ABI director quits for FRC April 21, 2010 THE Association of British Insurers (ABI)’s director of investment affairs is to stand down after a decade at the institution. Peter Montagnon will take up a new role as senior investment adviser to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Montagnon said: “After nearly a decade in this role, now is the right time to take up [...]
GM pays back $8.1bn loan in full April 21, 2010 GENERAL Motors (GM) has repaid the $8.1bn (£5.2m) in loans it received from the US and Canadian governments at the height of the financial crisis last year. Detroit-based GM, which emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009, had pledged two weeks ago to repay the balance of loans from the US and Canada “in full by [...]
SEC probes BHP over corruption April 21, 2010 The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating BHP Billiton for potential violations of anti-corruption laws relating to its exploration activities, the London-listed miner admitted yesterday. The case follows the jailing in China last month of staff from rival Rio Tinto and comes as both mining giants seek regulatory approval for a $116bn (£75bn) [...]
US senate panel votes to ban bank swaps April 21, 2010 A US Senate panel yesterday voted to ban banks from the lucrative swaps market, one of the strictest measures in a planned financial reform that is heading into the home stretch. One Republican joined Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee to advance a measure that would introduce oversight to the unregulated $450 trillion (£292 trillion) [...]
Ebay results disappoint April 21, 2010 EBAY forecast results for the rest of the year that fell short of Wall Street expectations yesterday, overshadowing its higher profit growth. Net profit in the e-commerce firm’s first quarter rose to $398m (£258m), or 30 cents per share, from $357m, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, earnings were [...]
Autonomy revenues rise 50 per cent April 21, 2010 AUTONOMY reported a sharp rise in profits and earnings yesterday bolstering investor hopes that the worst of the downturn is behind it. The software firm announced revenue of $194.2m (£126m), up 50 per cent year-on-year, and adjusted net profit of $61.7m, up 44 per cent from $40.2m the year before. The results were slightly above [...]
Autonomy April 21, 2010 NOBODY can deny that Autonomy is a tremendously exciting company with high growth prospects, the closest thing the UK has to a Microsoft or a Google. A market leader in the field of meaning-based computing, it is only scratching the surface of what is possible. The world, as they say, is its oyster. It’s a [...]
Ericsson buys into JV with Korea’s LG April 21, 2010 SWEDEN’S Ericsson has agreed to buy bankrupt Nortel’s controlling stake in a venture with LG Electronics for $242m (£157m), to access the Korean telecoms equipment market. Ericsson, the world’s largest mobile network equipment maker, said the deal would boost its earnings within a year of closing the deal. Nortel, once North America’s biggest maker of [...]
PEARL & DEAN GOES FOR A SONG April 21, 2010 ICONIC cinema advertising firm Pearl & Dean was yesterday disposed of by STV for a nominal sum of £1. It was snapped up by Image Limited, a newly formed company backed by Empire Cinemas director Thomas Anderson, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. STV said the deal would enable it to refocus on its core television [...]
Blow for Labour as unemployment rises April 21, 2010 UNEMPLOYMENT has surged to its highest level in 16 years, in a major blow for Labour ahead of the general election. The Labour Party says it has protected jobs in the wake of the deepest recession in a generation, but unemployment in the UK increased by 43,000 to 2.5m in the three months to February. [...]