Browsing Business News – for free

Students and staff can make use of University of Manchester Library resources to browse recent news.

Factiva (from Dow Jones) has a News Pages tab that offers simple access to top newspapers worldwide (most recent two weeks).

Select Global from the drop-down list and you get: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Australian, The Times and scmp.com (South China Morning Post).

Select United Kingdom and you get: The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal (Europe) and The Economist.

Factiva News Pages (click to expand)

Note: Factiva provides News Pages in several languages in addition to english.

Factiva does include access to The Financial Times but not through the News Pages – you have to use the Search tab and select The Financial Times as your source.

Bloomberg Professionalis an excellent source of financial market news. Useful news functions include:

• TOP <GO> – Today’s top news stories
• READ <GO> – Most read news
• N <GO> – Main news menu
• NSE <GO> – News search engine
• NRR <GO> – News readership rankings

For a list of news databases goto the Business and Management databases page and scroll down to the Databases: Business News section.

Researching a UK company – reports and data

What resources are available for researching FirstGroup plc? (who among other things run many of the buses in north Manchester)

Free online resources:

• FirstGroup PLC company website – especially the investor relations section that gives the latest annual report (128 pages).
• Yahoo Finance UK, Google Finance UK,

Library subscribed resources:

• Marketline Company Profile FirstGroup plc from Business Source Premier – 24 pages including key facts, business description, history, key employees, revenue analysis, SWOT analysis
• GlobalData FirstGroup plc (FGP) – Financial and Strategic SWOT Analysis Review July 2012 – an analyst report from Thomson Research – 26 pages – About the company, Company Analysis (including SWOT), Company Financial Ratios, and details of GlobalData and their analysis methodology.
• Key Note Bus & Coach Operators Market Report 2012 from KeyNote – a market research report including a profile of FirstGroup as a key company. (Other KeyNote market reports include Rail Travel 2011 and KeyNote company information provides five years of company accounts.)
• 7 Economist articles (since 2001) and over 500 Financial Times articles – both from ABI/Inform (Proquest) .
• 10 years of FirstGroup accounts through Fame – a database based on accounts filed at UK Companies House with additional information on shareholders and subsidiaries.

In summary, the library subscribed resources provide access to reports that would be expensive to buy (investment analysts and market research reports) and databases that provide more flexible search and download facilities than free online resources.

If the above library resources are not enough, there are plenty more:

• Thomson Research has a total of 256 analyst reports on FirstGroup plc published in the last 2 years. These are valuable reports and not easily found with a google search – see Analysts reports on Thomson Research.
• Factiva has 2,176 news stories from the last 6 months – including over 100 from the Financial Times.
  Dow Jones Company Report FirstGroup plc – from Factiva – 15 pages – company overview and financials (balance sheet, cash flow and income statement) for last 5 years.
• Thomson One Banker provides financial market information: overview, prices, financials, estimates, deals (e.g mergers and acquisitions), ownership and comparables.
• ORBIS is similar to Fame except that it covers the largest 230,000 companies worldwide (Fame is UK and Ireland only) so you can compare FirstGroup with similar companies worldwide.
• Bloomberg Professional provides financial market information and  business news – the DES (description) function provides a brief overview report.

This post applies advice from previous posts to a specific company: How to Research UK Company Data, Company Financial Analysis (Global Companies), and How to Research Global Company Data.

Mergers and Acquisitions Research

Factiva – BAE Systems and FT (click to expand)

The possible merger of BAE Systems and EADS is much reported in the financial press at the moment.

Using the Factiva business news database we can see that there have been almost 100 articles about BAE Systems in the Financial Times alone in the last 3 months (almost all about the proposed merger).

However, there is not yet anything definite. On 12 Sept 2010 BAE Systems issued an official statement.  ”Further to the recent movement in BAE Systems’ share price, BAE Systems plc (BAE Systems) and EADS N.V. (EADS) confirm that they are in discussions regarding a possible combination of their businesses. …” (RNS Number 1353M from PI Navigator). There is no specific merger proposal, so there is very little detail that can be recorded in a Merger and Acquisition database.

Thomson Research – Analysts’ reports for BAE Systems (click to expand)

Although the merger is only possible. It is likely to be included in reports be Analysts who follow either of these companies. (Some analysts may delay producing a report until there is a specific merger proposal.)

For more details on Thomson Research see the earlier post Analysts’ Reports on Thomson Research. (Remember Thomson Research only works with IE (internet Explorer)

See also (earlier posts)

• Mergers and acquisitions databases (Nov 2011)
• Researching mergers and acquisitions (Jan 2011)
• Deals info from Thomson One Banker (Mar 2011)

Mergers and acquisition research can involve much more that the financial details of the deals, and remember not all deals are successfully completed.

Update 10 October 2012: EADS and BAE call off merger

• “BAE Systems and EADS announce that they have decided to terminate their discussions” (RNS Number 13955O from PI Navigator).
• EADS, BAE call off world’s biggest arms merger (Thomson Reuters)
• EADS-BAE Pull Plug on Merger Amid Government Opposition (Bloomberg)

Researching companies for your career

remember nothing impresses an employer more in the job interview than hearing a candidate speak knowledgeably about their company (cjbsinfo, 2011)

At the welcome presentations today, it was clear students should start thinking about their career plan as early as possible. A good opportunity then to mention how library company information resources can help.

Company profile – for example use Business Source Premier and the Company Profile link.

Business News – for example use Factiva to find about recent press items about specific companies.

Market Research – for example use Keynote (UK cos) or GMID (Global Market Information Database) to research key market developments.

For more detail: Careers help online (Apr 2012), How to target and research potential employers (Jun 2011), from Careers category.

Manchester Business Answers 24/7 Careers section answers updated to refer to the shiny new University of Manchester Careers Blog - a great place to start learning about the support available from the University Careers Service like the Finance Business and Management Fair on 18th Oct 2012.

References

cjbsinfo (2011) “Pre-interview database checklist” University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, Information and Library Services blog. Available at: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/infolib/2011/06/10/pre-interview-database-checklist/ [Accessed 17 Sept. 2012]

 

Financial News on Factiva

The Library does not subscribe to Financial News but you can get access to the articles in the weekly newspaper through Factiva.

If you go to the Financial News newspaper tab ( http://www.efinancialnews.com/paper ) and find a title of interest then you can goto Factiva for the full text. [Articles are on Factiva 2 days after publication.]

Example from:  Issue 793 Monday 19th Mar 2012

Financial News Issue 793 (click to expand)

News article: Wrigth, W (2010) “The winners and losers from the financial crisis” Financial News,  Issue 793 Monday 19th Mar 2012. 

On Factiva this article is available but slightly tricky to find.

You can set the source to be Financial News (Europe) and select a date range including the 19th March 2012. However, the article “The winners and losers from the financial crisis” is not immediately obvious. It is marked as a duplicate of the article “Then and now: how investment banking has slimmed down and consolidated; …” (See below)

Factiva search for Financial News (click to expand)

This looks to be because the two articles have the same source (Financial News (Europe)), author (William Wright) and date (19 Mar 2012)

Searching for the article above it is clear that just searching for keywords from the title is not always effective. A good alternative is to use Factiva’s field tags. For example “rst=lonfin and by=wright” restricts a search to source Financial Times (Europe) and author Wright. When using field tags you have to make sure that the option “Search for free-test terms in” is  Full Article and not the default Headline and Lead Paragraph. If not you will just get “Your search statement contains a general syntax error. … Error: 520101 …”

Earlier post:  How Business News can enhance your Research – use the Tag cloud on the right-hand side for all Factiva-related posts.

Regulatory News Announcement from Carnival

At 07.00 AM on Mon 16th Jan 2012 Carnival Corporation and plc issued a “Required Announcement on Financial Impact of Costa Cordia“.

“At this time, our priority is the safety of our passengers and crew,” said
Micky Arison, Carnival Corporation & plc chairman and CEO. “We are deeply
saddened by this tragic event and our hearts go out to everyone affected by the
grounding of the Costa Concordia and especially to the families and loved ones
of those who lost their lives. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers,”
…

The announcement then provided information in accordance with financial disclosure regulations. The full text of the announcement is available on Bloomberg and several other business databases.

“]

Carnival PLC - Price Graph to 16 Jan 2012 [click to expand

Bloomberg
If on Monday 16th you want to see how the market reacts to the Costa Concordia tragedy, then Bloomberg is the best database. It provides an integrated view covering the news and the Carnival share price (price down and an increase in trading volumes), and the news is the most read story of the day.

Factiva
If you don’t have access to Bloomberg the announcement is also available on the business news database Factiva. Select Companies/Markets, lookup company Carnival Plc, and the select Press Releases from the news options. (You can also do a Factiva text search, but you either have to read through many results of spend some time constructing an effective search. Company = Carnival Plc AND Source = Publication: Wires AND Free Text = “announcement” worked for me.)

Thomson One Banker
Thomson One Banker has lots of financial market information but almost all numbers (at least in our subscription). However you can get the regulatory announcement so long as you know to lookup Carnival and  goto Recent News at the foot of the Thomson Overview Report- see screencast http://screencast.com/t/STFffmOd

PI Navigator
PI Navigator is the easiest database for going straight to the regulatory annoncement. You just lookup Carnival Plc and search. However, because PI Navigator only covers the regulatory news and regulatory filings of companies, you have to use another database for additional news or financial market information.

Previous post on business news: How Business News can enhance your Research

Company Financial Analysis (Global Companies)

The library has a number of useful resources for the financial analysis of public companies (companies quoted on a stock exchange).

Company Accounts

Thomson Reuters’ Worldscope database provides historical accounting data – balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. It is available through Thomson One Banker and Datastream. Bloomberg also has accounting data – command FA (Financial Analysis).

Thomson One Banker, Datastream and Bloomberg can also provide data on a company’s financial market performance – e.g. historical shares prices and returns, and corresponding data for market indices.

Company Filings (including Annual Reports)

Company Filings are available on PI Navigator,  Thomson Research, and Bloomberg. (Recent company reports are usually available direct from the company website.)

Analysts Reports

Analyst/Broker reports are available from Thomson Research and Bloomberg (command BRC).

Company News

Factiva from Dow Jones is a extensive online news database covering a wide range of sources. (See How Business News can enhance you research for more details.) Bloomberg also provides a wide range of company, financial market and economic news.

Related FAQ questions:

• Where can I find company financials, e.g., balance sheets etc.?
• Where can I find current and historical company annual reports?
• How do I find analyst reports (investment bank reports)?
• Where do I find current news about a company?
• How do I compare a company to its industry?

For further tips: use tags below to find other posts on these databases, and look at  the How to research … guides,

How Business News can enhance your Research

Business news can be very useful for gaining a detailed international, national and even regional perspective on current and/or historical company/industry  events.  Search across international news sources, eg: newspapers, news feeds, magazines and industry trade publications, to find up-to-date information and to place events and issues in a social or political context.

 How can Business News Help Me?
Use Business News to complement and enhance your company / industry research, many sources may not have the most up to date information for company / industry events. Business news can help you understand what is happening right now and monitor events as they unfold.

• Gain a detailed perspective on current/historical political issues and events
• Keep up to date with company/industry events as they unfold
• Examine political, economic and market trends
• Track company announcements/results
• Examine historic / current mergers, acquisitions, deals
• Research key political, economic or company personnel
• Gain a competitive advantage for job applications/interviews

Our primary source for business news is Factiva, providing international news (in many languages) from global, national and regional sources including newspapers, news websites, newsfeeds, stock exchange feeds, and business/industry specific magazines.

Factiva will provide news dating back to the early 1980’s. For further historical research you can also consult our Financial Times and Economist archives which provide a full text archive of every issue of the Financial Times and the Economist from the mid 1800′s including market listings, photos, adverts and indicator tables.  These are great resources for understanding the impact of historical events on company/market/economic developments.

For further information see our “How to Research: Business News” and our guide to searching “Factiva” available from the Helping You section of the MBS Library website:

Other Business Research Posts:

• Factiva: Introduction
• Financial Times on Factiva
• Financial Times Historical Archive

Related Manchester Business Answers Questions:

•  Where can I get current news about a company?

How to Target and Research Potential Employers

The MBS Library Service provides access to key resources and databases which can assist you with your job search, interview preparation and Career development plan.

Careers Guides

Find publications relating to your career developemnt eg. Managing your career, CV/Interview preparation and tips on networking techniques, via the Library Catalogue.

Company Research Databases

Use the databases located in the “Databases” section of the Library’s “E-Resources” page to:

• Target Listings of UK/International companies
• Locate details of top companies in specific sectors
• Research latest company developments 

Target and Research Companies: Access FAME/ORBIS

• Identify and create target sector lists for UK/International companies
• Establish top companies/key competitors in specific markets/sectors
• Examine and Compare Financial performance of companies
• Analyse a company’s performance against key competitors
• Examine Corporate structures, board members and key contacts

Research Company News and Developments: Access FACTIVA

• Enhance your background knowledge for applications and interviews
• Examine latest company/industry developments from leading global news and trade publications
• Examine the impact of the latest political/economic events on companies/industries
• Up to 20 years of news updated daily

Other Library Databases  

• Research Market Analysis – Access Mintel, Keynote, Passport GMID, Frost and Sullivan, providing detailed tailored analysis for international and consumer markets . See the “Markets and Sectors” section of the Library Databases page.
• Create Company/Industry Capsules – Access Business Source Premier (Business Searching Interface) providing brief company/industry snapshots for key international companies and markets. See the “Management Literature” section of the Library Databases page.

Specialist Databases: Access BLOOMBERG (available for use within the Eddie Davies Library)

• Locate essential data within the “Bloomberg Careers Centre”
• Provides the Facility to search for Jobs/Recruiters by region
• Details upcoming Job Related Events
• Lists latest Job Postings

Additional Sources: VAULT (Online Careers Portal)

In addition to the Library databases on offer, MBS students have access to an online careers portal via their own career service. Vault provides:

• Online career development guides
• Occupational profiles
• Articles and online videos offering career/personal development advice.

To access Vault contact your University Careers Service adviser

Further Information on how to find, access and search any of the library databases detailed within this guide can be found on the Library’s E-Resources page.

The Library is providing a season of Open Training programmes over the Summer including sessions in July on Targeting and Researching Potential Employers

A detailed guide which expands further on the information provided above is also available via the Library Web-site.   

How to Research Global Company Data

 

We have a wide range of information available to you connected to the Research of Global Company data focusing on areas such as:

• Company Financials: Examine up to ten years worth of Financial Data. For example, analyse the share price growth of Toyota Motor over the last decade. Research over 60,000 Public International quoted Companies.

Access:  Thomson One Banker  

• Target Sector Listings: Track a comapny’s performance against their key competitors. Research the top 230,000 international public/private companies across 200 countries.

Access: Orbis 

• Investment Analysis: Gain an insider’s view from leading International Investment banks. For eaxmple, discover how Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley rate China’s leading Petroleum provider. View analysis reports for over 60,000 companies.

Access: Thomson Research

• Market Analysis:  Develop an understanding of International Markets.

  Monitor global companies in the daily news and view data feeds from the world’s stock exchanges. Create a graph or chart based display of,  for example, Exon Mobil’s revenue growth.

Access: Datastream, Bloomberg

• Company/Industry News: Monitor company or industry developments from leading global news sources. Up to twenty years of daily updated news is available. For example examinehow the World’s press reacted to the latest Samsung Electronics trading figures statement. 

Access: Factiva

Please see our brand new How to Research Global Company Data guide and related FAQs from Manchester Business Answers 24/7 for further information.