Company news in brief
Construction firm Carillion liquidated
British construction and outsourcing services group Carillion announced its immediate liquidation yesterday after the heavily-indebted company failed to secure a financial rescue from the UK government and banks.
Carillion, which employs 43 000 staff worldwide including 19 500 in Britain, said that the government would nevertheless provide some funding to allow current state projects to continue, following crunch talks over the weekend.
Carillion is a major UK government contractor involved in everything from schools to the multi-billion-pound High Speed Two (HS2) rail project. But it has been struggling for some time and in July last year issued the first of several profit warnings.
In January, British watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation into its market updates. – Nampa/AFP
Volkswagen reports record global car sales
Volkswagen said Sunday that its namesake brand sold more vehicles worldwide in 2017 than ever before, a sign it is recovering from a bruising emissions-cheating scandal three years ago.
Global sales rose 4.2% to 6.2 million, with sales in China jumping 5.9% to 3.2 million, more than half the total sold globally.
Other countries with strong gains in terms of percentages included the United States, Russia and Brazil, although all of these countries are much smaller markets for VW than China. – Nampa/AFP
Italy's Versace in ‘no rush’ to list
Italian fashion house Versace is in "no rush" to list on the stock market, its chief executive told Reuters on Saturday.
The brand, famous for its Medusa head logo, has been considering a listing, after US private equity Blackstone bought a 20% stake in 2014 to fund its overseas expansion. The Versace family holds the rest of the company.
Asked about a possible initial public offering (IPO), CEO Jonathan Akeroyd said, "We've been working a lot ... There is no rush."
Versace posted sales of just under US$817.00 million in 2016. – Nampa/Reuters
BlackRock hits record US$6 trillion assets
BlackRock Inc charged past a record US$6 trillion in assets, its profit beating Wall Street forecasts, as investors flooded into the relatively low-cost funds of the world's largest asset manager.
A new US tax law, which sliced corporate and individual income rates, also helped the company's results in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. BlackRock saw a US$1.2 billion tax benefit related to the law and raised its quarterly cash dividend by 15%.
BlackRock has the largest lineup of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), many of which "passively" track segments of the market at a relatively low fee. Investors' embrace of those funds caught many of BlackRock's once-larger competitors flat-footed. – Nampa/Reuters
MoneyGram shares jump on Ripple news
Shares of MoneyGram International Inc jumped after the money-transfer company said it partnered with blockchain firm and bitcoin-rival Ripple.
As part of the arrangement, MoneyGram will test the use of Ripple's cryptocurrency, XRP, to move funds in a faster and cheaper way.
Ripple, created by the founder of bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, has risen 31 000% over the past year, overshadowing bitcoin's 1 200% increase.
China's Ant Financial's deal to buy MoneyGram for US$1.2 billion collapsed last week. – Nampa/Reuters
British construction and outsourcing services group Carillion announced its immediate liquidation yesterday after the heavily-indebted company failed to secure a financial rescue from the UK government and banks.
Carillion, which employs 43 000 staff worldwide including 19 500 in Britain, said that the government would nevertheless provide some funding to allow current state projects to continue, following crunch talks over the weekend.
Carillion is a major UK government contractor involved in everything from schools to the multi-billion-pound High Speed Two (HS2) rail project. But it has been struggling for some time and in July last year issued the first of several profit warnings.
In January, British watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation into its market updates. – Nampa/AFP
Volkswagen reports record global car sales
Volkswagen said Sunday that its namesake brand sold more vehicles worldwide in 2017 than ever before, a sign it is recovering from a bruising emissions-cheating scandal three years ago.
Global sales rose 4.2% to 6.2 million, with sales in China jumping 5.9% to 3.2 million, more than half the total sold globally.
Other countries with strong gains in terms of percentages included the United States, Russia and Brazil, although all of these countries are much smaller markets for VW than China. – Nampa/AFP
Italy's Versace in ‘no rush’ to list
Italian fashion house Versace is in "no rush" to list on the stock market, its chief executive told Reuters on Saturday.
The brand, famous for its Medusa head logo, has been considering a listing, after US private equity Blackstone bought a 20% stake in 2014 to fund its overseas expansion. The Versace family holds the rest of the company.
Asked about a possible initial public offering (IPO), CEO Jonathan Akeroyd said, "We've been working a lot ... There is no rush."
Versace posted sales of just under US$817.00 million in 2016. – Nampa/Reuters
BlackRock hits record US$6 trillion assets
BlackRock Inc charged past a record US$6 trillion in assets, its profit beating Wall Street forecasts, as investors flooded into the relatively low-cost funds of the world's largest asset manager.
A new US tax law, which sliced corporate and individual income rates, also helped the company's results in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. BlackRock saw a US$1.2 billion tax benefit related to the law and raised its quarterly cash dividend by 15%.
BlackRock has the largest lineup of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), many of which "passively" track segments of the market at a relatively low fee. Investors' embrace of those funds caught many of BlackRock's once-larger competitors flat-footed. – Nampa/Reuters
MoneyGram shares jump on Ripple news
Shares of MoneyGram International Inc jumped after the money-transfer company said it partnered with blockchain firm and bitcoin-rival Ripple.
As part of the arrangement, MoneyGram will test the use of Ripple's cryptocurrency, XRP, to move funds in a faster and cheaper way.
Ripple, created by the founder of bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, has risen 31 000% over the past year, overshadowing bitcoin's 1 200% increase.
China's Ant Financial's deal to buy MoneyGram for US$1.2 billion collapsed last week. – Nampa/Reuters
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