ICAP profits down but beats forecasts May 19, 2010 ICAP – the world’s biggest interdealer broker – said active and volatile markets enabled it to make a good start to its financial year after posting a five per cent drop in full-year pre-tax profit, beating expectations. Concerns about Greece and a massive rescue package for the debt-laden country have led to wide swings in [...]
Mitchells & Butlers sees profits jump May 19, 2010 PUBS group Mitchells & Butlers has seen a surge in half-year profits. The owner of the All Bar One and O’Neill’s pub chains said pre-tax profits for the six months to 10 April were £73m, up from £47m the year before. Profits were fuelled by increased food sales and improved profit margins. Like-for-like sales for [...]
Chaos after Germany bans naked shorting May 18, 2010 GERMANY sent shockwaves through the financial markets last night when it announced an immediate ban on “naked” short-selling effective from midnight last night. The knee-jerk reaction to the sovereign debt crisis was immediately set upon by analysts who branded the panic move “desperate”. It placed a ban on naked shorting of Eurozone sovereign bonds, as [...]
£850,000,000: What Pru’s banks will make in fees May 18, 2010 CITY investment houses opened fire on Prudential last night for paying banks the “obscene” sum of £850m to orchestrate its controversial rights issue and takeover of AIA. Shareholders told City A.M. they were dismayed at the fees being handed over by the insurer to push through its $21bn (£14bn) cash call and $35.5bn buyout of [...]
US: We won’t bail out the EU May 18, 2010 THE US senate has passed a motion making it far more difficult to use funds to help bail out foreign governments. The move is a reaction to the international efforts to plough money into debt-ridden Greece. The measure means any funds loaned by the US to foreign governments will have to be repaid in full. [...]
Nasty double whammy for investors May 18, 2010 WITH all the focus on growth and the deficit, too little attention has been paid to inflation. Yesterday’s disastrous figures show how unwise this has been. The rise in the official consumer price index inflation to 3.7 per cent is bad enough – but I suppose it can be tolerated, given the ending of quantitative [...]
Boris speaks up for City May 18, 2010 BORIS Johnson yesterday launched an impassioned defence of the UK banking sector by labelling governmental attacks on the sector as “nuts”. The Mayor of London’s comments are a sign that he is not yet ready to shrug off his self-styled mantle as the City’s “champion”. “I think it is completely nuts for people to want, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 18, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BC PARTNERS WINS MORE TIME Investors in BC Partners have granted the UK-based private equity group an extension to the investment period on its latest fund, in a sign that buy-out groups are winning more time to deploy their $500bn of unspent capital. The extension of BC Partners’s investment period from November until [...]
Dimon hangs on at JPMorgan May 18, 2010 JPMorgan Chase shareholders rejected a proposal to strip chief executive Jamie Dimon of his chairman title, but they gave him a hard time at the bank’s annual meeting yesterday. The second-largest US bank, which was profitable during the financial crisis, attracted a larger-than-usual turnout at the meeting.
Confidence returns to US May 18, 2010 A survey of investors by Bank of America Merill Lynch showed a fear of European stocks and distaste for the euro as they retreated to the perceived safety of US shares. The news shows investors have been spooked by the sovereign debt crisis engulfing Greece and threatening to spread to neighbouring countries.