Recent articles for private investors with a focus on dividend announcements
Vedanta Resources Half yearly figures
Mr Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources plc said, "Vedanta has delivered strong production growth, successfully integrated the Zinc International assets acquired from Anglo American and acquired over 1 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves and resources in Liberia. Vedanta, with its significant exposure to fast growing economies and its strong organic investment programme, supplemented by select acquisitions, is well placed and remains confident about the future."
Experian first half 2011/12 results - dividend increase announced
Sir John Peace, Chairman, commented:
William Morrison Q3 Interim Management Statement
Q3 Interim Management Statement - 13 weeks to 30 October 2011
Balfour Beatty Q3 Interim Management statement
"There has not been any material change in trading conditions since our half-year results announcement on 17 August 2011. Overall, our trading performance continues to be consistent with our expectations.
Eurasian Natural Resource Corp. Q3 IMS
"Our performance in the first three quarters of the year has been strong, with production continuing at full capacity and higher revenues driven by the positive pricing environment. Whilst we are focused on managing near-term market volatility and controlling costs to maintain our advantageous low-cost position, our priority is the execution of our extensive growth programme, both in Kazakhstan and internationally. The Group is well positioned for expansion and we remain confident in the positive outlook for the full year."
Sainsbury half yearly figures
David Tyler, Chairman, said: "We are pleased with our sales and profit performance, given the challenging economic environment. We have continued to make good progress against our five areas of focus, strengthening our position for the long-term, particularly the investment in our food and clothing ranges as well as new channels and services.
Admiral Group IMS November 2011
"Group turnover increased by 30% to £582m (Q3 2010: £446 million). Group vehicle count increased 27% to 3.3 million (Q3 2010: 2.6 million). International car insurance turnover up 45% to £27.0 million (Q3 2010: £18.6 million). International car insurance vehicle count up 53% to 267,000 (Q3 2010: 175,000)"
Tullow Oil Q3 Interim Management Statement
"Tullow has continued its strong performance in the second half of 2011. The Group is delivering record cashflows, underpinned by production from the Jubilee field. The Exploration and Appraisal programme continues to deliver excellent results with a 71% success ratio year-to-date, including the basin opening Zaedyus well in French Guiana. In addition, Tullow has signed new contracts in Mauritania with Tullow as Operator and a new Petroleum Agreement for the Kudu field in Namibia. In Uganda, despite further delays, final approval from the Government is expected shortly to enable the farm-down to CNOOC and Total to complete." Separately the Co announced the appointment of Simon Thompson as non-executive Chairman with effect from 1 January 2012"
FirstGroup 2011/12 half yearly figures - dividend improved
Commenting, FirstGroup's Chief Executive, Tim O'Toole said:"I am pleased to report that overall Group trading for the first half of the current financial year is in line with our expectations. In First Student we are executing our plan to address performance and strengthen the operating model and I am encouraged by the positive early indicators. At Greyhound our actions to transform the business are delivering results with good revenue growth and margin improvement. First Transit continues to deliver growth and has a strong pipeline of further opportunities. In our UK Bus operations, which are focused in high density urban areas, our priorities are to manage the immediate challenges presented by a softening macroeconomic outlook and reduced funding to the industry while also taking the necessary forward looking decisions to equip the business to deliver increased growth. Strong passenger demand continues across all of our rail operations and we look forward to building on our market leading position and developing further opportunities once the Department for Transport's new rail franchising programme commences in 2012. With market leading positions and operations that are fundamentally strong, together with our clear focus on creating a stronger business for the future, the Group has good prospects to deliver long-term value for shareholders in a sector which is a key enabler of economic growth."
Resolution Q3 Interim Management Statement
UK Life Project remains on track to deliver its 2013 financial targets. The focus remains on the execution of Resolution's strategy;
Intercontinental Hotels third quarter results
Richard Solomons, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, said:
Associated British Foods 2011 final results - dividend upped
George Weston, Chief Executive of Associated British Foods, said:
BP deal falls through
China's CNOOC Ltd and Argentina's Bridas Energy Holding have terminated the $7B deal to acquire the Co's stake in Argentina-based oil & gas group Pan American Energy with Bridas citing "legal issues and the way BP handled the transaction".
Bunzl Aquisition
Bunzl Plc announced the acquisition of Danny Comércio Importação Exportação Ltda, "a leading supplier of personal protection equipment throughout Brazil", from Nielzer and Rita Sudré.
Weir Group Interim Management Statement
Market conditions across the mining and upstream oil and gas markets remainedstrong through the third quarter with the Group continuing to perform well,achieving a new record in quarterly order input. These positive trendscontinued through October. Although we remain vigilant given current macro-economic uncertainty, this performance underpins our confidence in delivering astrong set of results for 2011, in line with our expectations, and starting2012 with a record order book.Revenue strengthened further in the third quarter, ahead of both the first halfrun rate and prior year period, as a result of the first half's strong orderinput. As a result, Group operating profits were also up on the samecomparatives, with Group margins broadly in line with the first half.
G20 final communique
Mr Sarkozy said that France and Germany were in favour of a financial transactions tax and they hoped it would be implemented in 2012.
Derek Pain's No pain, no gain article in Saturday's Independent
In an article entitled 'Dividends rise as directors remember the shareholders' Derek goes on to make the case for dividend investing. As we have been saying for some time, he points out the importance of dividends 'in these low interest rate days' He also points out that there are number of FTSE companies paying more than the rate of inflation! If only he used OptimizerMax....he would see a lot more than that. He points out that it is not just small companies that provide eye catching yields, but large ones. As you know, we do not look at small companies. We only look at large Caps. He quotes data from Capita registrars that we have already covered in recent weeks in terms of the scale of the payout by the big UK dividend payers.
Anglo American acquires De Beers
Anglo American has entered into an agreement with CHL and Centhold International Limited ("CIL"), together representing the Oppenheimer family interests ("CHL Group"), to acquire their 40% interest in DB Investments and De Beers sa ("De Beers") for a total cash consideration of US$5.1 billion, subject to adjustment as provided for in the agreement. Under the terms of the existing shareholders' agreement between Anglo American, CHL and the Government of the Republic of Botswana (GRB), the GRB has pre-emption rights in respect of the CHL Group's interest in De Beers, enabling it to participate in the transaction and to increase its interest in De Beers, on a pro rata basis, to up to 25%. In the event that the GRB exercises its pre-emption rights in full, Anglo American, under the proposed transaction, would acquire an incremental 30% interest in De Beers, taking its total interest to 75%, and the consideration payable by Anglo American to the CHL Group would be reduced proportionately.
Smith and Nephew third quarter results
Commenting on the third quarter, Olivier Bohuon, Chief Executive Officer of Smith & Nephew, said:
GSK reaches settlement with US government
GlaxoSmithKline reaches agreement in principle to resolve multiple investigations with US Government
Old Mutual 3Q Interim Management Statement
"Funds under management ("FUM") decreased by 5% from 30 June 2011 to £116.1 billion at 30 September 2011. Equity markets ended the period down over 15% and were volatile due to continued concerns over European sovereign debt and European bank capital levels. Our Long-Term Savings division ("LTS") achieved positive net client cash flow ("NCCF") of £1.4 billion, driven by strong retail flows and flows in our non-South African Emerging Markets businesses."
Pearson Interim Management Statement
"Pearson increased sales by 6% and operating profit by 13% in the first nine months of 2011. (...) with all of our businesses performing well, we are reaffirming our trading guidance for the full year in spite of the recent deterioration in the macroeconomic outlook. In addition, we anticipate that our interest and tax charges on adjusted earnings will be lower than our previous guidance. As a result, we now expect to achieve adjusted earnings per share of approximately 83p for the full year (ahead of our previous guidance of approximately 80p)."
Tate & Lyle half year results
Tate & Lyle delivered an encouraging performance during the first half with solid demand in a number of our markets. In Speciality Food Ingredients, we delivered good profit growth driven by increased sales volumes across the product portfolio and stable operating margins. Within Bulk Ingredients, we experienced firm demand for corn sugars in the US and Mexico and improved industrial starch margins particularly in Europe. During the first half we experienced exceptionally strong co-product returns as a result of tight market conditions. The dividend is up to 7.1p
BT half yearly 2011/12 results - interim dividend increased
Ian Livingston, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:
Logica Q3 IMS
HeadlinesGroup orders up 10% for the nine months to September driven by continued stronggrowth in OutsourcingRevenue for the nine months to September up 4%, with third quarter revenue up2% on last year to £914 millionOutsourcing revenue growth still strong, up 10% on a year to date basis and up8% in the quarterConsulting and Professional Services broadly stable for the nine months toSeptember despite third quarter revenue down 3% and mixed trends across ourmarketsRevenue up in all geographies except the Benelux on a year to date basis, withparticularly strong third quarter growth in the UKRevenue growth expected to be above 3% for the year, with adjusted operatingmargin now to be in the range of 6.5% to 7.0%Year endnet debt/EBITDA expected to be comfortably below 1.0x; strong secondhalf cash conversion expected
Standard Chartered Q3 2011 IMS
"The Group has continued to perform well in the third quarter of 2011 with income momentum across a broad spread of products and geographies. Despite recent macroeconomic events, our markets continue to exhibit strong growth and their growth credentials remain intact. (...) Income in the first nine months of 2011 has grown by a high single digit percentage over the first nine months of 2010. Over the same period, operating profit before tax grew at a double digit rate. Income in the quarter has remained resilient and diverse and well above the level of the comparable period of 2010. Looking across the main income streams, Consumer Banking and Transaction Banking have shown double digit income momentum on a year to date basis. Financial Markets client income has performed well and Corporate Finance income is ahead of the level seen in the third quarter of 2010, whereas Principal Finance has been affected by the uncertain market environment. (...) Credit quality remains good in both businesses and loan impairment for the Group overall was slightly below the first half run rate. (...) We have no direct sovereign exposure to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece or Spain. Our direct sovereign exposure in Europe is immaterial."
Randgold Resources Q3 statement
London, 2 November 2011 - Despite torrential rains which flooded its flagship Loulo/Gounkoto complex in Mali during August, Randgold Resources ('Randgold') maintained gold production and on an adjusted basis significantly increased profit in Q3.
Next Interim Management statement
Next Brand sales (VAT exclusive) in the third quarter were up 3.3%. This figure is in line with our performance in the first half; so sales for the year-to-date are up 3.2%, at the mid-point of the full year +2.0% to +4.5% sales guidance issued in September. The overall growth pattern for the Next Brand is unchanged, with further improvements in Next Directory (our online business) and the addition of profitable new space more than compensating for slightly weaker underlying Retail sales.
Greece to hold referendum
European markets have fallen following Monday's announcement of a Greek referendum on the latest aid package to solve its debt crisis.
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