Travelex in talks to sell December 7, 2010 Foreign exchange provider Travelex is understood to be in advanced talks to sell part of its business to US credit card giant Mastercard in a deal worth about £300m. Privately-owned Travelex is thought to be poised to secure the sale of its card programme management arm within days to fund growth plans and pay debt.
Google takes on Windows December 7, 2010 Web giant Google last night unveiled the first laptops running its Chrome operating system, designed to go head-to-head with Microsoft Windows, a market-leader for over thirty years. The software is designed for low-end “netbooks”.
Official: CDS didn’t cause Greek tragedy December 7, 2010 AN EU investigation revealed yesterday that trading in sovereign credit default swaps did not cause a spike in borrowing costs for states such as Greece this year. The report, commissioned by EU finance ministers in March, found “no conclusive evidence” that developments in the CDS market affected the cost of state borrowing. It praised the [...]
IMF boss slams Eurozone’s response to the debt crisis December 7, 2010 DOMINIC Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has launched a thinly-veiled attack on the Eurozone’s handling of the sovereign debt crisis. “The piecemeal approach, one country after another, is not a good one,” he said, as he called for a “more comprehensive solution to the problem”. Strauss-Kahn’s comments, which came after a [...]
Bondholders lobby Ireland over haircuts December 7, 2010 A GROUP of subordinate bondholders in Allied Irish, Anglo Irish and Bank of Ireland will lobby the Irish government to try to cap their losses. They have hired powerful US law firm Bingham McCutchen to represent their views to the government, although a source close to the group played down the threat of litigation last [...]
Shop prices kept in check December 7, 2010 INTENSE competition between retailers in the run up to Christmas is driving down shop price inflation, new figures reveal today. Shop prices are rising at a much slower rate than overall inflation, the Shop Price Index (SPI) showed. For the first time in five months year on year shop price inflation actually fell, down to [...]
UK factory sector continues to drive recovery forwards December 7, 2010 BRITISH manufacturing has boosted the economy by growing for nine straight months, official data showed yesterday. The sector expanded by 0.6 per cent from September to October and was 5.8 per cent up on the same period last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The rate of growth was the fastest since March [...]
US Treasury banks $12bn from Citi sale December 7, 2010 THE US Treasury has banked an estimated $12bn (£7.6bn) profit on the sale of its stake in bailed-out Citigroup. The government offloaded the remainder of its 27 per cent stake in the banking giant on Monday night, raking in $10.5bn from the sale of 2.4bn shares at $4.45 each. It acquired the shares in 2008 [...]
CAN THE UK MAKE A PROFIT ON ITS BANK STAKES TOO? December 7, 2010 The US Treasury invested a total of $45bn to bail out Citigroup (headed by Vikram Pandit), taking control of 27 per cent of the banking giant. The government has slowly whittled down its stake, with the bank paying back $20bn in preferred stock earlier this year. Last week the government sold 2.4bn shares for $10.5bn. [...]
Banks: retail sector is competitive December 7, 2010 LEADING banking industry figures yesterday defended the level of competition in the UK’s retail banking sector, in evidence to the Treasury Select Committee. Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Eric Daniels, whose bank faces the possibility of being broken up by the government, denied that the UK market was made uncompetitive by four of the top [...]