KKR to join Bankhaus on BHF bid October 7, 2010 PRIVATE equity house KKR is understood to be in talks with German group Bankhaus Lampe about a joint bid for BHF, a private bank owned by Deutsche Bank. KKR’s move could improve the buyout firm’s chances of winning over BHF’s sceptical management, which has so far expressed a clear preference for strategic bidders, making it [...]
SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR SITE CUTS 1,500 JOBS October 7, 2010 MORE than 1,500 jobs are to be axed at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria triggering union fears of a workplace bloodbath in the wake of public sector spending cuts. The GMB union claimed that the job losses – a mixture of redundancies and vacancies that will not be filled – were a direct result [...]
House prices plunge by £6k in one month October 7, 2010 HOUSE prices fell 3.6 per cent month-on-month in September, their largest fall since records began in 1983 wiping £6,000 off the value of a typical property around the country in a single month. Halifax, now part of Lloyds Banking Group and the country’s largest motgage lender, said yesterday in its closely watched index that the [...]
UK output expands in August October 7, 2010 BRITISH manufacturing output surged in August continuing a four-month upward trend and breaking a 16-year record, official data showed yesterday, easing fears the economy is on the verge of a sharp downturn. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said output increased 0.3 per cent in August taking the annual growth rate to six per cent, [...]
Central banks will be net buyers of gold next year October 7, 2010 Central banks are expected to be net buyers of gold in 2011 for the first time in nearly two decades, the World Gold Council (WGC) said yesterday. “For next year, we will probably see a scenario where central banks are net buyers [of gold] for the first time in something like 17 years,” Marcus Grubb, [...]
MPC votes to hold rates at 0.5pc low October 7, 2010 THE Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to maintain interest rates at their historic low of 0.5 per cent for a further month yesterday, marking the longest period since the Second World War that the bank rate has remained unchanged. The MPC also voted to keep its policy of quantitative easing (QE) at [...]
New claims for US jobless benefits hit a three-month low as economy picks up October 7, 2010 New US claims for jobless benefits hit a near three-month low last week, suggesting some let up in the labour market’s distress but likely not enough to keep the Federal Reserve from easing monetary policy further. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to 445,000, the lowest since 10 July, the Labour Department said [...]
ECB warns of disruptive forex moves as rates held October 7, 2010 Sudden swings in foreign exchange rates pose a threat to economic growth, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said yesterday after the ECB kept rates on hold at one per cent. In his strongest comments on currency volatility in almost a year, Trichet said exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals, a pointed reference to countries [...]
CITY VIEWS: WAS THE BANK OF ENGLAND RIGHT TO KEEP INTEREST RATES ON HOLD? October 7, 2010 ALEX WINSTANLEY | AVIVA “I am happy the Bank is keeping interest rates at the current level. We’re in a challenging period at the moment. I am confident with what the government is doing but we need to take stock and possibly look at what Europe is doing.” LAWRENCE CHIR | BLACKROCK “At the moment [...]
Samsung hit by downturn in TV sales October 7, 2010 Samsung yesterday ended a record run of quarterly performances as a negative earnings guidance caused the firm’s stock to lurch. The world’s largest memory chipmaker, which has a tradition of beating even the most bullish estimates, faces a tough outlook as a fragile world economy has hit demand for TVs and computers. It now expects [...]