Newspaper round-up: 22 February 2007

George Wimpey

The big story in the nationals this morning was the slump in Wimpey's profits, which the Financial Times, Independent and Daily Mail all blamed on the sluggish US housing market.

The UK-based housebuilder saw a 15% fall in pre-tax profits to £310.2m, following an exceptional charge of £60.7m on the write-down of US land.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph saw the more positive angle - the fact that the UK market is still looking robust, with the company's orderbook so far this year up 6% by volume and 7% by value than at the end of 2005.

Anglo-American

The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Guardian all covered Anglo-American's pledge to give back £1.5bn to shareholders on the back of record profits and production. The 83% rise in pre-tax profit to £4.9bn, was atributed to high metal prices and strong demand from China. Tarmac, which has been slimmed down to an aggregates business, was also reported to be off the list of companies marked for disposal. Anglo-American indicated that Tarmac was heading back to profit.

Ben Bailey

Yorkshire-based housebuilder Ben Bailey has made a move towards putting itself up for sale, according to the Financial Times. It appointed investment bank NM Rothschild to conduct a strategic review into the business, as the company tried to come to terms with the choice between expanding beyond Yorkshire and East Midlands and putting itself on the market.

Asda

The Guardian took a look into the story that supermarket chain Asda was to build 18 new stores in an expansion that would create an extra 8,000 jobs. Folkestone and Walsall are said to be among the planned locations.