WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 14, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BP TO PRESS ON WITH CANADA OIL SANDS PLAN BP will press ahead with its plan to invest in Canada’s controversial oil sands, the company will signal at Thursday’s annual general meeting, in spite of protests from environmentalists and concerns among some shareholders. More than 140 investors have backed a resolution calling for [...]
Accounting rules target missed April 14, 2010 A deadline to create a single global set of accounting rules could be missed by accounting standard setters after they were unable to agree on a set of terms, including how to value financial instruments. Last September, the Group of 20 leading and industrialised nations pledged to lend support for a globally unified set of [...]
HSBC trains bids to come today April 14, 2010 HSBC is preparing for a flood of bids today as it looks to shed its train leasing business, which owns roughly one-third of the UK’s rail rolling stock and is expected to be valued at £2bn. One of the bidders is a consortium of 3i Infrastructure, Star Capital and Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure fund. Others include [...]
Fed vindicates Goldman over Greek trades April 14, 2010 A FEDERAL Reserve investigation into contracts between Goldman Sachs and the Greek government ended yesterday without any action being taken. The probe, launched by the Fed, alleged that the contracts distorted the country’s debt levels. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday the investment banking giant did sell Greece products that lowered its debt-to-GDP ratio [...]
Prudential causes a stir with surprise AIA appointment April 14, 2010 PRUDENTIAL surprised analysts by appointing its UK chief executive to lead the integration of AIA in Asia yesterday, raising questions over the future of its UK operations. Rob Devey, who joined Pru last year, will oversee the assimilation of AIG’s Far Eastern unit after the British insurer’s $35.5bn (£23bn) takeover goes through in the autumn. [...]
AIG aircraft unit to shed planes April 14, 2010 The aircraft leasing unit of bailed-out insurer American International Group (AIG) has agreed to sell 53 passenger jets to Australia’s Macquarie Group to raise a much-needed $2bn (£1.29bn) in cash. International Lease Finance (ILFC), a top customer of Boeing and Airbus, said yesterday it was selling the aircraft, mostly 737s and A320s, for below their [...]
Lehman documents made public April 14, 2010 Undisclosed documents used to contribute to the 2,200-page report on the crash of Lehman Brothers were yesterday made public by US bankruptcy judge James Peck. The report by Anton Valukas, the court appointed examiner, showed that Goldman Sachs, Barclays and DRW Trading of Chicago took over the US futures and options trades of Lehman Brothers [...]
Banks look on as JPMorgan sets the pace April 14, 2010 WALL Street bellwether JPMorgan Chase raced past expectations with a 57 per cent rise in profits yesterday, fuelling hopes that recovery in the US financial sector is entering full swing. The first American bank to report in 2010, JPMorgan said first quarter net income jumped to $3.3bn (£2.1bn), or 74 cents per share, from $2.1bn, [...]
JPMorgan April 14, 2010 JAMIE Dimon’s assertion earlier this month in a 37-page letter to shareholders that JPMorgan weathered the crisis better than most rivals and should not be tarred with the same brush as more troubled institutions, was yesterday proved true. The bank’s first quarter results showing a 57 per cent jump in profit to $3.3bn (£2.1bn), or [...]
Morgan Stanley property fund may lose £3.4bn April 14, 2010 MORGAN Stanley has told investors that its $8.8bn (£5.6bn) real estate fund may lose nearly two-thirds of its money due to bad investments, it is understood. It is thought that the $5.4bn loss would be the biggest in the history of private equity real estate investing. But by mid-2009, the firm had already written down [...]