Member Info for mulledwine

Cranswick's Chairman, Martin Davey, said: "It is pleasing to report continued growth in sales, in what continues to be a difficult economic and consumer environment, reflecting the ongoing popularity of pork with the consumer, driven by both the versatility and the low relative price of pork to other proteins. "Kingston Foods has made an encouraging contribution to the Group since acquisition and has further extended Cranswick's customer portfolio and strengthened the Group's cooked meat production capability. "Rising input costs were a feature of trading during the period and this has continued into the second half, although efficiency improvements brought about by investment undertaken by the business and ongoing constructive pricing discussions with customers have helped offset the full impact of this. "The Board currently anticipates a more balanced trading performance between the first and second halves compared to last year when there was a strong second half bias. The strategy for the development of the business remains unchanged with future growth being generated by a combination of acquisitions and organic initiatives".

6. Outlook The priorities of the new management team are clear: we will continue to bring greater structure and clarity to the business; we will sharpen our focus on London; we will ensure delivery at Greenwich and Wembley; we will seek to increase income generation from our investment activities; and we will progressively and permanently reduce the level of debt through the orderly disposal of non-core assets and the judicious introduction and use of third party capital. Our objective over the next eighteen months is to reinforce the financial platform and transform the operational delivery of the Company. This will enable us to deliver returns for shareholders in the years ahead. We remain aware of the difficult economic environment, but also the overwhelming demand for new residential accommodation and quality leisure and retail facilities in London. This is why our core strategy is to continue to develop both Greenwich and Wembley, bringing in new capital where appropriate whilst reducing long term debt. Despite some small reductions in valuations, affected by the current economic conditions, we have reviewed the opportunities in developing out both Greenwich and Wembley over the medium term and are confident that the ultimate profit to be realised from these sites will provide additional value to shareholders. The management team will continue to work hard streamlining, structuring and focusing efforts to ensure this value is maximised and efficiently delivered.

Max James, Chief Executive of Quintain, said: "We are repositioning Quintain to become a leading London development and investment specialist, supported by robust recurring income from the asset management business. We are making material progress towards creating a capital structure that complements our assets through the de-leveraging of the balance sheet, introducing new capital and developing new income streams. Our focus is now firmly on driving delivery at our two outstanding London schemes. "Our objective over the next eighteen months is to reinforce the financial platform and transform the operational delivery of the Company. This will enable us to deliver value for shareholders in the years ahead."

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PERIOD: The newly appointed management team is repositioning the Company to be a leading London development and investment specialist. The team has improved the pace of delivery on the major regeneration schemes and is strengthening the Company's financial position. At Greenwich, the new Knight Dragon joint venture, which was announced in June, is already driving momentum on the scheme, on which outline consent is held by Quintain for, inter alia, 10,000 homes. The Company announces today an enhanced Memorandum of Understanding with the Greater London Authority regarding 11 initial residential plots, which will deliver 2,870 homes. Detailed planning applications regarding 506 of these homes, on three plots, have been submitted and a decision is expected in February. At Wembley, the Hilton hotel and student accommodation scheme opened this summer and construction of the London Designer Outlet ("LDO") is on track for the shopping centre to open next autumn. This opening will mark the completion of the 1.8 million sq ft first phase of development on the 8.5 million sq ft Wembley scheme. The LDO has been boosted during the period by the completion of the line-up of anchor tenants and a range of food & beverage lettings. A new letting to LK Bennett is announced today. The balance sheet has been strengthened during the period with net debt reduced by £70 million to £465 million as a result of £145 million of capital recycling. Maturities on a further £85 million of bank facilities extended, providing additional financial flexibility over the medium term.

Results for the six months ended 30 September 2012 Quintain Estates and Development PLC today announces its Interim results to 30 September 2012. KEY POINTS: · Repositioning of the Company underway, with a primary focus on London · Balance sheet being strengthened, with £70m net debt reduction to date and further maturity extensions · Company committed to reducing net debt to sub-£400m by 31 March 2014 · Momentum building at Greenwich with enhanced MoU and planning applications for 500 homes submitted, and at Wembley with Phase One of development (1.8m sq ft) on schedule to complete next year

http://www.investegate.co.uk/quintain-estates-(qed)/rns/results-for-the-six-months-ended-30-september-2012/201211260700089444R/

Outlook Our products and services are successfully meeting the needs of our clients, helping them to develop profitable and robust relationships with their customers. The further development of our identity management product and service portfolio, through the strategic addition of TMG CRB, now provides the Group with the capacity to address new markets and will provide our clients with the additional ability to make safer recruitment decisions more quickly and more efficiently. We expect the strong performance to continue for the remainder of the year. Looking further ahead, we are encouraged by the growth expected in our markets and believe we are well positioned to exploit this market expansion over the coming years.

Richard Law, CEO, commented,"As online and cross-border trading continues to increase, we remain confident that there is a corresponding demand for our identity management services which are designed to "enable" online business and make it safe and easy for consumers and businesses. GB Group is meeting this demand through its existing range of excellent services and through the additional capability we have acquired as a result of four acquisitions successfully completed over the last 18 months. These are exciting times for GB Group and I believe that our prospects are positive."

Highlights · First complete 6 months of trading for the three acquired businesses demonstrates the increased scale and profitability of GB Group. · Group revenues increased by 44% to £17.7m (2011: £12.3m1) o DataAuthentication, which provides identity verification services, revenues grew by 26% to £7.3m (2011: £5.8m1) o DataSolutions, which provides identity-based marketing solutions, revenues grew by 60% to £10.5m (2011: £6.6m1) · Adjusted operating profit2 increased by 58% to £1.5m (2011: £0.95m1), £0.1m ahead of the trading update issued in October 2012. · The Group remains highly cash generative, with operating cash flow before working capital movements increasing by 52% to £1.5m (2011: £0.95m).Cash balances at the period end were £5.8m (2011: £4.2m), after £1.5m of dividend payments. · Two new territories, China and Argentina, added to the Group's international hub, ID3Global, bringing total number of geographies in which GB can offer identity verification services to 16 (2011: 7). · Acquisition activity continued post period end, with acquisition of TMG.tv Limited, the UK's second largest criminal Records Bureau ("CRB") umbrella organisation for up to £3m in November 2012. · Positive outlook for the year and beyond.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/gb-group-plc-(gbg)/rns/half-yearly-report/201211260700079443R/

Valuation: We expect strong growth to continue GB’s normalised EPS trend (historic and estimated) shows strong growth as the group expands its capabilities and gains economies of scale. While the current share rating remains somewhat higher than our selected proxy comparators (see Exhibit 3), we believe this valuation is supported by GB being well placed to grow both its operating divisions strongly in the medium term (both organically and by acquisition) and ahead of the comparator average.

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/GBGUpdate261112.pdf

Online Sales Cielo and Planet Payment will also be launching Shop in Your Currency which enables Brazilian e-commerce merchants to more effectively target foreign markets and close more sales from international customers. This solution allows merchants to localize their offering and simplify the shopping experience for international customers who can now view pricing and pay in their home currencies, while the merchant receives settlement in Real as they do today. "We believe that our solutions will provide Cielo merchants with the tools to enhance customer service and improve profitability while improving the shopping experience for international customers," said Drew Soinski, SVP and Managing Director of the Americas for Planet Payment.

"We are very excited about our entry into the Brazilian market and are delighted to have been selected by Cielo to deliver our innovative products and services to their customers," said Philip Beck, Chairman and CEO of Planet Payment. Brazil has seen steadily increasing levels of inbound international travel, with this upward trend expected to continue in the future. According to statistics released by The Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, a total of 5.4 million international visitors traveled to Brazil in 2011 -- an increase of over 5% over 2010 visitor levels.

"Cielo has maintained its position as the top merchant services provider in Latin America by listening to the needs of its clients and driving innovative products that allow merchants to conduct and grow their businesses more efficiently," said Eduardo Chedid, Products and Business Vice-President at Cielo. "With more international visitors choosing Brazil as their destination for leisure or business travel, this feature is a natural fit for our merchants and an important addition to our product offering." The customers are handed a receipt, or pointed to an electronic terminal which show the transaction amounts in Real and their home currency, together with the daily exchange rate and other service details. The customer then makes their currency choice on the receipt or device. International travelers can enjoy a more comfortable shopping experience by knowing what they are paying in their home currency, while simultaneously providing the merchants affiliated to Cielo with an opportunity to increase their product range and thus increase their sales.

Cielo and Planet Payment to Launch Multi-Currency Solutions in Brazil Cielo, Latin America's leader in electronic payments solutions, and Planet Payment, Inc. (UK: LSE: AIM: PPT and PPTR; USA: OTCQX: PLPM), a leading international and multi-currency payment processor, today announced an initiative to deliver Planet Payment's Pay in Your Currency® and Shop in Your Currency™ services to Cielo's portfolio of merchants in Brazil. The solution can offer significant value-added benefits to Cielo's merchants and their customers, especially tourists expected to visit Brazil during the two major global events - the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. With the new tool, which will be available for 1.3 million Cielo merchants next year in Brazil, international customers are offered the convenience of paying in their home currency at the point-of-sale.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/planet-payment-inc.-(ppt)/rns/cielo-brazil-initiative/201211260700109461R/

Early coverage Aberdeen Asset Management, Europe’s second largest fund manager, has announced a 15 per cent full year increase in underlying profit before tax, to £347.8m, versus £301.9m a year ago. The rise came on the back of an 11% increase in revenues, which reached £869.2m. Significantly, assets under management increased by 10% to £187.2bn, from last year’s £169.9bn.

Outlook It is perhaps unwise to anticipate an end to the uncertainty engendered by the global economic and political backdrop, but I do believe that our clients and shareholders will be well served by the long term investment philosophy and rigorous process of our teams. While equity based products continue to generate healthy sales, we are confident that our sustained efforts in connection with other asset classes will make an increasingly important contribution to the Group's performance in the coming months.

New business New business totalling £36.0 billion was added during the year, with two-thirds of those flows being into pooled funds. By contrast, over 50% of outflows, also £36.0 billion, were from lower margin segregated mandates. As a result, 45% of our year-end assets under management (AuM) is invested in pooled funds (2011: 40%). Gross inflows were sourced from investors in Continental Europe (36%), the UK (23%), the Americas (25%), Asia Pacific (15%) and the Middle East (1%). Consistent with recent years, the major inflows were into our global emerging markets (GEM), Asia Pacific and global equity products. We continue to work to moderate the scale of inflows to GEM, as we are committed to avoiding any dilution to the quality of the portfolios. We also saw healthy interest in our emerging market debt (EMD) and Asian fixed income capabilities, both higher margin products. Indeed, our flagship EMD fund passed the $2 billion milestone during the year. However, overall fixed income flows remained negative, primarily due to outflows from the more traditional developed market strategies. We also experienced net outflows from the solutions business. Although our property funds reported a small net outflow, we have strengthened our global property platform with expanded multi manager teams in Asia and the US, and have added specialist distribution capabilities in both regions. Our equity teams again delivered consistent outperformance against their respective benchmarks over both the longer and shorter term and, in due course, once sentiment towards the Eurozone improves, we believe that our pan-European equities team will attract interest from investors. Fixed income performance remains generally above benchmark over five years, although a few strategies underperformed over one year as the teams believe government bonds remain overvalued and so favoured a short duration stance. Within solutions, performance was good in fund of hedge funds (FoHF) although it was a mixed year for new business with outflows from the multi manager capability, which continues its transition following the acquisition of the RBS business. Nevertheless, we continue to widen the appeal to our existing investor and consultant base.