Lansdowne doubles its Prudential short April 26, 2010 HEDGE fund Lansdowne Partners has doubled its short position in Prudential to 0.88 per cent or £121m, betting the insurer’s shares will fall. Analysts said there were several possible motives behind the move. Lansdowne could be counting on Prudential’s record $20bn (£13bn) rights issue going ahead successfully, in which case the share price would stabilise [...]
Losses almost wiped out at Regal April 26, 2010 Regal Petroleum, the Ukraine-focused oil and gas explorer, said yesterday it had wiped 86 per cent off its pre-tax loss after selling more gas to the domestic Ukrainian market. Regal posted a $6.83m (£4.42m) pre-tax loss for the year to December 2009, down from a $48.74m loss in 2008, on revenues 74 per cent higher [...]
New chair Mellon invests in RSH April 26, 2010 Former fund manager Jim Mellon has invested £0.1m in new shares in media and financial group Rivington Street Holdings, ahead of the group’s planned re-domicile to the Isle of Man. Mellon, who said his investment was a “signal of serious intent”, is to become non-executive chairman of the group, which includes PR firm Bishopsgate and [...]
OFT: BA made millions from price fixing April 26, 2010 BRITISH Airways (BA) made back hundreds of millions of pounds a year following a price-fixing scheme on its fuel surcharge, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said yesterday in court. Richard Latham, the OFT’s prosecutor, told a jury at Southwark Crown Court the airline colluded with rivals Virgin Atlantic to increase passenger fuel surcharges at [...]
Hargreaves reveals delay in UK Coal merger talks April 26, 2010 HARGREAVES Services, which is in merger talks with UK Coal, said yesterday there had been unavoidable delays to the start of due diligence, making the merger between the two firms uncertain. The news came as UK Coal, Britain’s biggest coal miner, posted poor annual results yesterday, blaming delays to opening new mines, reduced output and [...]
DID YOU EXPECT UK COAL TO RECORD SUCH POOR END OF YEAR RESULTS? April 26, 2010 CHARLIE GIBSON | EDISON There’s no shock in this set of results. The company was hurt by low coal prices and output problems at a couple of their mines. I think it’s a good decision to sell their agricultural estate as coal and property do not sit in the same vehicle and at the moment [...]
Dividends fall at Britain’s biggest firms April 26, 2010 BRITISH companies paid out less in dividends in the first quarter of the year than they did a year ago, according to new data yesterday. A total of £13.6bn in dividends was paid during the first three months of 2010, down 2.5 per cent compared with a year ago, according to Capita Registrars. Heavyweights reducing [...]
Lloyds to reiterate likelihood of a return to profit this year April 26, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group is expected to cheer investors today by revealing a significant downward trend in impairments and reiterating the likelihood of the bank returning to profit over the full financial year. Lloyds, which is the first of the UK banks to report first-quarter figures this morning, is expected by analysts to forecast impairments of [...]
Morse agrees £70m takeover April 26, 2010 Morse yesterday said privately-held 2e2 agreed to buy the IT services and technology firm for about £69.8m in cash to expand its operations in the UK and Europe. The provider of networking, security, application and managed services’ acquisition of rival Morse, which also provides management consultancy, would immediately add to earnings, 2e2’s chief executive Terry [...]
Pegrum to join Soros fund firm April 26, 2010 HEDGE fund manager Neil Pegrum has quit his job at Cazenove Capital to join Soros Fund Management, the secretive fund firm set up by billionaire financier George Soros. Pegrum, a specialist in small to mid cap stocks who ran over £300m in assets, handed in his notice last week and has now left the firm. [...]