What the other papers say this morning – 23 April 2014 April 22, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Russian bank’s post-Crimea bond A Russian bank in the oil-rich region of Tatarstan has become the country’s first lender to issue a dollar-denominated bond since Moscow’s official annexation of Crimea and the subsequent tension with western governments. Tatfondbank, which has branches across Russia, raised $70m yesterday through a three-year bond. Numericable eyes €8.5bn [...]
FCA called to act as Quindell is hit by critical blog April 22, 2014 THE FINANCIAL Conduct Authority (FCA) is facing calls to investigate after a critical blog post wiped £900m from the value of one of the UK’s fastest-growing public firms. Insurance outsourcer Quindell saw its shares tumble as much as 52 per cent after US firm Gotham City Research initiated coverage with a 3p target price – [...]
Minister warns top firms over remuneration April 22, 2014 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable has penned a warning letter to the renumeration committees of all FTSE 100 companies, telling them to bring pay in line with performance or risk even tougher rules. Explaining his decision to write to the companies, Cable warned of public resentment surrounding large payouts, adding that he wants to see firm [...]
Q and A: Why has there been no statement from AstraZeneca? April 22, 2014 Q I want to know what’s going on at AstraZeneca – can’t someone make the company tell us? A Yes. The Takeover Panel is in charge of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, which tries to make sure shareholders get a fair deal during a bid. It has a clear set of rules that [...]
GlaxoSmithKline trades assets with rival Novartis April 22, 2014 FTSE 100 drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) yesterday unveiled a complex string of asset deals with Swiss rival Novartis in a move set to deliver a £4bn windfall for shareholders. GSK closed up 5.2 per cent in trading yesterday after investors cheered the three-part transaction, which will see the business sell its cancer drugs offering to [...]
Analyst Views: What does the deal mean for GlaxoSmithKline? April 22, 2014 SAVVAS NEOPHYTOU | PANMURE GORDONGSK has underperformed in recent weeks, impacted mainly by missed upgrading opportunities from the pipeline. This transaction shows management will not sit idly by waiting for the pipeline to mature but will take brave decisions to unlock shareholder value. Managing to get up to seven times prospective revenues for its oncology [...]
Bottom Line: Big pharma is ready to move April 22, 2014 FOR the last few years, big pharma firms have been on the back foot. With expiring patents and drooping profits hanging over their heads, the chief executives of the drugs giants have been hunkered down, working out how to cut costs and find new growth. As of yesterday, they seem to have decided that consolidation [...]
RBS to trim £65m from its cost base by cutting contractor pay April 22, 2014 RBS is reducing contractors’ pay by 10 per cent from the end of this month as its cost-cutting programme gets underway, City A.M. has learned. The bank wants to make savings of £1bn by the end of the year, and this move should contribute up to £65m towards that goal. All of the roughly 11,000 [...]
Barclays stops trading in most commodities April 22, 2014 BARCLAYS is shutting down most of its commodities trading business after new regulations made it harder to make money in the sector, the bank said yesterday. It will no longer trade base metals, agricultural products or most energy commodities. But the bank will continue to trade precious metals, as well as index products and some [...]
BNY Mellon’s profits jump on rising markets April 22, 2014 BUOYANT equity markets and rising fee incomes boosted BNY Mellon’s profits in the first quarter, the US custodian bank reported yesterday. The bank made a profit of $926m (£550m) in the three-month period, up 12 per cent on the $825m it made in the same period of 2013. Fee revenues increased one per cent to [...]