Sweden’s top lenders are in good sha pe June 1, 2010 SWEDEN’S central bank slashed its forecast yesterday for loan losses for its four major financial groups and said the country’s lenders were in a strong position to weather uncertain market conditions. The Riksbank central bank said it expected loan losses at the four major banks – Nordea, SEB, Handelsbanken and Swedbank – to reach SEK61bn [...]
Alan Ruddock, writer, editor, dies suddenly June 1, 2010 ALAN Ruddock, one of City A.M’s columnists at the time of the paper’s launch, died suddenly at the weekend. His death came shortly after he played cricket in his native Ireland. Ruddock, 49, held a number of executive roles in the UK press, including editor of the Scotsman at the time of devolution. He was [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 1, 2010 INFORMA JP Morgan Cazenove reiterates its “overweight” rating on Informa after assessing its margin upside potential. JP Morgan said the company has proved itself good at removing costs to offset revenue shortfall, the stock offers a higher equity free cash flow yield than the business-to-business and ?professional publishing sub-sectors and the stock may see technical [...]
HP axes 9,000 jobs in a $1bn restructuring June 1, 2010 HEWLETT-PACKARD (HP) said it aims to boost margins by cutting jobs and reallocating spending to more profitable technology services, shrinking its workforce by a net 3,000 jobs, or one per cent, over three years. The move, which will result in a $1bn charge, comes as rivals like IBM and Cisco Systems vie for supremacy in [...]
SSE rules itself out of EDF bid June 1, 2010 SCOTTISH & Southern Energy (SSE) yesterday backed down from seeking a major stake in the UK networks being sold by France’s EDF after ruling out raising equity to finance any bid. “We have always maintained a highly disciplined approach to acquisitions, investment and to financial management generally, and that will continue,” finance director Gregor Alexander [...]
Eurotunnel snaps up rail freight firm in £31m deal June 1, 2010 CHANNEL Tunnel operator Eurotunnel is buying Britain’s third-largest rail freight operator, GB Railfreight, from UK transport company FirstGroup for €26.3m (£21.9m) in cash, it said yesterday. The acquisition will be combined with Eurotunnel’s Europorte unit, which it bought from Veolia last year. FirstGroup earlier confirmed it was selling its rail freight business to Europorte, for [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 1, 2010 Hermes The asset manager has appointed Chris Goudie as an executive director for global business development and chief executive of Hermes Fund Managers in North America. Goudie joins from Pyramis Global Advisers, the fund management firm he helped to establish for Fidelity. Hermes has also hired Heiko Dahse, pictured, and Marcus Money-Chappelle from Fischer Francis [...]
LAPPING OF LUXURY June 1, 2010 SUNSEEKER, the company whose yachts have been used to epitomise the ultimate luxury lifestyle in the James Bond films, yesterday secured a new investor in the form of boutique firm FL Partners. FL, which owns the Racing Post newspaper, said it had provided £25m of new capital to Sunseeker and refinanced its current debt facilities [...]
M&G loans £100m to Stobart June 1, 2010 M&G Investments yesterday said it had arranged for its UK companies financing fund to extend a 10-year £100m loan to logistics firm Stobart Group. The loan will be used to pay down Stobart’s existing bank debt and to fund further investment, including developing Southend Airport, which was granted consent for a runway extension in March. [...]
EADS loses out on euro weakness June 1, 2010 Aerospace group EADS’s hedging programmes will prevent the company from taking advantage of the weaker euro over the next two years, chief executive Louis Gallois told shareholders yesterday. Gallois noted a hedging programme would mute currency impacts for 2010, 2011 and at least part of 2012 but said the stronger dollar “will certainly improve profitability [...]