City shake-up to get more women in boardrooms May 28, 2010 A shake-up of City firms in which more women will be put in boardrooms, will be undertaken as part of a review of corporate governance. The Financial Reporting Council said it wanted to “explicitly” ensure hiring committees took gender and diversity into account. Only 12 per cent of FTSE 100 directors are women and seven [...]
Shell to buy East Resources for £3.2bn May 28, 2010 ROYAL Dutch Shell has agreed to buy US natural gas explorer East Resources for £3.2bn. The cash offer was made to East Resources and its private equity investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). East Resources holds more than 650,000 acres in the Marcellus shale – a rock formation in the US which is believed to have [...]
Travis Perkins in £553m offer for BSS May 28, 2010 BUILDERS merchant Travis Perkins said it has made an £553m offer for plumbing and heating company BSS Group. The firms said in a joint statement they were in advanced discussions regarding a cash and shares offer from Travis Perkins that values each BSS share at 433 pence. Travis Perkins said its indicative offer comprises 232.91 [...]
BP oil disaster bill hits $930m May 28, 2010 BP has admitted that its ongoing battle to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf has so far cost it $930m (£638m). The company said that its latest attempt to stop the massive leak is not guaranteed to succeed because of the difficult deepwater conditions in which the operation is being carried out. Up [...]
F&C joins rebellion against Pru deal May 28, 2010 PRUDENTIAL investor F&C Asset Management has joined the rebellion against the insurer’s plans to buy AIA. The £100bn management house has told Prudential it will vote against the $35bn (£24.6bn) bid for AIG’s Asian arm at the crucial shareholder meeting on 7 June. In a statement F&C said it did not object to Prudential’s strategy [...]
WHY CAM MUST AXE THE CAP GAINS HIKE May 27, 2010 CITY A.M. today launches a campaign against plans to hike capital gains tax (CGT), calling on David Cameron to rethink proposals that would clobber private investors. Yesterday, senior City figures – including private equity guru Jon Moulton, serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson and Tullett Prebon boss Terry Smith – became the first to support our campaign. [...]
Cam: We will save economy May 27, 2010 DAVID Cameron will vow to champion enterprise when he sets out his vision for the economy in his first major speech as PM this afternoon. He will promise to turn around an economy that has become “hostile to enterprise”, with business investment growing at just a quarter of the pace of the 1990s. He will [...]
Coalition must listen to City on CGT May 27, 2010 IT is not often that a major City institution is willing to go on the record with its opposition to a key government policy – usually, the big firms hide behind off-the-record briefings or industry lobby groups. So kudos to Fidelity, the fund manager, for yesterday demolishing so eloquently the coalition government’s plan to hammer [...]
Obama blasts oil industry May 27, 2010 PRESIDENT Barack Obama has suspended offshore drilling plans in Alaska and Virginia at the same time laying into BP for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Speaking yesterday, Obama said that planned exploration off the shores of the two US states would be suspended, at the same time placing a moratorium on 33 wells currently [...]
Lehman sues JP Morgan in assets dispute May 27, 2010 LEHMAN Brothers Holdings has sued JP Morgan Chase, accusing the bank of illegally siphoning billions of dollars of assets in the days leading up to the record bankruptcy. The lawsuit filed in a Manhattan bankruptcy court accused JP Morgan of using its “unparalleled access” to inside details of Lehman’s distress to extract $8.6bn (£5.9bn) of [...]