AirAsia moves into profit as leisure travellers flood flights June 1, 2010 BUDGET airline AirAsia yesterday posted bumper quarterly profits of £46.4m after tax thanks to a surge in leisure travel, but remained coy about plans for an initial public offering of its Thailand operations. The group credited its success to a 17 per cent rise in passenger numbers to 3.7m during the first three months of [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF RYANAIR’S RESULTS? June 1, 2010 DOUGLAS MCNEILL | CHARLES STANLEY “The business model for the airline seems to be in good shape and Ryanair has strengthened its top line with the sale of lower fares. The fact that the airline will pay out a dividend is good news because dividend payments for airlines are as rare as leprechauns.” MATT BROWN [...]
Gartmore star trader will face an FSA probe June 1, 2010 JUST as embattled find manager Gartmore thought the worst of its woes were over, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) yesterday announced it will launch its own investigation into one of its star traders. Guillaume Rambourg’s “directing shares” scandal will be put under the spotlight just a month after he returned to the firm following an [...]
Nomura team triple pay pot June 1, 2010 JAPANESE bank Nomura tripled the amount it handed out in compensation to its executive team last year after the bank returned to profit, arguing that it needed to maintain a “competitive” pay structure to keep top talent on board. Chief executive Kenichi Watanabe, chief operating officer Takumi Shibata and eight other executives shared a total [...]
European insurers line up to buy half-stake in Barclays Vie June 1, 2010 A QUEUE of European insurers is waiting in the wings to snap up half of Barclays’ French life insurance business, Barclays Vie, after the bank last week entered talks to offload a 50 per cent stake in the venture for around €65m (£54.2m). French groups CNP Assurances, Axa and La Mondiale are all thought to [...]
Deloitte rewards staff in the UK following expansion of business June 1, 2010 GLOBAL accountancy giant Deloitte has promoted 32 staff to its partnership in the UK, across audit, tax, consulting and corporate finance. The move comes in addition to the creation of 30 new partners since the start of the year following developments to the business, including the acquisition of commercial property agent Drivers Jonas. Deloitte chairman [...]
Barnier ready to outline tough bank regulations June 1, 2010 THE European Commission is today expected to announce its intention to extend pay curbs in the financial sector and tighten control of credit rating agencies. Against a backdrop of growing frustration with sluggish progress in regulating a financial industry blamed for the crisis, the European Commission’s top officials will outline plans to reinvigorate momentum for [...]
Japan mulls new loan programme June 1, 2010 The Bank of Japan may lend at least one trillion yen (£7.5bn) to commercial banks under a new loan programme to support industries with growth potential that was outlined last month. The central bank will begin lending to banks from September and keep the facility in place for about five years. The bank’s board will [...]
Reinsurers transfer $2.4bn in risk June 1, 2010 Reinsurers transferred $2.35bn (£1.6bn) in catastrophe risk to capital markets before the US hurricane season that began yesterday, higher than the $1.4bn last year, as the catastrophe bond sector starts to resume normal issuance after the global financial crisis. The cat bond sector, in which insurers transfer risks linked to natural disasters to investors, is [...]
Asset sales on Dubai’s agenda June 1, 2010 DUBAI Holding’s main unit yesterday said it may resort to asset sales to deal with its debt after posting a $6.2bn (£4.2bn) loss for 2009, sending shares in Dubai tumbling as the market reacted to the latest setback for the emirate. Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (DHCOG), a unit of the conglomerate owned by the [...]