NAB’s £8.5bn bid is vetoed by watchdog April 19, 2010 Australia’s competition watchdog blocked National Australia Bank’s (NAB) A$13.3bn (£8.5bn) bid for AXA Asia Pacific, putting the agreed deal in limbo and allowing rival bidder AMP to make a comeback. AXA Asia Pacific, owned 54 per cent by French insurer AXA, is Australia’s sixth-largest wealth manager and a hot takeover target in a £650bn market [...]
Philips sees the light as quarterly profits rebound April 19, 2010 GLOBAL electronics giant Philips has reported a pre-tax profit of €320m (£283m) for the first three months of the year. The company’s performance in the first quarter compared with big losses in 2009. Sales of its lighting products – which jumped by 18 per cent – helped to boost the latest figures, the firm said. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 19, 2010 NOVAE Execution Noble has maintained a “buy” recommendation for insurance company Novae following its recently announced initiatives to improve the group’s return on equity. It expects Novae to emerge as a stronger player in the sector over the next 12-18 months. The group has had no material exposure to the Chilean earthquake. CAPITAL & REGIONAL [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 19, 2010 Bluefin Corporate Consulting The consulting firm, part of Bluefin Advisory Services, which is owned by Axa UK, has appointed Sean Glasgow as its new head of investments. Glasgow previously worked in a variety of roles both in the UK and internationally. He has held senior positions at soft drinks giant Coca-Cola and in the investment [...]
The UK’s software king sees a soft recovery for the economy in 2010 April 19, 2010 After 16 years as chief executive of Britain’s IT giant Sage, Paul Walker says it is time to move on to one last hurrah. Earlier this week, the 52-year-old boss of the Newcastle-based firm said he would leave the business he first joined in 1984 when a successor can be found at some point over [...]
A message to entrepreneurs: do not give up April 19, 2010 TWITTER, which has raised more than $100m (£65.3m) in funding, recently unveiled a series of business models at its first investor conference, Chirp. Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, was the first to realise that a certain segment of internet users would want to shout about what they were doing and thinking in [...]
Avangard to raise £163m April 19, 2010 AVANGARD, Ukraine’s biggest producer of eggs, yesterday confirmed it plans to raise as much as £163m in a London share issue, valuing the company at $890m. The company wants to use the proceeds of the offering to finance the expansion of its egg business through capital expenditures. This includes the completion of construction of two [...]
Citigroup profits jump to £2.9bn April 19, 2010 CITIGROUP posted a $4.43bn (£2.9bn) first-quarter profit as losses from bad loans declined. The third-largest US bank posted net income to shareholders of 15 cents a share, compared with a shareholder loss of 18 cents a share, or $966m, a year earlier. Citigroup has been one of the biggest losers in the banking crisis but [...]
Toyota agrees to pay record fine April 19, 2010 TOYOTA has agreed to pay a record $16.4m (£10.7m) fine over US government allegations the company knowingly delayed a massive accelerator pedal recall in January. The fine is the largest-ever penalty paid by a car maker to the US government. A recall of 2.3m vehicles with sticking accelerator pedals, prompted the penalty. The government says [...]
London businesses see costs drop April 19, 2010 PROFIT margins in London are picking up faster than elsewhere in the country after a drop in business costs, a report has said. The latest business price index (BPI) — an analysis of wage costs, borrowing and raw materials — fell to minus 1.1 per cent in the capital in March. The figure compared with [...]