SEC settles Kuwaiti case August 4, 2010 A US regulator has reached a $6.5m (£4.1m) settlement of civil insider trading charges relating to hoax takeover news allegedly issued last year by a Kuwaiti financier who later committed suicide. The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Hazem Al-Braikan, who was chief executive of a company in which Citigroup held a 10 per [...]
UBS told to pay $81m damages August 4, 2010 UBS Financial Services has been ordered to pay $81m (£50.1m) damages to an investor, Kajeet, for losses related to auction rate securities. The Financial?Industry Regulatory Authority said UBS was responsible for damages incurred by Kajeet, a children’s mobile phone maker, which was unable to access funds frozen in the auction rate securities market in February [...]
Infineon loses finance director August 4, 2010 German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies has lost its chief financial officer. Marco Schröter has left with immediate effect, although the company said plans to sell its wireless unit would be unaffected.
Barclays to defend big banking August 4, 2010 Barclays chief executive John Varley is expected to use today’s first-half results to reiterate his defence of large, universal banks in the face of political pressure to split investment banks from deposit-holders. In February, Varley told a meeting of MPs that separating banks “will not lead to a safer system”.
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 4, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES DIPLOMATS TO BECOME SALESMEN The job description for Britain’s ambassadors is to be rewritten to include tough targets for trade promotion and a requirement for the country’s top diplomats to tour the UK’s regions to showcase commercial opportunities abroad. As well as gliding through the corridors of foreign ministries and cultivating contacts with [...]
Battle to halt BP oil spill has almost ended August 4, 2010 US President Barack Obama said yesterday that BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill is “close to coming to an end” after scientists agreed that three-quarters of the oil is gone and engineers successfully killed the leaking well. “The long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is finally close to coming to an end,” [...]
Advertising rebound helps News Corp and T Warner August 4, 2010 TWO of the world’s largest media companies reported buoyant quarterly earnings yesterday amid signs of resurgent income from advertising. News Corporation, whose portfolio includes satellite broadcaster BSkyB and The Times newspaper, swung to a profit of $875m (£550.7m) or 33 cents per share in the fiscal fourth quarter. It lost $203m at the same point [...]
Private sector payrolls better than expected August 4, 2010 PRIVATE sector firms in the United States upped their staff counts last month and added 42,000 jobs in the July, according to a survey from payrolls processor ADP Employer Services. This was slightly more than economists had forecast and was encouraging news only two days ahead of US non-farm payrolls. The better-than-expected jobs data buoyed [...]
Lloyds outshines forecasts as it powers back to profit August 4, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group said yesterday it had powered back to profit over the first half of the year, in what analysts dubbed “the most attractive turnaround story in the European banking sector”. Lloyds raked in a pre-tax profit of £1.6bn over the six months to June, turning around a £3.96bn loss in the same period [...]
StanChart slumps despite record half August 4, 2010 STANDARD Chartered saw its share price tumble yesterday despite posting its tenth successive half of record profits. The hike in income failed to match some analyst forecasts and sent the shares down closing 3.1 per cent lower at 1,804p, with analysts pointing to hedge funds shifting to other banks. Standard Chartered reported first half profit [...]