In August 2008 LCG London Capital Group reported revenues of £12.51 million for the first half of 2008, an increase of 54% over on the same period last year, contributing to a 58% rise in profit for the period to £3.94 million.  Spread betting contributed revenues of £11.25 million, 79% of the total.  The company, which acquired Futures Betting.com for £200,000 in May, almost doubled the number of clients to 25,853 (an increase of 96%) compared to the previous year, with average trades per day rising 134% to 16,466.  In July 2008 LCG launched its new spread betting platform targeting the German market which it hopes will increase the scalability of the company’s spread betting platform and allow direct interface with the new CFD platform currently under construction.  During the latter part of 2007 the company launched significant white labels with Paddy Power and Betfair.

Features

•    managed by former Cantor Index executives
•    prides itself on: gearing – deposit to open a position “far less” than competitors; “tightest spreads” in the industry; exceptional customer service
•    every new trade automatically allocated a stop loss based on 80% of the funds available in the client’s account, or set at a ‘maximum computer-generated stop loss’. This ensures each client’s risk is effectively controlled (although the stops are not guaranteed) and there are always enough funds to support the trade
•    minimum stake size is either £1, $1 or €1 per point/tick
•    does not require a minimum deposit
•    does not offer credit accounts.
•    quotes on over 3000 products including: main indices, currencies, commodities, bonds & interest rates, FTSE 100 & FTSE 250 shares, DOW 30, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100 and the DAX 30. If a client cannot find a product, it can generally be added on request
•    as Market Makers they are not subject to best execution.  Clients make a bet on Capital Spreads price as ‘requested’ by them

In June 2008 reported its full year results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2008 and announce that turnover was up 87% to €12.3m (£9.8m) (2007: €6.6m, £5.2m), and operating profit before IPO costs was up 576% to €3.6m (£2.9m) (2007: €0.5m, £0.4m).  The average number of bets per day had risen 73% to 4,500 and the company had registered 2,560 new clients in the year.

Features

•    the only Irish company in the industry with a UK division, which is approved by the UK Financial Services Authority. This means that it must operate to the professional level of a UK stockbroker

•    internationally established with operations in Ireland, UK, Spain, South Africa, Greece, Austria, Germany and Hungary. 44% of all bets and 60% of trading profit earned outside the UK
•    offers the tightest spreads in Ireland

•    clients can retain the services of a WorldSpreads Trainer to provide free tutorials
•    telephone service available between 0700 and 2115 Monday to Friday London time
•    minimum bet size for the above markets is generally €5 (or currency equivalent)
•    margin required for FTSE 100 constituents, 5%; FTSE 250 constituents, 10%; smaller companies, depends on the capitalisation
•    offers Advisory Service to intermediate customers that can demonstrate sufficient experience, knowledge and understanding of trading derivative and margined products. Customers must have recently traded for a minimum of 6 months

The pound fell in value by one and a half cents to $1.575 as traders lost faith in the UK’s ability to recover from recession.

A rate rise from the Bank of England (BoE) is now looking unlikely. High inflation had previously caused many to speculate that it would be forced to push up interest rates.

The Government was quick to insist that the surprise contraction was due to poor weather slowing down retail sales, and stated they believe their recovery strategy is still the way forward.

Competition from online retailers and digital download sites, coupled with the freezing weather wrecking pre-Christmas sales, saw the chain report losses of £41.3 million.

Now shares in the company have fallen by 13% to just 22.75p as they confirmed that some suppliers are no longer able to insure themselves against losses if HMV goes bust.

This morning a spokesperson announced that “following the peak trading period, credit insurers are reviewing the level of cover they provide on the group.

“Whilst this has resulted in the reduction in the availability of credit insurance to some of the company’s suppliers, our business remains a core channel to market for them.”

HMV has already announced it will close 60 stores around the country in a huge cost-saving drive.

Yesterday’s news that inflation jumped from 3.3% to 3.7% in November sparked experts to predict that the BoE could soon raise rates from their historic low of 0.5%.

With the new year VAT hike from 17.5% to 20% inflation could carry on soaring to 4 or even 5%, creating a headache for investors who are currently having to seek out rates of more than 6% to see any return on their savings.

City commentator David Buik, of spreadbetting firm BGC Partners, said: “Many people think that the bank could well increase rates in February by 0.25% just to tell the world at large that it has a strong fist on the tiller. I hope they don’t. It would send out the wrong signal. The recovery is so brittle.”

The brewer, which owns Grolsch and Peroni, said that increasing demand from China and Africa helped boost their sales volumes.

Lager sales rocketed by 12% across Africa, while Chinese demand for the drink grew by 16%.

Organic brews also increased in popularity, with sales up 3%.

A spokesperson said: “Improvement in economic conditions in many of our emerging markets assisted our volume performance.”

Source: Chin Chin

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has proposed a ban on overseas gambling companies advertising in Britain and also wants to make it illegal for online casinos and bookies to accept credit card payments.

The 2005 Gambling Act relaxed the laws surrounding the industry but also created a loophole meaning that firms based in other countries can advertise their services without adhering to strict regulations.

Experts have warned that around a million children are now hooked on gambling after being exposed to television adverts for online casinos and betting sites.

A government source told The Daily Mail: “Ministers are concerned about the explosion of internet gambling advertising since Labour relaxed the gambling laws.”

The deal means that the Russian Government now owns a £5 billion stake in Britain’s largest oil company. One furious diplomat reportedly accused BP of “getting in to bed with the KGB.”

As part of the deal, BP will also get 9.5% of Rosneft shares, and the two companies are planning to cooperate in drilling for oil in the largely-untapped Arctic shelf.

Shadow justice minister Chris Bryant spoke out against the deal, saying: “The way Russia works, the state could end up expropriating their [BP’s] assets, which could end up in God knows whose pockets.

“The level of corruption in Russia is completely unchecked.”

BP’s shares are currently 40% British-owned and 40% American.

The Centre for Economics & Business Research (CEBR) has announced they expect economic growth to be just 1.1 per cent , way below the Government’s official forecast of 2.1 per cent.

On top of this, the National Institute for Economic & Social Research (NIESR) stated it believes growth last year was just 1.6 per cent, lower than the Government’s official 1.8 per cent, and that it does not expect the economy to recover to pre-recession levels until 2012.

CEBR said: “The VAT rise, which was planned before the harvest failures that have bloated food and cotton prices – affecting the price of clothing – will help keep inflation up in 2011 while adding to the squeeze in disposable income and reducing GDP growth.”

Both predictions are bad news for the Treasury, as they threaten the deficit reduction programme and the hoped-for rise in private sector jobs.

The high-speed rail operator, which provides routes between London, France and Brussels, carried 9.5 million people last year, up from 9.2 million in 2009.

Chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said: “This is an exciting time for our passengers and our industry. With the expansion of new routes and services we are witnessing a real renaissance in rail travel.”

Eurostar, which is majority owned by SNCF, the French national rail operator, does not release its profit figures, but confirmed that revenues rose 12% to £760 million.