Member Info for jange

"The effect of the judgement is to enable British American Tobacco and other claimants who issued their claims at about the same time to pursue claims for the recovery of unlawfully imposed UK corporation tax back, in most cases, to 1973," the statement from BATs says. Although the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled largely in favour of the tax-payers in those claims, the value of the claims is subject to a second reference to the ECJ.

The panel of seven judges reviewing the case has unanimously held that s107 of FA '07 is in breach of European Law, and the claimants' right to petition for tax rebates (on the basis that the same income has effectively been taxed twice, once in the source state and then again when distributed to shareholders) has been restored.

The European Court and the UK High Court both ruled largely in favour of the claimants who had argued that the actions of HMRC were in contravention of European Union law, but then the UK Court of Appeal overturned the High Court's judgement, after which the Supreme Court was called in.

The claimants in the group litigation (GLO) contend that they were discriminated against in breach of European Union law by the imposition of UK corporation tax charges, mostly in the form of advance corporation tax (ACT), upon the distribution of foreign sourced income.

Admitting that the 190-page judgement is complex, BATs said it will be enlisting the aid of its learned friends from the legal community to decide on its future course of action in its spat with HMRC. There are 24 other parties enrolled in the group litigation against the Commissions for HMRC, but the main issue of relevance to BATs is the lawfulness of retrospective legislation introduced by section 107 (s107) of the Finance Act of 2007 (FA '07).

British American Tobacco (BATs), the principal test claimant in a court action against Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), is busy trying to decode the Supreme Court's judgement in the case but it looks like the group will be able to put in claims for tax rebates dating back to 1973.

oh and Cash at the end of the period fell to £0.4m, compared to £0.5m at the end of 2010.

In light of the level of exceptional costs incurred in the period, the board has decided not to recommend a dividend for the period (year to December 31st 2010: 3.6p).

"The company is well placed to meet the increasing demand for content both at its UK studios and abroad and has embarked on a consultation for the future development of Pinewood Studios. The board looks forward to the future with confidence." During the five quarter period, the company saw rising demand for its facilities, especially in film. This level of demand has continued into the start of the current financial year and bodes well for the future.

Ivan Dunleavy, Chief Executive, said: "Despite increasing global competition during the fifteen month period ended 31 March 2012, the company won significant business from big budget films for our facilities which resulted in the Studios achieving high utilisation. "In television, the trend for large audience television shows continues. The Media Park, home to around 300 media businesses, remains attractive to the makers and producers of film, television, video games and the wider digital screen industries."

Film revenues for the fifteen month period were £44.9m (December 31st 2010: £29.1m), while Digital Content Services (DCS) revenues for the fifteen month period were £8.0m (December 31st 2010: £5.8m). International revenues contributed £1.2m (December 31st 2010: £0.6m), while television revenues for the fifteen month period were £10.1m (December 31st 2010: £8.2m), reflecting the current television commissioning environment and competitive market conditions.

EBITDA (earnings before exceptional items, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was £17.9m (12 months to December 31st 2010: £12.8m). Revenue for the 15-month period came in at £63.0m versus £43.4m for the 12-month period covering 2010.

Finance costs of £4.56m also took a chunk out of operating profits, leaving a loss before tax for the 15 months to March 31st of £1.89m, versus a profit of £5.82m for the whole of 2012, when finance costs were just £3.31m and exceptional charges were negligible. Stripping out the exceptional charges, the company made a profit before tax of £9.5m, which probably accounts for the shares rising to 331.64p over the lunch-time trading session, up from 303.5p overnight.

The company, which is changing its year end after becoming a subsidiary of Peel Holdings, reported figures for a 15-month period which showed it slipped into the red, after spending £3.67m on fighting the Peel takeover and writing off a five-year £7.07m investment on Project Pinewood, which got the thumbs down from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who refused planning permission for the project.

Film studio Pinewood Shepperton's results received rave reviews, despite the unpleasant plot twist involving a massive write-off of costs relating to its Project Pinewood expansion project.

Under the contract, BAE will supply 22 new Hawk Advanced Jet trainer aircraft, 55 Pilatus PC-21 aircraft, as well as additional aircrew training equipment and an initial support package including the provision of spares, technical publications and post design support.

The £1.6bn deal follows an agreement between the governments of both the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Defence, security and aerospace group BAE Systems has been awarded a significant contract to support the future aircrew training requirements of the Royal Saudi Air Force by the Saudi British Defence Co-operation programme.

Point taken lol.......

More evidence this week of hard times on the High Street will not have unduly bothered ASOS shareholders, as the company is exclusively an online retailer. The market is anticipating pre-tax profits of £39.7m on sales of £495m. Earnings per share are predicted to rise to 37.01p from 27.3p last year, but there is still no sign of a dividend from this growth company. Retail sales in the final quarter of the firm's financial year, which runs to the end of March, increased 34% year-on-year; UK sales rose 4% and International enjoyed a 63% surge. International sales now represent 62% of total sales. Those growth rates may be looked on with envy by High Street retailers, but were not enough to satisfy the market, which punished ASOS's shares, though they have mostly recovered since the disappointing trading update on April 26th.