Sovereign disaster looms ever closer April 27, 2010 GOOD on Standard and Poor’s for downgrading Greece’s bonds to junk status – the only question, as ever with ratings agencies, is why didn’t it act any sooner? The situation has been deteriorating by the day, despite repeated statements by the IMF and the EU that all would be taken care of. Once again, the [...]
Weak flu season hits Reckitt April 27, 2010 Consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser suffered from a weak cold and flu season in the first quarter of 2010, holding back its overall sales. The British maker of Nurofen, Strepsils and Lemsip cold remedies was hit by more stable weather patterns in Europe and North America in early 2010 compared to last year.
Strong results for chip maker arm April 27, 2010 Chip designer ARM posted a better-than-expected 57 per cent rise in first-quarter profit, helped by booming sales of Apple’s iPhone in the smartphone category dominated by the firm’s technology. The British company, whose designs are found in more than 90 per cent of mobile phones, reported pre-tax profit of £37.6m on revenue of £92.3m.
L&S in £215m property bid April 27, 2010 Property investment firm London & Stamford will snap up £215m of former HBOS-backed properties from Warner Estates and Lloyds Banking Group. It will buy the Radial distribution fund, which was a 50-50 venture between HBOS and Warner.
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 27, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MARKET SHARE SLIP FORCES ASDA TO FIGHT BACK Asda has been forced to fight back with a new marketing push as it saw the slowest sales growth of the big four supermarkets for the fourth consecutive month, according to industry data. Kantar Worldpanel, the consumer research group, found that Asda had the lowest [...]
Goldman: CDO trades were not dishonest April 27, 2010 Goldman executives were yesterday forced to deny allegations they misled clients about debt products they knew were destined to fail. The committee, chaired by senator Carl Levin, quoted a series of embarrassing emails in which Goldman staff referred to one of its products as “crap”, a $1bn collateralised debt obligation (CDO) as “one shitty deal” [...]
Fabulous Fab keeps his cool in face of grilling April 27, 2010 Fabrice Tourre, the London-based banker at the centre of a $1bn (£650m) fraud investigation, appeared calm and collected as he faced the grilling of his life in front of the senate sub-committee. He seemed unaffected by the barrage of abuse fired at him from a small army of hecklers intent on unsettling him. The Frenchman [...]
Man behind Pru break-up plot unmasked April 27, 2010 PATRICE Collette, an investment manager with US-based Capital Research and Management, has emerged as the man at the centre of a plot to break up insurer Prudential. City A.M. understands Collette, who works from Geneva, is the fund boss at Capital Research who held talks with third parties including life company Aviva with a view [...]
Own up over cuts, says IFS April 27, 2010 THE MAIN political parties are preventing voters from making an “informed choice” at the general election by refusing to explain how they will reduce the country’s yawning £163bn budget deficit, according to a leading economic think-tank. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) said repairing the parlous public finances will dominate the next government’s agenda, but [...]
ELECTION2010 April 27, 2010 Tories ahead in donations The Conservatives have yet again received the highest amount in donations in the second week of campaigning ahead of the general election on 6 May. Between 13 and 19 April the Tories received £2,2m in donations worth over £7,500, Labour £1,49m and the Liberal Democrats £120,000. Tories keep 4 point lead [...]