Thursday morning business bulletin

Aug 21 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Charles Church housebuilder Persimmon today kicked off what is set to be a grim results season for the sector after first-half profits slumped by nearly two-thirds.

The York-based firm, which said trading conditions were the most challenging in its recent history, has cut 2,000 jobs to cope with the downturn in the market.

Pre-tax profits for the six months to June 30 tumbled 64% to £100.9m.

While Persimmon said sales volumes had not slipped any further since its gloomy April update, it said the autumn selling season would give a clearer indication of prospects for 2009.

But it warned: ``The current economic conditions, the uncertainties surrounding the general financial markets and mortgage availability will be defining factors in the return to a more normal housing market.

``Until we see an improvement in respect of these factors it is difficult to predict the short term future with confidence."

The UK’s second largest cinema chain today said a strong release schedule had boosted attendances since the end of June.

Cineworld said Mamma Mia and Batman: The Dark Knight were proving popular as the company looks to make up for a lacklustre film line-up in the first half of its financial year. Half-year earnings slipped to £21.5 million from £21.7 million a year earlier after admissions came in 4.8% lower than a year ago, driven by the ``relative absence of blockbuster films" during the period.

Chief executive Stephen Wiener described the first half performance as solid and said the current releases increased confidence in the full-year outlook.

Cineworld, which operates 74 cinemas and 770 screens, said it planned to open a further seven cinemas over the next three years.

Europe’s biggest supplier of roofing and insulation shrugged off ``challenging" markets today after benefiting from surging demand for its products.

Sheffield-based SIG gained from tougher UK building standards for construction schemes and said new carbon reduction targets had generated ``strong growth" in demand for retrofit insulation in existing homes.

``Demand for insulation products continues to perform better than other building materials due to a combination of regulatory, environmental and economic drivers throughout all regions in which SIG trades," it said.

Pre-tax profits were up 10% to £68.3m in the first half of 2008, with like for like sales up 9% to £1.49bn.

Chairman Les Tench said: ``This is a solid performance from the group against a background of some challenging conditions."

The pound at 9am was US$1.8655 compared to US$1.8589 at the previous close while the euro at 9am was £0.7928  compared to £0.7904 at the previous close.