in the six months to 31 January 2018, its first-half...

£145m profit gap at building materials group SIG

Thursday 15 Mar 2018

Full year results from building materials specialist SIG ( SHI ) for 2017 looked good at first glance with underlying operating profit slightly ahead of expectations at £94m. However, the company actually reported a statutory loss of £51.2m. The £145.2m gap mainly reflected several exceptional...

UK gaming market defies retail sector's challenges

Thursday 08 Mar 2018

Gaming remains a bright spot in the struggling world of retail. The UK games market achieved more than £5bn worth of sales in 2017, up 12.4% on the previous year according to figures from trade body UK Interactive Entertainment. Most of the sales came from game software, helped by the launch of...

Sage relying more on technical staff to boost productivity

Thursday 08 Mar 2018

Staff costs per head rose 17% for accounting software supplier Sage ( SGE ) in its 2017 financial year despite employing just 54 more people. It is concentrating on more technical stuff capable of boosting productivity and revenue per employee. Like most businesses, employee salaries and bonuses...

Carpetright’s five embarrasing profit warnings

Thursday 08 Mar 2018

Retailer Carpetright ( CPR ) has issued an incredible five profit warnings in less than a year. It says trading was poor over Christmas and stayed this way into the start of 2018. Sellers of big-ticket items are coming under pressure, with items like carpets and beds usually the first to go on the...

Half of all investment trusts now pay dividends every three months

Thursday 01 Mar 2018

Half of all investment trusts now pay a quarterly dividend, according to analysis by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). In comparison, only 46% paid every three months in 2017 and 43% in 2016. You can see the full list of investments on the AIC’s website. The list also breaks down the...

Hotel Chocolat revenue, earnings and profit all rise 15%

Thursday 01 Mar 2018

Premium British chocolatier Hotel Chocolat ( HOTC:AIM ) served up 15% growth in sales, underlying earnings, profits before tax and earnings per share in the six months to 31 December. Generating growth across its retail store estate and online channels, rising ingredient costs are a headwind,...

Genie is magic for Trakm8

Thursday 01 Mar 2018

If there was a bright spot in AA’s ( AA. ) painful profit warning and slashed dividend it comes in the shape of Car Genie . This is the self-installed plug-in road vehicle diagnostics box that the road-side recovery business has been testing. You may have seen the ads on TV. AA reckons Car Genie is...

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