Tuesday Papers: UK manufacturing sector registers accelarated growth - other news

And Serco has withdrawn a demand for a 2.5 cent “cash rebate” from its leading suppliers and apologised unreservedly to them after the government ordered it to explain its actions.

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by Himanshu Singh on Nov 02, 2010 at 02:26

Financial Times

* The UK manufacturing sector saw an accelerated pace of growth at the beginning of the fourth quarter for the first time in six months; the manufacturing purchasing managers index rose from a level of 53.52 in September to 54.93 in October.

* The official PMI measure, released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, rose to a six-month high of 54.7 in October from 53.8 in September, beating economists’ expectations of a slowdown.

* Serco has withdrawn a demand for a 2.5 cent “cash rebate” from its leading suppliers and apologised unreservedly to them after the government ordered it to explain its actions.

* Data published by the Institute for Supply Management showed the US manufacturing sector growing faster, as the PMI rose from 54.4 in September to 56.9 in October.

* The Office for National Statistics has launched a consultation exercise aimed at paring the number of reports it produces as it adjusts to a cut in its budget.

* Everything Everywhere, the UK’s largest mobile phone operator, is abandoning legal action against legislation which is meant to ensure that mobile operators have sufficient radio spectrum; the company objected to the fact that the proposed spectrum legislation did not include a cap on the amount of low frequency airwaves that one operator could own.

* Ryanair became the latest airline to upgrade its annual earnings forecasts; the company said it now expects to make a full-year net profit of between €380 million and €400 million, up from its previous predictions of between €350 million and €375 million.

* Asda has appointed former Tesco executive Simon King as chief operating officer.

* A five-year contract to provide network management services to Gatwick Airport has edged up shares in Xchanging to 131.8p, as the back office specialist reiterated its full-year profit expectations.

* IntercontinentalExchange, the US futures exchange group, has said that companies were no longer interested in trading carbon emissions credits in the absence of government legislation.

* Bob McDonald, the chief executive of Procter & Gamble, has said he wants the company to step up its work with external partners on new consumer products to deliver at least $3 billion in annual sales growth by 2015, up from around $1 billion currently.