Nortel group is fined £2.1bn July 8, 2010 REGULATORS yesterday took the unusual step of ordering administrators of the insolvent Nortel group to provide up to £2.1bn in financial support to help bail out its 42,000 pension fund members in Britain. The Pensions Regulator issued a Financial Support Direction against 25 companies in the telecoms equipment group, which was put into administration in [...]
Banks to skip bonus curbs, experts warn July 8, 2010 BANKS will easily sidestep the European Union’s crackdown on bonuses by raising base salaries and restructuring performance-related awards, consultants and senior politicians believe. The European Parliament yesterday waved through a punitive regime capping the cash portion of bonuses at 30 per cent and forcing banks to pay the rest in shares and contingent capital, with [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHO IS BEST PLACED TO REGULATE BANKERS’ BONUSES? July 8, 2010 CHARLES PREWER | RFIB GROUP “Ideally the banks would do it themselves. But some of them got too greedy and now it’s inevitable that someone else will step in, though they will never fully regulate bonuses. It should be the Bank of England overseeing this, not the EU. It’s the most undemocratic institution I can [...]
BA will grow from Madrid, warns Walsh July 8, 2010 WILLIE WALSH, the British Airways chief executive, yesterday reiterated his warning that the airline would grow in future at Madrid instead of Heathrow if the government failed to build the infrastructure needed to cope with rising demand for air transport. Speaking at the Institute of Directors (IOD), Walsh said the UK could compete effectively for [...]
Quest: Shares in Ocado are overvalued by 46 per cent July 8, 2010 Analysis firm Quest has delivered another slap in the face to Ocado, as the grocery delivery firm attempts to justify its £1.1bn IPO valuation to investors. The Collins Stewart subsidiary says it values shares in Ocado at just 128p – a staggering 46 per cent under the mid-point put forward in its prospectus. It says [...]
Signs of life in global M&A space as hunger for dealmaking returns July 8, 2010 THE?global mergers and acquisitions market is awaking from hibernation, according to two surveys released yesterday. There were $881bn (£581bn) worth of deals in the first half of 2010, up 7.8 per cent on the same period a year earlier, Mergermarket said. Europe’s M&A recovery was even more pronounced, with first half deals up 24.1 per [...]
Man told to improve flagship hedge fund July 8, 2010 MAN Group needs to focus on the “baffling” lack of performance from its flagship hedge fund, analysts said yesterday, after the asset manager revealed another quarter of outflows. The listed behemoth reported a 2.2 per cent net slide in assets under management to $38.5bn (£25.3bn) in the three months to 30 June as clients pulled [...]
Private banks have £10.9 trillion but can’t beat stocks July 8, 2010 PRIVATE banking firms now manage assets worth £10.9 trillion, a rise of £1.3 trillion since last year, though many firms fall behind the stock market in the profit stakes, a report claimed yesterday. Assets under management (AUM) rose 17 per cent on last year, though performance markers on efficiency have fallen 35 per cent, according [...]
Failed $400m RidgeWorth deal hits Henderson’s profits July 8, 2010 FUND management group Henderson said yesterday its failed takeover of US fund manager RidgeWorth had made a sizeable dent to its profit forecasts. In a trading update, Henderson said recurring profits for the six months to end-June will be between £47m and £49m – six per cent lower than expected. That compares with the £27m [...]
OFT queries Rex sale to Getty July 8, 2010 The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) yesterday referred the anticipated acquisition by Getty Images of Rex Features to the Competition Commission for further investigation. Getty and Rex are two of the largest suppliers of photographic images for editorial use by UK publications. The OFT is concerned Getty would be free to increase prices if the [...]