Barclays and Vodafone both defied the economic downturn this morning by reporting solid profits in line with City expectations.
Despite the banking crisis, Barclays made pre-tax profits of £1.558bn in the last three months.
This takes its earnings for 2009 to £4,542, 19% less than a year ago, due to £6.2bn of bad debts. But although Barclay's UK retail arm saw profits tumble, its investment and commercial banking arm continued to perform well.
And with the income from the sale of its Global Investors division still to come, Britain's second-biggest bank appears on track for a record-breaking year.
We have maintained strong income momentum in the third quarter, particularly in Barclays Capital and across the international activities of Global Retail and Commercial Banking, enabling us to achieve consistent profitability across the first three quarters of 2009. This performance shows the resilience and diversification of our portfolio of businesses.
Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone operator, made an adjusted operating profit of £5.9bn, up 2.4%, in the six months to 30 September.
Chief executive Vittorio Colao said Vodafone had made "strong progress" on mobile data growth and cash generation:
The £1 billion cost reduction programme is expected to be delivered a year ahead of plan and we have extended this to a further £1 billion of cost savings by 2012
Elsewhere...the City will soon have another female chief executive. Imperial Tobacco has promoted chief operating officer Alison Cooper to replace Gareth Davis, who has decided to step down from the CEO's throne on 12 May 2010.
Having finally won agreement from its lenders last week, Yell has launched a £660m cash call.
And Northern Foods has returned to the black with profits of £12.9m for the last six months, having made a loss of £17.1m a year ago. Sales at the company, which makes pizzas, Christmas puddings and ready meals, rose by 2.9% on a like-for-like bases.
However it is also cutting 220 jobs at its Fox's biscuit plant.
