FSA appoints banking investment adviser January 30, 2012 The Financial Services Authority has appointed Will Samuel as investment banking senior advisor, the regulator said on Monday. Samuel, who will take up his role immediately, will be part of a team of advisors at the FSA where he will provide insight based on his experience of the investment banking industry. He has worked in [...]
Banks pull FTSE back as Greece crisis festers January 30, 2012 The FTSE 100 tracked losses across Europe in early trading as the negotiations in Athens over Greece’s disastrous finances showed few signs of success. Greece and its private creditors have so far failed to come up with an agreement on debt swap talks, needed to avoid a default. Meanwhile a European summit focused on growth [...]
Ex-UBS trader denies fraud charges January 30, 2012 The former UBS trader accused of unauthorised deals that cost the Swiss bank $2.3bn (£1.4bn) pleaded not guilty to all four charges of fraud and false accounting in a London court on Monday. Kweku Adoboli, 31, was charged in September in connection with one of the world’s biggest cases of alleged “rogue trading”.
BlueCrest in £150m fund raising January 30, 2012 BlueCrest Capital Management, one of Europe’s biggest hedge fund firms, is looking to raise more than £150m for a new listed feeder fund into its computer-driven BlueTrend fund, a source familiar with the matter said. The closed-end fund, BlueCrest BlueTrend, will feed into the firm’s main BlueTrend fund, the company said in a statement. BlueTrend [...]
Centrica raises stake in North Sea Oil field January 30, 2012 Centrica said it will increase its stake in the Statfjord field in the North Sea, providing the owner of household energy supplier British Gas with a further source of gas supply. The company said it had agreed to pay ConocoPhilips $223m (£142.3m) for its interests in the field, which straddles the UK and Norwegian North [...]
ABB to acquire Thomas and Betts for $3.9bn January 30, 2012 US manufacturer Thomas and Betts said it has agreed to be acquired by Switzerland’s in a $3.9bn (£2.4bn) cash transaction. ABB will pay $72 per share in cash for Thomas and Betts, a 24 per cent premium over the stock’s Friday’s close price. Through the deal, ABB will gain access to Thomas & Betts network [...]
Ryanair lifts profit forecast January 30, 2012 Ryanair has raised its profit forecast, saying higher ticket prices were more than making up for expensive fuel and reduced capacity, underlining the resilience of its low-cost sector as legacy carriers struggle. The Irish low cost carrier, Europe’s largest, increased its full year profit forecast by nine per cent to £480m euros (£403m) after posting [...]
Fujifilm offers scandal hit Olympus partnership deal January 30, 2012 A Fujifilm Holdings executive said that the company has proposed an alliance with scandal-tainted Olympus Corp, adding that there were areas in which the two rivals could cooperate without infringing on anti-trust regulations. Fujifilm, which sees synergies between Olympus’s endoscopes and Fujifilm’s IT systems, ultra-sound and X-ray technologies, has made a proposal through Olympus’s financial [...]
RBS chief waives £1m bonus payout January 29, 2012 ROYAL Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has bowed to growing political pressure and agreed to waive his bonus. Hester decided to forego the award of 3.6m shares, worth around £960,000, after the Labour party said it would force a House of Commons vote on the issue in a bid to make the government [...]
Sarkozy agrees Tobin tax and labour reform January 29, 2012 FRANCE will forge ahead with its own Tobin tax in August, French president Nicolas Sarkozy declared yesterday in an attempt to boost his flagging poll ratings. The tax will be levied at 0.1 per cent on all financial transactions, he said, although he did not specify exactly what asset types it will capture. In an [...]