Newspaper firm Johnston Press has been forced to raise £212m through a deeply discounted rights issue to prevent it breaching debt covenants following a downturn in advertising.
Moir Lockhead, chief executive of FirstGroup, admitted yesterday as he asked shareholders for £240m that the Aberdeen-based transport company should have sought new funds when it took over Laidlaw in the US last autumn.
Bradford & Bingley announced plans to tap shareholders for £300m through a rights issue in an apparent
u-turn which raised questions about the credibility of management and sent shares in the firm plunging.
Venture Production, the offshore oil and gas firm, said yesterday that it has made strong operational progress in the first four months of 2008, with group average production of more than 45,500 barrels of oil per day, despite the impact of the recent shutdown of the Forties Pipeline System.
J Sainsbury chief executive Justin King yesterday maintained that the UK economy was far from recession but it wasn't enough to stop the market knocking 4% off the value of the supermarket chain after investors fretted about the future.
Johnston Press yesterday announced a deeply discounted £212.3m rights issue after a downturn in the advertising market left the company at risk of breaching its banking covenants.
Benchmark UK inflation surged from 2.5% to 3.0% in April – a whisker away from the 3.1% level at which Bank of England Governor Mervyn King would have to write an explanatory letter to Chancellor Alistair Darling.
Mackays Stores owner Iain McGeoch has emerged as an ally of entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter in the latter’s court battle with Tesco over Dobbies Garden Centres.
Allied Vehicles yesterday revealed high hopes of expanding significantly its 300-strong workforce at Possil in Glasgow, as it underlined a bold move into producing zero-emission vehicles.
Shares in MicroEmissive Displays Group more than halved yesterday after the company said it now expects to achieve month-on-month profitability during the next financial year.
Shares in Alliance & Leicester fell 10% to their lowest close in almost eight years yesterday after the lender announced write-downs related to the credit crunch of some £391m.
Babcock International, the support services company which owns the Faslane and Rosyth dockyards in Scotland, yesterday reported a 53% rise in annual profit and said it was increasing its dividend by 43%.
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