Northumbrian raises its dividend as profits surge June 2, 2010 NORTHUMBRIAN Water Group increased pre-tax profits by 11 per cent to £170.2m last year, after raising prices by three per cent to offset higher costs and bad debt, it announced yesterday. The utilities group, which supplies water to 4.4m customers in Northumbria, Essex and Suffolk, also moved into post-tax profit despite the temporary closure of [...]
HSBC names new Mid East boss June 2, 2010 HSBC said it had appointed a new head of its global banking and markets division for the Middle East and North Africa, who will focus on key markets in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Abu Dhabi. Mohammad Al Tuwaijri, a Saudi national, joins HSBC from JP Morgan, where he was managing director and head of Saudi [...]
Portugal Telecom wants higher bid June 2, 2010 Portugal Telecom wants more for its stake in Brazilian mobile operator Vivo than Telefonica’s new offer of €6.5bn (£5.4bn), a leading shareholder and sources with knowledge of the deal said. The sources said yesterday the strategy of Portugal Telecom and its key shareholders was to show Telefonica they were still not satisfied with the sweetened [...]
Gulf efforts faced with more delays June 2, 2010 BP’S RESPONSE team faced further delays yesterday as the latest attempt to plug a well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico were met with a snag. An underwater saw used to sever a pipe from the damaged blow out preventer currently sitting on the seabed became lodged in the pipe, creating further disruption to [...]
BP June 2, 2010 THE impact of what initially seemed a human and environmental disaster, but not a business disaster has taken everyone, including BP, by surprise. Since 20 April when the Macondo Well tragedy occurred BP has seen $75bn wiped off its market capitalisation – an absolute market value loss of 39 per cent and unprecedented in corporate [...]
US VIEWS: GULF DISASTER June 2, 2010 BARACK OBAMA US PRESIDENT “We have an obligation to investigate what went wrong and to determine what reforms are needed so that we never have to experience a crisis like this again.” “If any laws were broken leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is to bring those responsible to justice on behalf [...]
Rock shuts Guernsey unit June 2, 2010 NATIONALISED lender Northern Rock yesterday announced it will close its offshore banking operation in the channel island of Guernsey, another step in its turnaround plan as the lender prepares for a return to private ownership. Northern Rock, the first major British victim of the credit crunch, said in a statement yesterday it would wind down [...]
Geithner in bid for slow G20 reform June 2, 2010 US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday he hopes the Group of 20 nations will commit to restoring public finances to a sustainable path without jeopardising a global economic recovery. “That is a shared imperative. We all recognise it,” Geithner said before departing for the G20 meeting in Busan, Korea. “As the IMF says, we [...]
AgBank set to struggle in IPO plan June 2, 2010 AGRICULTURAL Bank of China may struggle to get the kind of valuation it wants as it gears up to launch the world’s biggest IPO into a market that has slumped by a fifth in just six weeks. China’s market drop is one of several factors prompting potential investors to query whether AgBank, China’s fourth-biggest lender [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS YOUR EMPLOYER LAYING ON SPECIAL WORLD CUP VIEWING FACILITIES? June 2, 2010 NICK HOOK | DASHWOOD BREWER & PHIPPS “At the last World Cup my employer had the matches on in the boardroom and let us watch the games from there. There aren’t many games during my working hours during the group stages. It’s quite a sensible idea to have the games on at work – if [...]