Dividend payments down at UK firms April 26, 2010 BRITISH companies paid out less in dividends in the first quarter of the year than they did a year ago, new figures have revealed. 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. Paul Taylor, [...]
Bank of Ireland confirms €3.4bn rights issue April 26, 2010 BANK of Ireland has unveiled plans to raise €3.4bn (£2.9bn) in order to help it recover from financial crisis The lender said it would launch a rights issue to try to shore up its position. The bank, the Republic of Ireland’s largest, said it hoped to raise the rest of the money by placing shares [...]
Carphone Warehouse raises profit forecast April 26, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse has raised its full-year profit guidance for the third time in six months after a surge in demand for smartphones. The group said it expected strong growth for the rest of the year, particularly with its joint venture with Best Buy Mobile business in the US. It said it expected net profit for [...]
Clegg won’t prop up Gordon Brown April 25, 2010 GORDON BROWN’S chances of clinging to power received another blow yesterday, when he was warned the Liberal Democrats would refuse to prop him up if he finishes third in the popular vote. Some opinion polls suggest that Brown could come third in terms of votes but still win the most Commons seats, thanks to a [...]
US close to Wall Street reform bill April 25, 2010 WASHINGTON could pass a bill to crack down on Wall Street within days as the US securities watchdog’s case against Goldman Sachs adds impetus to the case for financial reform. Senators said Democrat and Republican agreement on a sweeping overhaul of the financial system was “very, very close”. After months of arguing vehemently against new [...]
UBS-US deal in bonus row April 25, 2010 THE Swiss economy minister has urged the country’s parliament not to conflate the need for UBS to pass private clients’ details to the US with the emotive question of bankers’ bonuses. Switzerland’s government meets on Wednesday to discuss the UBS deal, which would see 4,450 secret bank accounts handed over to American tax investigators. At [...]
Memo to analysts: you’re too bullish April 25, 2010 TO all the analysts out there, it is time to take a cold shower – that, at least, is the logical conclusion to be drawn from the latest issue of the Quarterly journal published by McKinsey & Co, the Jermyn Street-based consultancy. Ten years ago, the firm discovered that analysts were on average much too [...]
Diamond to testify in US April 25, 2010 A RAFT of high-profile figures from Barclays and Lehman Brothers will appear before a US court over the coming fortnight in a case to determine whether the British bank underpaid for the American firm. Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, will join former Lehman president and chief operating officer Bart McDade to run over Barclays’ dramatic [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 25, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TOSCAFUND HAS EYE ON £500M OF MORTGAGES Toscafund, the London-based hedge fund founded by ex-Credit Lyonnais star analyst Martin Hughes, is raising capital to acquire up to £500m of UK residential mortgages. The group has already closed a £250m fund of UK sub-prime mortgages, launched late last year, sources told the Financial Times. [...]
Insurers protest at IMF levy April 25, 2010 Some of the UK’s largest insurers have lashed out at plans to enforce new taxes on the financial sector, branding them “absurd” and “unfair”. Legal & General, Aviva and Lloyds of London said International Monetary Fund plans for two separate taxes on financial companies – one to cover the cost of any future bailouts, and the [...]