In recent months a financial group has normally enjoyed the distinction.
Although many financials were again in the money, some of the more neglected Footsie constituents for once made strong progress.LucasVarity’s display was ahead of an analysts’ presentation today. That would be a radical change for a company that has in the past been seen as an “income stock”, she suggested.Great Portland, which raised pounds 97m from shareholders in February, yesterday announced a final dividend of 6.1p to maintain the annual total at 9.0p. This represented most of last year’s earnings per share of 10p, which rose 5 per cent in the year to March, despite a dip in pre-tax profits from pounds 47.6m to pounds 46.0m announced yesterday.The group announced an 8 per cent rise in net assets per share to 212p, with the growth coming from the rights cash, a pounds 55m revaluation of investment properties and retained reserves and other equity issues totalling pounds 4m.. Since January last year the 160,000 cars that are still roadworthy after 25 years can be licensed free of charge.Many owners initially suspected this would result in them being restricted to limited mileages, but so far the gift horse has withstood scrutiny. “If that relationship were to be substantially changed, I am sure that the board would look at what was in the best interests of shareholders in terms of our dividend policy,” he said.Nan Rogers, an analyst with brokers Charterhouse Tilney, said Great Portland was flagging that it might cut its dividend. They now face an anxious wait until Gordon Brown has sat down on July 2 just in case he tries to reverse the concession If so, I hope he feels the lash of Mr Clarke’s tongue.. Mr Halcrow is looking back at events since sterling fell out of the ERM.
Sir Julian is covering the election campaign and the election of the new Conservative leader, and they hope to hit the bookstalls well in time for the Tory conference in October. Sir Julian is rooting for Kenneth Clarke as a one-nation Tory, but thinks Peter Lilley could snatch victory in a third ballot.Among Kenneth Clarke’s most enthusiastic backers are the members of classic car clubs who were given an unexpected windfall 18 months ago when the then Chancellor stood on its head a long-standing Treasury plan to make classic car owners tax their cars whether they were on the road or not. The latest project, provisionally entitled Collapse of Stout Party, is a joint venture between Morrison Halcrow a former assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph who is now a consultant with Shandwick, the public relations empire, and retired Tory MP Sir Julian Critchley. He is married to the former Jill George but he assures me she is no relation to the present Governor.Books on the decline and fall of the Tory government are starting to spring up like mushrooms on a summer morning. He has now retired and is being put out to grass at NatWest Bank, where he becomes one of 17 members on the full-time board from September 1. He will also be a member of the board of NatWest Markets and the audit and compliance committee.He admits to being able and willing to deliver lectures in both French and German, although he prefers to negotiate in English.
His interests include art, jazz and walking, and he is chairman of the trustees of Blind in Business and vice-patron of the Missing Persons Helpline. Northern Foods regularly supplies analysts (and journalists) who attend its meetings with little bags of biscuits and cakes which it makes for the likes of Marks & Spencer. Unigate does not.Pen Kent was well known to a generation of business journalists as the press spokesman for the Bank of England before he was diverted to more serious challenges such as head of the international division and associate director for finance and industry, which is Bank-speak for the man responsible for letting down gently such financial disasters as Eurotunnel and Canary Wharf project.He became an executive director in 1994 and was responsible for Crestco, the settlement system which replaced the ill-fated Talisman. He helped found Posh Entertainment which launched the Mills & Boon “Romance on Tape” label and sold 700,000 copies.ABM is now raising pounds 1.5m to finance further expansion in this very fragmented market. Next step is a listing on Ofex, the bottom rung on the Stock Exchange ladder.Christopher Haskins, the ebullient Northern Foods chairman, was mystified at the huge number of analysts who turned up at his company’s results meetings yesterday. The bumper turnout – more than 50 made the trip – was especially surprising given the relatively sparse City presence at Unigate’s meeting only the day before.”It’s the goodie bag,” admitted one food analyst who preferred not to be named He may well be right. Via Motown Records he joined a company responsible for producing the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra in association with Anglia TV.
Most analysts think the headline inflation rate will remain very low, leaving the prospect of an increase in German interest rates very distant. “I concede that our tactical plan was overcome, but when you can’t run, you can’t carry out any plan.” It ignored any tiredness of the English themselves, whose championship is four games longer, or any emotional fall-out from Poland.It sounded like damning with faint praise but for all the minimising of the blow, one sensed that Maldini was covering up a favourable impression. Foreign coaches and commentators, even if grudgingly at times, now appear to be sparked into some admiration. “Chics, ces Anglais,” read the headline – hinting ironically at a crass reputation – in the French daily sports newspaper L’Equipe the day after the 2-0 win over Italy This for a team containing Martin Keown and Stuart Pearce. Predictably, in an atmosphere of high-pitched English patriotism and rugged German defiance, this was nothing less than another version of so many previous clashes between old rivals at all levels.Cole set the tone with a dipping free-kick in the early minutes which dropped a fraction too late but sent a clear message to the German defence. He started off at Transatlantic Records before joining EMI as general marketing manager. England may have to wait until November before they learn their World Cup qualifying fate – but one country already know they will be taking part in next year’s finals.