CIT in profit despite bankruptcy April 27, 2010 CIT Group yesterday posted an unexpected profit in its first full quarter after emerging from one of the largest US bankruptcies, as the small- and mid-market commercial lender wrote off fewer bad loans. First-quarter net income was $97.3m (£63.8m), or 49 cents per share. A year earlier,before bankruptcy and financial restructuring, CIT lost $403.2m, or [...]
Spotify unveils new look April 27, 2010 Online jukebox service Spotify has launched a revamp which includes a social function allowing users to integrate with social networking site Facebook. The upgrade also includes a new library feature to allow users to import all the music files stored on their computers.
Renault sales beat forecasts April 27, 2010 French carmaker Renault posted forecast-beating first-quarter sales and confirmed its target for positive free cashflow in the year as a whole, while warning of a difficult economic environment yesterday. Carmakers whose sales have been buoyed by government scrappage incentive schemes are worried about the effect on car demand when the schemes end. Renault confirmed an [...]
Branson named by OFT in cartel trial April 27, 2010 VIRGIN Atlantic owner Sir Richard Branson has been named during opening statements made to a London court yesterday over his airline’s involvement with British Airways (BA) in price-fixing allegations made by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Prosecutor Richard Latham QC told a jury at the Southwark Crown Court that Branson had asked senior executive [...]
Commerzbank handed a £595k penalty by FSA April 27, 2010 COMMERZBANK is the latest financial institution to be handed a fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after it was ordered to pay £595,000 for inaccurately providing transaction reports. The financial regulator yesterday slapped the German banking giant with the fine and accused it of failing to report trading transactions throughout a two-year period. Under [...]
Candover attracts bid approach from Alberta Investment April 27, 2010 PRIVATE equity firm Candover Investments said yesterday – after the stock market closed – that it had received an initial approach from a third party to acquire the company, after its fall from grace earlier this year. Candover said any offer was expected to be at a price no higher than its last reported net [...]
JOHNSON FIRST TO RIDE NEW RAIL LINE April 27, 2010 LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson was the first passenger to ride the new £1bn East London Line, which opened yesterday with a “preview” service of eight trains an hour between New Cross Gate and Dalston Junction. The new line will connect Highbury & Islington to South Croydon by 2011 and Clapham Junction by 2012.
Underground to review plans April 27, 2010 Chris Bolt, the PPP Arbiter, said yesterday that proposed work by the London Underground cannot be financed as the public transport system cannot afford to pay for it. Bolt also decided to delay financing for Tube Lines so that the London Underground can either demonstrate how it intends to pay for work valued at £4.46bn [...]
Barclays sells Africa custody unit April 27, 2010 Barclays said yesterday it would sell its African custody business to Standard Chartered, its emerging markets-focused rival. The bank, which did not disclose the value of the deal, said it had exited the global custody business outside Africa in 1998 and that the remaining African unit is profitable but “would benefit from the synergies a [...]
ICICI April 27, 2010 In a story in Monday’s paper headlined “Indian bank ICICI to fight judgement” we referred to $1m in trading losses incurred by ICICI’s UK subsidiary. We understand that those losses were not incurred by the former ICICI trader, Grant Jones, and are happy to make this clear.