All articles by Tom Bill – Page 2
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Comment
White Young Green gives City a nasty surprise
All is clearly not well at engineering consultant White Young Green.It took the City by surprise today by bringing forward its half-year results from Friday at the eleventh hour. If there's one thing the market hates even more than bad news it's "sudden" news.Combine that with the fact it also ...
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Comment
War, Peace and Taylor Wimpey
“I am so fed up with this process.”This was the verdict of someone involved in the fraught and never-ending Taylor Wimpey debt talks this week.They were referring to the latest delay in signing off on a restructuring deal that has been more than six months in the making.Pen was expected ...
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Comment
The FD revolving door keeps spinning
Another week, another new finance director.The latest move sees David Wilton promoted to take over the reins from Bob Hartley at White Young Green. The reshuffle sees Hartley move sideways to become services director as WYG braces itself for the recession.The last few months have seen FD changes at Atkins, ...
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Comment
The Taylor Wimpey "debt deal buzz" that isn't
Taylor Wimpey shares moved up 8% last Friday and the Daily Mail thinks it knows why.The move came on the back of a similar-sized jump on Thursday.According to the paper, it's the result of a buzz in the City that "an agreement had finally been reached" between the housebuilder and ...
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Comment
When small is not beautiful
"Discussions around future banking terms are ongoing with our bankers. We are extremely grateful for their help and support to date and we are seeking to reach agreement on future support shortly."Sound familiar?But who said it? Taylor Wimpey, Barratt, Redrow? In fact it was Oakdene - on 30 September ...
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Comment
Taylor Wimpey and the drug-crazed marsupials
The leaked email from Taylor Wimpey boss Pete Redfern to his staff caused quite a stir in the City before Christmas.The housebuilding boss talked up the chances of a refinancing deal by the end of February - a claim backed up by other sources in the know.But the email ...
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Comment
Is Persimmon afraid of the big bad City wolves?
This fortnight sees the big housebuilders update the City on just how appalling they think 2009 will be.It can't be a fun prospect.After a dozen or so highly numerate analysts have picked holes in their powerpoint presentations, most chief execs and FD's will probably need a quick single malt before ...
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Comment
Taylor Wimpey and the Siamese twin chimpanzees
The Taylor Wimpey email from boss Peter "call me Pete" Redern to staff that did the rounds yesterday raised as few eyebrows in the City.Not least for its humorous reference to Angelina Jolie giving birth to Siamese twin chimpanzees when describing how much press coverage the housebuilder has had ...
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Comment
What's going on at Panceltica?
What is going on at structural steel specialist Panceltica?The Qatar-based company defied the downturn by floating on AIM in March and had been hailed in the City as one of the few success stories of 2008. The share placement was heavily over-subscribed.The £86m-turnover group uses technology that means large-scale housing ...
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Comment
Oh, the indignity! Taylor Wimpey falls out of FTSE 250.
When Taylor Wimpey fell out of the FTSE 100 in March, it was not unexpected but still a shock in symbolic terms.Was the construction industry really faring so badly against the caterers, retailers and travel agents that had stayed in?Well, if that wasn't a bad enough, it has now dropped ...
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Comment
Jarvis - remember them?
The news that Jarvis chairman and former London Mayor pretender Steven Norris has snapped up £21,640 worth of shares in the company was greeted with a weary yawn in the City.It would have been a different story 18 months ago, before the well-documented woes of the company took a backseat ...
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Comment
How chummy are you with your bank manager?
As someone close to the demise of Pettifer Construction lamented last week: "The banks are the banks".You can't argue with the logic. Nor can you argue with your lender when they decide to pull the plug.A transparent relationship may buy you some time though.Many companies are pushed under due to ...
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Comment
Bonus watch: Bellway bosses bag £632,500
There's still no sign housebuilding bosses are attracted by the warm glow and good PR they'd get by waiving their bonuses in these difficult times.Latest in line is Bellway. Admittedly the company is not in the same state of crisis as some of its peers but a £275,000 bonus for ...
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Comment
Taylor Wimpey debt talks: mind your language
Some of the descriptions of the fraught Taylor Wimpey rescue talks have been pretty euphemistic considering the company's survival is at stake.The housebuilder kicked things off a fortnight ago when it described the pace of talks with its lenders as "a tad disappointing". Which was very restrained.It continued a few ...
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Comment
Barratt slashes house prices by 43% - good or bad news?
Barratt's attractiveness to investors is a moot point.Some in the City believe the housebuilder is over the worst and say its shares are worth a punt at 60p-ish. They point to the rescue deal it struck with its banks in the summer.Others are more reticent. Included in that camp is ...
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Comment
Barratt chairman puts his money where his mouth is
At Barratt's trading update this morning one analyst questioned whether FD Mark Pain or chief exec Mark Clare would be buying shares in the company any time soon."It's a good mark of confidence from the directors in the company's fortunes," he pointed out.Pain was cagey and joked that his wife ...
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Comment
MJ Gleeson boss bags £70k bonus
When MJ Gleeson chief exec Paul Wallwork announced a pre-tax loss of £21m last month, he warned of more job cuts to follow the 335 already made this year.His £70k bonus - announced this week - must have been pretty hard to swallow for those already shown the door.The company ...
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Comment
It's been emotional
It can't be easy being the boss of a housebuilder at the moment. The incessant flow of bad news must take its toll.But while some are proving they have the hides of elephants, others appear to be wilting under the pressure.If rumours in the square mile are to be believed, ...
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Comment
Rok: are you still a believer?
When Rok's messianic chief executive Garvis Snook told the Stock Market this morning that the credit crunch would knock £12m off its bottom line, some were quick to mutter "I told you so" under their breath.The company's business model has always divided opinion; does a network of sub-contracted tradesmen under ...
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Comment
Interim Management Statements: Why bother?
Balfour Beatty's market update this morning made fairly unexciting reading.Apart from the news that a couple of PFI schemes have been pushed back due to the current market malaise, the 354 words didn't add much to its interim results eight weeks ago.Same story for Carillion a fortnight ago - whose ...
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