YP75: US bank's poor results put the brakes on market acceleration

Disappointing fourth-quarter results from US investment bank Goldman Sachs, and increased fears of an overheating Chinese economy, put the brakes on the UK stock market last week. Chinese GDP continues to grow at an eye-watering 9.8 per cent and inflation remains stubbornly high, increasing fears that the Chinese authorities will raise interest rates in response.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Jan 2011, 09:04 BST
Updated 25th Jan 2011, 09:04 BST

Back in Yorkshire, ITM Power, a clean sustainable energy group, reported a pre-tax loss of 3m for the six months to October 31, although the group remains confident for the year ahead. Cash and short-term balances stood at just short of 15m. Meanwhile, the company is set to begin its Hydrogen On Site Trials (HOST) at Stansted Airport, in March.

EMIS Group, a leading primary care software provider, announced a trading update ahead of full-year results due in March.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Trading for the year has been in line with management forecasts with recurring revenues representing 81 per cent of turnover compared with 75 per cent in 2009. The July 2010 White Paper, which outlined plans to hand the majority of the 100bn-a-year NHS budget back to GPs, is set to open up new markets for EMIS Group.

But the roll-out of the company's EMIS Web system remains the company's core focus.

It has been a year of dramatic turnaround at York-based Animalcare Group. In September, the company announced a number of disposals aimed at re-focusing the group on the core veterinary medicines business.

In all, the disposals have enabled Animalcare to reduce its outstanding debts to 1m, down from 4.5m in June 2010.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The development pipeline continues to meet its targets and two new products were launched in September with two more planned for early 2011.

Henry Boot, a leading construction firm based in Sheffield, reported that revenues for 2010 are expected to be around 128m, with underlying profit in line with management expectations.

The company also believes that selective, profitable development opportunities are beginning to present themselves and the company hopes to begin to reinvest into such areas over 2011 and 2012.

Finally, Communisis, a marketing services provider, has extended its presence in key target markets through a number of new long-term agreements.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The group has renewed a contract with the Post Office to provide IT and and stationery consumables to the national network of 11,500 branches.

A further 2m annual contract has been agreed with Liberata, a leading business service provider, and these agreements follow November's announcement of a five-year contract extension with Barclays.

David Cadwallader Investment Manager, Brewin Dolphin

Related topics:GDP