Europe’s biggest travel firm TUI Travel said it expected its full-year profit to be at the lower end of expectations after trading was hit by uncertainty among British consumers following June’s emergency budget. TUI Travel, in which Germany’s TUI AG holds a controlling stake of 57.5 percent, also said airspace closures as a result of […]

British construction group Morgan Sindall said growing demand for office buildings was helping to offset the impact of government spending cuts on its business, although the construction recession was not over yet. “The commercial side is growing, but let’s not over exaggerate – it’s growing a bit but not as quickly as governments are spending […]

British taxpayers are sitting on a 3.5 billion pound ($5.6 billion) paper profit on its stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds after both swung back to profit, driving their shares higher.  Britain’s profit could be more than five times that amount — potentially bringing in much needed income for the cash-strapped UK government. […]

Italian fashion house Versace expects to post higher sales in 2010 on the back of its restructuring and China’s growing appetite for luxury goods, its chief executive said.  In an interview with Reuters, Gian Giacomo Ferraris said he remained confident about a return to profitability in 2011, thanks to a more efficient distribution network and […]

Consumer spending in Britain is likely to remain constrained for the foreseeable future, but any slowdown in demand is likely to be modest, the chief executive of fashion retailer Next told reporters. Simon Wolfson also said in a telephone interview that the group was stepping up spending on standalone homewares stores, where new shops are […]

British outsourcer Mouchel Plc says it expects its full year results to be at the lower end of expectations as government spending cuts create a difficult trading environment. Mouchel, which provides maintenance for highways in Britain, said that over the past year it secured £650m ($1bn) of new contracts but a lack of clarity over […]

The pressure on Prudential chief Tidjane Thiam to quit in the wake of the insurer’s failed bid for Asian rival AIA has eased, with big investors refusing to put their weight behind an attempt to remove him. Both Thiam and Pru chairman Harvey McGrath faced calls to step down after the insurer’s $35.5bn bid for […]

The International Monetary Fund has chosen not to call the yuan “substantially” undervalued, a move that recognises China’s efforts to free up its exchange rate and avoids friction with an increasingly influential shareholder. The summary of an annual review of China’s policies omitted the contentious word, used by IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn as recently […]

BP Plc has named American Bob Dudley as its next CEO, saying Tony Hayward would stand down after his gaffe-prone handling of the worst oil spill in US history that triggered a $17bn quarterly loss. Dudley, the US executive managing BP’s response to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, will get the top job […]

Investors have given European banks the benefit of the doubt over stress tests that prompted more transparency from Spanish banks needing to raise capital than from German banks cagey about sovereign debt

Britain’s economy grew almost twice as fast as expected in the second quarter of this year, buoyed by a sharp pick-up in services output and the fastest rise in construction output in almost 50 years, according to official data. The Office for National Statistics said GDP jumped 1.1 percent on the quarter, the fastest rise […]

The IMF should be realistic when considering a deficit target for Hungary for 2011, ruling Fidesz party vice chairman Lajos Kosa has told public television m1. When asked in an interview whether lenders’ expectations for Hungary to cut its deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP next year from a target of 3.8 percent in 2010 […]

A 44-week streak of inflows to funds investing in emerging and frontier equities in Africa has ended while inflows to South Africa have risen, fund tracker EPFR Global said. EPFR Global had recorded net inflows of over $480m to African regional funds in the first half of the year, an indication of investor appetite for […]

Moody’s has downgraded Ireland’s sovereign bond rating by one notch to Aa2, citing weaker growth prospects and the high costs of rebuilding the country’s crisis-hit banking system. The rating agency, which cut Ireland from Aa1, said the outlook was stable. The move, which put Moody’s on par with rival agency Standard and Poor’s AA rating […]

Agricultural Bank of China’s $19.3bn IPO crossed the finish line on July 16 after a hectic three-month sprint, notching up modest gains in its Hong Kong debut amid concerns about valuations and glut of bank share sales. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China both soared 15 percent on their Hong Kong […]