Meet the CEO of the most important City firm you have never heard of October 24, 2010 As he saunters into his office in the City, Tim Howell, the chief executive of European settlement house Euroclear, looks cool and collected. He certainly doesn’t look like a man caught in the most classic of all business squeezes – with clients wanting him to improve his services while being adamant they should pay less [...]
No cure for cancer and no jetpacks: the twenty-first century is a bust October 24, 2010 BUSINESS FEATURES EDITOR PULLING a dollar from his wallet, Peter Thiel, the 43-year old co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, flaps it to make his point: “Giving people freedom with money is really something deep and fundamental. Government may still have a monopoly on printing these notes, but so long as you [...]
WHY BERNANKE IS BEING DUBBED THE NEW RUDOLF VON HAVENSTEIN October 24, 2010 IT’S been a particularly rough week for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke when it comes to comparisons. First, he had to endure a hapless US chief investment officer drawing obscure parallels between the Fed warning on the beginning of a global currency war and Hitler warning of the start of World War II (no, The [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK October 24, 2010 MONEY was clearly no object for this couple, dining at exclusive Chelsea Malaysian restaurant Awana last week. The pair tantalised their tastebuds with what seemed like every tapas-style dish on the menu, requesting additional plates when a few friends stopped by to say hello. Our diners munched through prawn, beef and chicken satay, duck, seabass [...]
Caterpillar buys engine firm from 3i group for £515m October 22, 2010 Caterpillar has agreed to buy MWM Holding, the German maker of gas and diesel engines, from British private equity firm 3i Group for about $810m (£515m) in cash. Caterpillar’s rich offer pre-empted a formal auction that was likely to have attracted a string of big strategic buyers, two people familiar with the matter said. The [...]
Ferrovial to sell off 10pc stake in BAA October 22, 2010 Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial it plans to sell a ten per cent stake in airports operator BAA in order to finance new investments and pay off debt. Ferrovial shares opened up four per cent and bucked a 0.35-per cent slump by the Madrid bourse. “The beginning of this process is within the policy framework of [...]
Betfair float values company at £1.4bn October 22, 2010 Betfair has priced its initial public offering at 1,300 pence per share – valuing the company at £1.4bn Betfair, the world’s largest bettingwebsite, said it had sold 16.2m shares in the offering, excluding an overallotment option, or 15.2 per cent of the company. It had offered the shares at 1,100-1,400 pence. The company has more [...]
BSkyB profit up as customers hit 9.6m October 22, 2010 BSkyB has posted strong first quarter profits after adding a better-than-expected 96,000 customers, due to strong demand for its broadband and telephone services. The strong operating performance, which took the total customer base to 9.96m, helped the firm to post revenues up 15 per cent to £1.5bn, in line with forecasts, and adjusted operating profit [...]
Provident Financial bounces back October 22, 2010 Subprime lender Provident Financial said it was expecting a “good result” for the year, since its core credit division had managed to shrug off the effects of the economic slump and was still growing. Provident Financial was founded in 1880 to provide small cash loans to people on low incomes. The company specialises in loans [...]
Sentance: Raise interest rates now October 22, 2010 The Bank of England should start to raise interest rates from a record low of 0.5 per cent because Britain’s economy and global conditions have improved, Bank policymaker Andrew Sentance has said. Sentance, who has been voting for a quarter-point rate rise since June, said the economic turnaround means the UK economy needs less stimulus [...]